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Multi-Build

#101
jordan_frerichs said:
when you round the edges of the body, why do you not continue the roundover to the bridge-end of the body? Also, How to cut the shape of the neck and headstock so clean? I always have difficult when it gets to the angle on the headstock...
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Well, we'll have to see on the body roundover... On my first couple of builds, I designed the bass to have the bridge as far to the tail as possible (reduced left-arm reach), and one corner of the bridge actually hung over the roundover just slightly.

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So the idea here was to have the roundover taper to nothing at the tail so the bridge wouldn't hang over. However, on this body design, it's a little longer and not as close to the edge, so I could have actually gotten away with a full roundover. I'm going to spray a coat of sealer on the body and see how it looks.... it's possible I may round that end over more... we'll see.

The neck and headstock are both routed using templates. Here's the neck template (obviously with a different headstock than I'm using for these basses):
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That template gets used to route the neck to it's outline profile, up to about the nut. Then I use a separate template on the headstock, which again is routed just about to the other side of the nut. The headstock template is sized to be stuck to the face of the headstock, and aligns with the end of the fretboard. I actually do the routing at a router table. The template is tall enough that it can sit completely flat on the table with out the fingerboard hitting. Then just a little sanding on the oscillating spindle sander to clean up the transition between the headstock and neck.
 
#105
I spent a few hours tonight final sanding the body. Being the impatient person that I am, I "had" to shoot a quick coat of sealer to see how the woods were going to look. I had a bit of blushing, so I added a little retarder to the sealer and that took care of the problem. I think if I'm careful and put on thinner coats, I should be able to spray this week despite the less-than-ideal weather.

Anyway, here are a few shots of the body. For whatever reason the walnut didn't photograph real well, but it's reasonably close. If you squint hard in a couple of the pictures you can see that there's a thin accent layer of bubinga between the maple and leopardwood. I'm a little bummed that I went to the effort to put it there and you can't really even see it.

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#107
dremy2006 said:
Looks really good... what are you spraying with?
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I'm using Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer. They have a special vinyl sealer that gets used with the lacquer (it's a higher solids material that builds quicker and for woods like this it actually builds enough that I shouldn't need any grain filler).

My spray rig is pretty "awesome" - I have a cheap little 6 gallon air compressor and an equally cheap gravity feed spray gun. For lacquer, it gets the job done. Lacquer is actually pretty forgiving in this regard - you spray a zillion coats, each of which "burns" in to the previous coats, and in the end you level sand everything and buff, so the actual quality of the sprayed finish isn't particularly important. If there's a lot of orange peel or even minor runs, it can all be sanded out in the end.
 
#108
Jason_A said:
I'm using Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer. They have a special vinyl sealer that gets used with the lacquer (it's a higher solids material that builds quicker and for woods like this it actually builds enough that I shouldn't need any grain filler).

My spray rig is pretty "awesome" - I have a cheap little 6 gallon air compressor and an equally cheap gravity feed spray gun. For lacquer, it gets the job done. Lacquer is actually pretty forgiving in this regard - you spray a zillion coats, each of which "burns" in to the previous coats, and in the end you level sand everything and buff, so the actual quality of the sprayed finish isn't particularly important. If there's a lot of orange peel or even minor runs, it can all be sanded out in the end.
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Awesome stuff....... thanks for the info... how long will ur drying time be?
 
#111
I use my super sophisticated spray rig only in my super sophisticated garage. I even have a fancy exhaust system... the garage door. In all seriousness, I just try to sweep good, then let any dust settle, and then shoot away. It's not exactly ideal but it works well for me.
 
#113
GregBreshears said:
Is the behlen's not super flammable/explosive like nitrocellulose? Thats the only thing that has kept me from spraying in/near the shop.
Click to expand...

The Behlen stuff is a nitro lacquer, and yes probably quite flammable. I wouldn't want to be running a shop heater or open flame while working with the garage closed up. I have adequate ventilation that the concentration of fumes is never very high, so the risk of blowing myself up is pretty low.
 
#118
I got a fresh supply of lacquer and sealer today, so on to more spraying. I got the neck sanded, did a little more touch-up work on the frets (especially the fret ends), and got it ready to spray. Here's the body with a 2nd coat of sealer (sanded in between coats with 320 grit).

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And the neck with it's first coat. The humidity is crazy, and the retarder is just barely doing the trick. I think I'm going to switch to spraying in the mornings when the temps are lower... hopefully I'll be able to lay on slightly heavier coats so the sealer will flow out better.

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#119
Just a quick progress update... sorry, no pics. Today I finished up the vinyl sealer coats and started spraying the gloss lacquer coats. I'll spray a little more tomorrow morning and try to get a few pics in better lighting. I'm not sure how it happens, but the sealer leaves a satin, and almost cloudy finish, and somehow the lacquer instantly clarifies the finish, and suddenly pops the color of the wood. Anyway, I'm really happy with how all of the woods are looking now. The walnut in the neck and headstock is very dark, the walnut on the back has a lot of color variation, the flame in the body core is popping nicely, and the leopardwood top is really rich looking. I'll probably spray tomorrow morning and again tomorrow night. We'll see how things are looking then... that could be the end of the spraying, or possibly Monday if it seems like it needs more. Then a couple of weeks to let things cure before buffing it out. I'm actually thinking about starting in on the next bass now - probably the zebrawood one (#3) - since this one has moved along so quickly. If I don't have something to do while the finish is curing, I'll just end up buffing it out too soon :)
 
#120
Dumb question: are you spraying lacquer directly onto the fingerboard - frets and all? I only ask because I love the look of a finished fingerboard but thought you would have to do that before fretting. Do you just sand the lacquer off the frets after it's cured?
 

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