Joiner "Serenade" Build Progress

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Have you rubbed the wenge down with mineral spirits to see how it will looked finished. IME, wenge turns almost black once it is finished.

 

[mahrous]

yeah a very large portion of wenge wood turns pretty darn black. if its not black enough for you, some people sell dyes for Ebony Macassar wood to dye the fretless/fretted fingerboards to a more homogenous color.

i think stewmac has that. check out its name and specifications and buy it from local stores if you wish

 

[teej]

A mineral spirit rub-down was the first thing I did to the wood, and the wenge was almost like walnut in color. It's got a lot of black grain in it, but mostly light brown -- sorta like mac ebony, but with an open grain. And I've got the fingerboard dye, which I've been applying generously over the past few days. It's quite black now, and much to my liking, but now it's a question of how deep did the dye penetrate? I'm hoping that since the pieces are only 3/16" thick, the dye has soaked through.

 

[FBB Custom]

Doubtful it has penetrated deep at all. Once you cut/sand into it it will be wenge again.

I'm having deja vu, didn't we have this discussion a couple weeks/months ago? Wamara or ebony are about your only real options for black if you must have it. Be prepared to pay for your obsession with jet black.

 

[g00eY]

yea... ebony's pretty sweet.

 

[teej]

It's not deja vu. Alternatives were simply out of the budget (at the time), so I decided to take a chance with dyeing wenge. Honestly, after I got the pieces together, the wenge didn't look that bad.

By the way, I glued everything up this afternoon, so it's off to a local cabinet shop for planing sometime this week.

Also, I should have more pictures up before midnight (CST).

 

[teej]

And one more of the neck blank...

We'll see how the wenge turns out. In the event that the dye plan didn't work, I can always save the blanks for the less-significant double-cut version.

 

[JSPguitars]

Looking good, man. Can't wait to see more progress.

 

[JJBACOOMBA]

That quilt rocks. Who made it. I still have the one my grandma made. Its special. Good luck with your project it looks like a winner.

 

[christobass 416]

sweet design!

 

[teej]

Yeah, yeah, you guys told me so. I was leveling the neck blank with the hand plane and found out [the hard way] that the dye didn't penetrate very much. I tried to get a good photo to show the difference between the dyed and exposed wenge (below). Like I said, it doesn't look bad, when rubbed with spirits, but I doubt that I'll use it for this project though. I'll contact a few places about quoting ebony and katalox laminates.

 

[teej]

Awhile back, I bought some veneer to layer between the body and top. Here's a few quick snapshots I just took of them.

 

[ehque]

eek! youre using wood like that as a layer? that is so sad.

nice wood...

 

[teej]

eek! youre using wood like that as a layer? that is so sad.

I looked for ordinary maple and walnut, but figured veneer was all they sold, and this was the only stuff, in 1 or 2 pieces, that was big enough for a bass body.

First I put a top on this lovely walnut body, and now I'm using birdseye maple and burl walnut veneer as accent layers.

 

[JSPguitars]

Eek. In the meantime, you can hang it on your wall like it's a cool picture or something.

 

[teej]

Well, I do have 2 extra sheets that I won't need.

And rather than saving the blanks for a latter project, I'll have them resawn down the wenge.

 

[Bassic83]

I wonder if you could use a synthetic, like a fiber or possibly a synthetic granite or marble? If it was thin enough, it would add mass, but not a lot of weight. It would be stiff as well...I'm thinking about a thin layer for a fretboard bed, or something similar. Make it about 2mm? In the body, not in the neck.

 

[teej]

I've looked into carbon fiber and that fiber stuff LMI offers. I submitted a quote request for the same body and neck laminates, only in various woods (wamara, katalox, and ebony) instead of wenge. I'll probably splurge and get ebony, though.

 

[JSPguitars]

I splurged and got some pretty thick (mac)ebony stringers in a neck blank I ordered from Larry. It's awesome looking, adds a very 'classic' look to the bass. It definitely was pricey, but I ordered a blank big enough to make 2 necks out of, so that justifies the expense, right?

 

[teej]

I may have found a suitable work space!!

I was talking to my mom, who is very enthusiastic about my luthiery hobby, about where I can work since I don't want to disturb the neighbors with all the routing and sawing that's involved, and she suggested that I go ask Andrea, the apartment manager, of I could use the patio area behind the office/community room.

BRILLIANT!!

Dale, her husband and also the maintenance guy, does work back there all the time, so I think I've got a shot at getting an OK.

In other news, the order for "jet black ebony" neck and body stringers has been placed with Larry. That should get here... what... 23rd or 24th maybe? He even threw in some jet black ebony bridge blanks for my birthday.

Too cool, Larry. Too cool.​

In the meantime, I've been trying to find a wood shop that could saw apart the wenged body and neck blanks so that I can glue in the ebony when it gets here. I've also been restoring (I use that term loosely) a factory 2nd acoustic bass. This is where one of those ebony blanks is going.

Aside from that, I've been busy with work and school. Well, maybe not school so much since classes are out for summer, but work has me working 8 days straight before I get a day off (tomorrow). And I'm sleepy, so this is it, for now.

I imagine my next post will be when the ebony gets here. Plan on that. Plan on pictures, too.