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Lefty Fretless Jazz Bass

#163
jcanderson said:
Brett,

In case you are interested...a book that I found very useful is this one, by John Gleneicki: How to Create a Factory Guitar Finish with Just a Couple of Spray Cans!

Pictures aren't great, but overall I've found it to be very informative. And John was quite accessible via email when I had questions after reading the book.

Here's a link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Create-Factory-Guitar-Finish-Couple/dp/1456517031/

I followed his techniques when painting my two bodies (so an expert I am NOT), and they both came out well, in my opinion. The only issues I had was when I deviated from what he recommended.

Also, I've been spraying with urethane color (auto paint, put into a rattle can) and urethane clear-coat rattle cans (the latter is a 2-part clear coat: Spraymax 2K Glamour High Gloss Clear Coat). With these, you don't need to sand the color coat before applying the clear coat, as the urethane clear coat "melts" into the color coat when it hits it (or so I've been told, and its been true two of two times for me). Also (and important to someone as impatient as I am), you can start sanding the urethane clear coat after a week, rather than waiting a month, as might be required when using other types of clear coats.
Click to expand...

Cool, John's an old neighbour of mine! (neighbour, not neighbor because we lived in Canada). I hope you don't mind if I link your recomendation on his FB wall.
 
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#165
I'm also getting some weird stuff going on in the area where the pots are to be installed. If you look at the couple pics below, you'll see that there's this almost half-circle shape around the pot holes. That shape is the silhouette of the control cavity that is on the other side. For some reason, the paint and clear on that part of the guitar just aren't coating the same, and it's now reflecting light differently, as you can see:

BAD9BFAE-F624-49ED-83DE-2AF606E56D5D_zpsu6q2rcqf.jpg

7C35F927-D28F-443E-8937-CD50F6A459AD_zpslq3djp62.jpg
 
#169
Does anyone have any ideas on what to do with these little areas where the washers masked the paint? Should I just leave these? They will be under the neck plate, but I don't want to leave them as-is if they'll be problematic later; e.g. a source of where paint chips.

3574119F-A1E3-454A-898E-DD939B396BCA_zpstx0z31et.jpg


I need to touch-up the corner there (upper right; also visible in the previous image)...
D9645187-FD7E-4122-A28B-CA3800800926_zpsn9ff51cy.jpg


We've also got this little dandy…
7BC50E86-4F98-4836-9B89-11D81C747B7E_zpscgu9jgeh.jpg


Looks like I am not finished with the rattle cans.

Ah, rookie mistakes.

481FFE02-37A0-41F7-AD08-200256943520_zpslvlwq1vv.jpg


Jimi still approves.
 
#170
Sometimes you just have to make those mistakes to impress yourself to develop a better approach next time. As easy as installing washers to separate the neck-pocket support from the body. The frayed top neck pocket edge can be masked off so you don't have to re-spray the whole body.

Same with the body/neck holes - you can avoid that issue by insetting screws instead of overlapping onto the body. (I wouldn't fuss w/that area as the plate covers it all) Details details…
 
#172
JIO said:
Sometimes you just have to make those mistakes to impress yourself to develop a better approach next time. As easy as installing washers to separate the neck-pocket support from the body. The frayed top neck pocket edge can be masked off so you don't have to re-spray the whole body.

Same with the body/neck holes - you can avoid that issue by insetting screws instead of overlapping onto the body. (I wouldn't fuss w/that area as the plate covers it all) Details details…
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Yep, washers will do it for the neck pocket thing. I can't believe I spaced so hard on that one, because I really scrutinized the details. Whoops. I may also modify my pseudo-neck to have a raised area in the middle of the hole pattern — effectively doing the same thing as washers by offering space between surfaces. That may be something I entertain for the next build, depending on my schedule coming up.
 
#174
Brett Zeppelin said:
Something like this:
IMO you still have a problem with it contacting part of the same area that chipped.

This is my solution but you could do similar by reshaping the dowel or just adding a .25-.5 inch thick spacer to your current set up.
P1060588P_zpsa11d25f7.jpg
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#175
Indeed. I just need a little space in there. Yay to being a rookie.

Your solution and mine are essentially the same thing. Here's what I'm doing right now, for tonight that is:

65C42CE0-36E9-4B2D-B25C-5A2781F87DD7_zpseljwkour.jpg


3FFAC254-B1FD-402E-94CF-0DDA2B7E6AF0_zpsjebdssr7.jpg


Eventually I will fix my dowel so it is similar to what was in my post above yours. In my rendering I didn't extend the plateau/raised area as far as I would eventually do it in the real world. I would probably make it just go all the way back.

I'm kind of bummed about respraying tonight for a number of reasons. One of them is I got the horn cutouts to be damn perfect as far as color and clear coverage and overall smoothness. This is even before final polishing/buffing, too. I'll have to go back in and work on that a little now that I added color to the finish. The good news is @Hopkins pointed me pointed me in the direction of using Deft clear coat, and I am pretty sure I will never look back. I can get a can of that stuff and be back to the paint booth in like 10 minutes, and it only costs me about $6. Compare with waiting a week for ReRanch and paying about thrice as much total (which is factoring in shipping costs).
 
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#176
[QUOUTE/]The good news is @Hopkins pointed me pointed me in the direction of using Deft clear coat, and I am pretty sure I will never look back. I can get a can of that stuff and be back to the paint booth in like 10 minutes, and it only costs me about $6. Compare with waiting a week for ReRanch and paying about thrice as much total (which is factoring in shipping costs).[/QUOTE]

I bought a couple cans of the stuff a while ago and am using it to do test pieces now. I haven't been able to do any finish sanding on the pieces yet but I'm wondering how it differs from the reranch stuff. I'm on pins and needles to hear about your experience with it versus reranches.
 
#179
Jonny5bass said:
I bought a couple cans of the stuff a while ago and am using it to do test pieces now. I haven't been able to do any finish sanding on the pieces yet but I'm wondering how it differs from the reranch stuff. I'm on pins and needles to hear about your experience with it versus reranches.
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I would say from my experience that Deft is every bit as good or better than ReRanch. My favorite things about it are how fast I can get it, for how inexpensively, and the nozzle that comes installed on the can. The nozzle really puts out the volume, which is nice for covering area. The two brands definitely look a little different from each other when dry, but I can't say for sure if one looks better as a finished product, because I'm still working on the same project. I would say the Deft appears to take a little longer to dry, but not much.
 
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