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Laguna burger build

#322
I managed to get the board off. A few mild heart attacks, one mini stroke and I thought I crapped a little, but I checked and all clear. I really lucked out and all the tear out was on the board side. I was expecting the worst the whole time and made it to the end, mm by mm with no maple loss. Getting started took a while because the heat settings on the fingerboard heater were marked for fabric instead of wood type. Took a while to get it dialed in.
Also, I have a rare relic'd fingerboard for a 20" scale fretless for sale. Killer deal, this week only.
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#325
Going to order a fret saw like a normal person and also some fret wire.
Is jumbo wire the standard for bass? I have no idea what size the frets were that I pulled.
Considering stainless, as I will be keeping this bass and hopefully playing it and I never,....ever want to have to even think about pulling the frets out some day. Although, realistically, standard nickel steel frets will probably last me just fine.
Is there a 30 page fret wire thread I can read where everyone disagrees and I won't get any answers?
 
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#326
Fret size is personal preference. Lots of modern basses come with bigger wire but there are lots of fans of smaller wire too. I use LMI's FW74 which is more medium-ish than jumbo.

I'm not a huge fan of stainless fretwire. I've wrestled with it a few times and it can be a real pain. It's tougher to bend to radius (if you don't have a jig), it's more sensitive to being at the right radius (you can't just force an overbent piece like you can with nickel), and it's harder to file and finish. Personally, if this is your first from scratch fret job, I'd stick with nickel wire and then tackle stainless once you have the basics down. My first few fret jobs, I used stainless because I figured it was better. When I finally tried nickel, I was like daaaaaannnggg this is so much easier!:D
 
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#327
Yep. I thought about it for a minute and came to the same conclusion. The nickel will be a little easier to work with and I've made it this far, no point in giving myself extra work on the fret job.
I hear Rickenbackers have smaller wire. I honestly can't remember noticing. But that was a long time ago.
I want to simply use the same as whatever was on this bass as I assume it was a standard for most production basses. The Laguna line made it a point to check all the boxes for the most widely used and accepted parts and pieces. It was a perfectly mediocre bass.
Actually, pulling it apart, I realized it had decent material and build quality.
Anyway, is jumbo the stand on most production basses, or "medium" jumbo?
I assume it's whatever comes standard on a fender?
 
#328
So I punched everything into FretFind2D (went as far as getting out the caliper and dbl checking a few things) and printed it out.
The fret lines were ending up short, so I checked and the printer was at 96%.
I changed it to 100% and fret 1 is spot on, but at 12 and 24, the board is long (stretched out).
I don't get it. On the original board, 12 and 24 lined up exactly on 17" and 25.5".
I'm guessing it's an issue with the printer. I printed it out on separate 8x11 pages and taped them together (perfectly).
Are you guys printing out the full board pic at some printing depot place?
 

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#335
I can't complain (but I usually do anyway), I'm doing this at work.
I busted my hump last week to get a few projects done and get ahead and my partner/assistant was off today.
I didn't have to babysit and no one came lookin for me,.....so I did "gov work" all day.
I was given a tiny B&W used desktop printer because I'm just a lowly tool-usin type. But I still have all the printers added to my laptop from when I did IT work for a few years. So I can print to the adult printers if I really need to.
 
#336
Oh, I keep forgetting to ask:
If I order from LMI, their fret saw is $20 cheaper than stewmac. Both are .023.
But the tang on LMI wire is .020.
Is that ok with a +/- .036 stud?
Or should I cough up the extra $20 and order the stewmac saw and wire?
 
#338
The LMII saw has a .023" kerf, and LMII's page for their FW74 fret wire states: "All of the fretwire we carry will fit into a .023" slot, with the exception of the FW75 nickel/silver wire."
 
#339
For some reason, I was thinking stewmac wire had a .023 tang and it would be snug. Maybe their wire is .020 too(?)
I realize we're talking a few 000s difference and the studs will make it tight. They average a width of 036. I just wanted to make sure.
 
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#340
RichterScale said:
Are you guys printing out the full board pic at some printing depot place?
Click to expand...
... and then cutting basically freehand over a glued down paper guide?
Not me. :nailbiting:
... well maybe on this multiscale coming up.
But yeah ...No. ... not if I can help it.
You gonna do this again? Kinda sounds like it.
...tool up.
I built a miter box, cheap. and use scale templates.
It works great. But for the time I put into building it, I wish I would have just coffed up the $235 for a Stewmac unit.
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The bearings are track rollers from the shutter company I used to work for... :roflmao:
I'd rather own this:
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