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MPUbicki build thread
- Thread starter MPU
- Start date
Not decided yet. I may try something like that metallic burst. Or just basic black. We’ll see.
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Filler coat sprayed and sanded and one more coat sprayed to cover the sand thrus. Tomorrow I’m going to sand the bass to 500 grit and perhaps spray the color coat (if I can make up my mind about the color). Dark gray does not look bad at all, black is always a good choice, some dark burgundy or purple…
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I’m gonna vote Dark Burgundy! That would really bring out the crispness of your body carve job. I have a dark wine red Strat, love that color.
Burgundy it is! I’ll take and post a pic after the clear coat has cured and most of the fumes are out of the garage.
"Burgundy" covers a lot of ground in practice, anywhere from wine red to dark purple, but this is what I was picturing. Gorgeous. This one's been tricked out with fancy inlays. Anyway, your bass, your choice, but anything close to this is going to look really good. Am I seeing a little metallic in there?
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Hey @MPU, what did you use for the grain filler/sealer? My next bass will be painted too. The last bass I did was with water borne Varathane Ultimate for color and clearcoaT, but I don't think I can find British Racing Green pigment for that, might do rattle cans this time.
Not quite the same but close. It has small metallic flakes, hard to picture in garage lights. I used epoxy as pore filler and automotive spray filler, color coat and 2k clearcoat. All in spray cans as I don’t have a big enough compressor for spray gun.
You can see the maker in the reflection and a modified NS Design WAV body in the background. It was clearcoated at the same time.
You can see the maker in the reflection and a modified NS Design WAV body in the background. It was clearcoated at the same time.
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I’ve been re- designing the d-tuner lever. My latest idea is to make the lever out of aluminium angle bar. Something like 4-5mm wall thickness. I think I can use v-brake spring from my MTB parts box. I’m going to source aluminium tomorrow or on Wednesday. If I made the lever with 3d- printer I’d have to buy a new nozzle and spool of filament and that would cost over 100€. A bit steep for one small lever. I have a three hour Zoom-lecture on Thursday and what’s better way to concentrate on listening than doing something with my hands!
For preamp I’ve been making a vero layout for a Fender Jazz Bass Plus preamp schematic. That bass is said to sound like Kubicki. For pickups I bought some cheap Epiphone T-bird pickups just because the way they look. The earliest prototype Kubickis had something similar. If they sound poop I can make my own pickups and use these covers. These covers are so 80’s that they fit the looks of the bass nice.
For preamp I’ve been making a vero layout for a Fender Jazz Bass Plus preamp schematic. That bass is said to sound like Kubicki. For pickups I bought some cheap Epiphone T-bird pickups just because the way they look. The earliest prototype Kubickis had something similar. If they sound poop I can make my own pickups and use these covers. These covers are so 80’s that they fit the looks of the bass nice.
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That's actually a cool picture, because of the reflections and all the shop stuff in the background. And yes, I think burgundy with light metalflake is a great choice for this bass.
There sure is stuff in my shop. If I were building our house now I'd make a two car shelter for cars and a bit bigger garage for my hobbies. Now I have one car shelter and one car garage. When spraying I have to take my roadster out of the garage. Luckily it's Audi TT quattro with winter tyres so I can get it back to garage no matter the weather. When I had an MX5 with only summer tyres there was no chance of getting it back to garage during snowy season. We have a ramp to the garage so summer tyres and snow was not a good combination.
Tonight I sanded the body with 2500grit. Mainly just dust nibs off and the tiny spray orange surface flat. I found a piece of aluminium square tube with 5mm wall thickness from local metal supplier for 5€. Tomorrow either buffing or d-tuner lever or maybe both if time allows.
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I got the lever pretty much made. Started with hack saw, followed with jewellers saw, then some drilling and ”milling” with drill press and cross feed table. Next I need to work with the spring, make a test bed and find out proper position for the spring ends. After mounting the lever I have to fine tune the string pressing part, route a recess to the fretboard and paint the lever.
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After dinner I polished the body with random orbital polisher I bought for polishing cars, shield painted the control cavity with CRC Graphit 33 (I sprayed some paint on a cup and brushed three coats) and test fitted bridges, pickups and neck to see how this bass will look.
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is there font experts here on Luthiers Corner? I’d like to cut MPU decal using similar font Kubicki has. Is Kubicki using some existing font or is it a custom for the logo? I can make P and U out of Kubicki letters but M needs more imagination. If someone wants to make a suggestion for MPU Kubicki-like logo please go ahead.
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Searching the ole web didn’t turn up anything on the font. But looking at it there is a clear top and bottom line, and a consistent italicized slant. I think with basic drawing software you could custom draw your own and get close enough. I'd draw it right over top of the images you have to match the overall width and slant. Maybe even cut out pieces of the letters in your image to build your custom script. Run the top of the P into the U, those kinda things. Cut up the R into your P, cut the top off the O for your U. The M is tough but use the lines from the R and A to make one
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