Yeah I've got it. It's a Wilkinson. The two holes I left are roughly in the aera I will need to drill for the studs. I left them as a guide to help me.
BnB
BnB
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It's not a bass but I thought I would share...
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Side note: that color and pickguard combo really work nice together. drool
Side note: that color and pickguard combo really work nice together. drool
Thanks. It's one I had on an old Strat I had built about ten or twelve years ago, back when I was a smoker. It acquired that aged look naturally...
I'm kind of digging the flat/satin look of the color. A satin clear coat would be easier but I love a high gloss finish.
Drilling will probably start tonight.
BnB
Quick update...
I brought the body and neck in to where I work to do the drilling with the drill press we have. The nice thing about working in radio on a weekend night is there is nothing to do. I'm covering for a guy for an hour or so and thought this would be a good time to get the drilling done.
Guess what...
The drill press is dead. Motor is burnt out. Looks like I am hand drilling...things just got a lot more interesting...
BnB
I brought the body and neck in to where I work to do the drilling with the drill press we have. The nice thing about working in radio on a weekend night is there is nothing to do. I'm covering for a guy for an hour or so and thought this would be a good time to get the drilling done.
Guess what...
The drill press is dead. Motor is burnt out. Looks like I am hand drilling...things just got a lot more interesting...
BnB
Hand drilled last night. All the little ones like pick guard and the like went okay, but the biggie's didn't quite work out. Holding a hand drill to drill straight down and not at an angle is in my mind nearly impossible. The holes for the trem posts are not exactly straight. And the neck holes, while straight, are not squared up in the pocket and need to be doweled and redrilled. I'm frustrated becasbe. Had everything seated and aligned well and marked. At least the neck isn't messed up too.
I'll probably have to do a little filler and dye to fix some splintered areas when I drilled as well.
BnB
I'll probably have to do a little filler and dye to fix some splintered areas when I drilled as well.
BnB
Another small update...
WOOHOO! SUCCESS! The neck is on!
And it is straight!
I dropped back and punted on the neck pocket holes. I picked up some dowel rod and filled the holes. Like several other things related to this build the rod was slightly larger than the hole. Large enough that I had to sand it to fit. I had to putty some on the sanded end of the repair. After last night's session I had come to the conclusion that the nice dyed finish would not survive the drilling and assembly phase unscathed. Thanks Matt L. for reigning in my enthusiasm! Otherwise I would have gone on with the clear coat before I did all of this.
Lesson #1 learned from this project:
Test fit and drill everything before the first drop of finish begins.
In these photos you see some of the filling and sanding I did to fix last night's mistakes...
Fortunately a good part of it is going to be under the neck plate. But I'll give it a good coat anyway. This project would have benifitted from a smaller neck plate. When I put it inside the neck pocket tonight (like I should have last night) it was just big enough in there for it to fit. It looks a little bit skewed in real life but I think that is from some of the work I did to get the body shape better.
So now I'm at this point...
I'm going to take it apart again make sure all of the drill work is finally done (still need to make a hole for the ground wire to the trem claw and the pilot holes for the claw screws) and then I am going to repair the finish. Then on to the clear.
I'm hoping that the rest of the build goes more smoothly than it has so far!
BnB
WOOHOO! SUCCESS! The neck is on!
And it is straight!
I dropped back and punted on the neck pocket holes. I picked up some dowel rod and filled the holes. Like several other things related to this build the rod was slightly larger than the hole. Large enough that I had to sand it to fit. I had to putty some on the sanded end of the repair. After last night's session I had come to the conclusion that the nice dyed finish would not survive the drilling and assembly phase unscathed. Thanks Matt L. for reigning in my enthusiasm! Otherwise I would have gone on with the clear coat before I did all of this.
Lesson #1 learned from this project:
Test fit and drill everything before the first drop of finish begins.
In these photos you see some of the filling and sanding I did to fix last night's mistakes...
Fortunately a good part of it is going to be under the neck plate. But I'll give it a good coat anyway. This project would have benifitted from a smaller neck plate. When I put it inside the neck pocket tonight (like I should have last night) it was just big enough in there for it to fit. It looks a little bit skewed in real life but I think that is from some of the work I did to get the body shape better.
So now I'm at this point...
I'm going to take it apart again make sure all of the drill work is finally done (still need to make a hole for the ground wire to the trem claw and the pilot holes for the claw screws) and then I am going to repair the finish. Then on to the clear.
I'm hoping that the rest of the build goes more smoothly than it has so far!
BnB
Found this picture while going through my phone...I didn't know I had it. This is the back of the body along the bottom curve to the lower horn. It shows the routing issues this body had. I used a belt sander to get it out.
BnB
BnB
Latest update...
I decided to get away from the build for a few days and come back to it fresh. Yesterday I got the last couple of holes drilled for the ground wire and the trem claw screws. Tonight I started on sealing the color. I'm trying out something I saw on YouTube where a luthier used a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and Minwax gloss wipe on poly. I had convinced myself I was going to do a spray on clear but I already had this mixture made up and the temp and humidity isn't going to be good for spraying for another week or two so I decided to go ahead with this.
This shot is after 5-6 coats. I would wipe on a coat, wait a minute or two to let it soak in and then wipe it off. At some point I suppose I need to put a heavy coat on and level sand it but I'm liking the results I'm getting...
This shot is after the latest coat was applied and wiped off...
And here a half hour or so later after it has had a chance to soak in a little...
It's still a little tacky but also still shiny. I think I will continue on how I have been working on it. I mixed a half cup of mineral spirits and a half cup poly. That should last me a decade or two.
Again...comments and criticism welcome.
BnB
I decided to get away from the build for a few days and come back to it fresh. Yesterday I got the last couple of holes drilled for the ground wire and the trem claw screws. Tonight I started on sealing the color. I'm trying out something I saw on YouTube where a luthier used a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and Minwax gloss wipe on poly. I had convinced myself I was going to do a spray on clear but I already had this mixture made up and the temp and humidity isn't going to be good for spraying for another week or two so I decided to go ahead with this.
This shot is after 5-6 coats. I would wipe on a coat, wait a minute or two to let it soak in and then wipe it off. At some point I suppose I need to put a heavy coat on and level sand it but I'm liking the results I'm getting...
This shot is after the latest coat was applied and wiped off...
And here a half hour or so later after it has had a chance to soak in a little...
It's still a little tacky but also still shiny. I think I will continue on how I have been working on it. I mixed a half cup of mineral spirits and a half cup poly. That should last me a decade or two.
Again...comments and criticism welcome.
BnB
Last edited:
Latest update...
I have been away from this for a few days or so working on some other projects, practicing and playing a few gigs. I had given the body a level sanding with 320 grit after the last session with the 50/50 poly and spirits mixture last week or so and had to fix some places where I ended up with wood showing thru. So today I started back up with the mixture and after two coats I decided I would be clear coating forever at this rate. So I have moved on to straight Minwax wipe on poly.
Two wet coats...
The blotchy places are issues with body prep before the color went on. That's the best they will take the dye I used. Oh well, at least it's on the back only.
Here is a picture of my high tech holder, a boom mic stand with weights on one end and the body being held on a piece of PVC I had. The body is being held level by a (full, cold) bottle of Gatorade!
I'm letting this dry til tomorrow night then I'm going to use some very light sandpaper (1000 or higher) to get any little imperfections out but there really aren't too many. Probably follow up with that process again.
I was looking for something earlier and came across this...
Anybody ever used it?
Again, comments of any kind welcome.
BnB
I have been away from this for a few days or so working on some other projects, practicing and playing a few gigs. I had given the body a level sanding with 320 grit after the last session with the 50/50 poly and spirits mixture last week or so and had to fix some places where I ended up with wood showing thru. So today I started back up with the mixture and after two coats I decided I would be clear coating forever at this rate. So I have moved on to straight Minwax wipe on poly.
Two wet coats...
The blotchy places are issues with body prep before the color went on. That's the best they will take the dye I used. Oh well, at least it's on the back only.
Here is a picture of my high tech holder, a boom mic stand with weights on one end and the body being held on a piece of PVC I had. The body is being held level by a (full, cold) bottle of Gatorade!
I'm letting this dry til tomorrow night then I'm going to use some very light sandpaper (1000 or higher) to get any little imperfections out but there really aren't too many. Probably follow up with that process again.
I was looking for something earlier and came across this...
Anybody ever used it?
Again, comments of any kind welcome.
BnB
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One shot from last night after a lite sanding and two more wet coats of straight poly...
The circle and dot in the middle is a reflection of my work light so it's pretty glossy! Probably will stay on this course for a few more grits and coats. I'm not expecting a factory finish from this.
BnB
The circle and dot in the middle is a reflection of my work light so it's pretty glossy! Probably will stay on this course for a few more grits and coats. I'm not expecting a factory finish from this.
BnB
