A nice tight fit on the rear cavity cover. I've notched a small access slot in the bottom corner of the cover, so a flathead screwdriver can be used to lift up the cover from the hold of the magnets.
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With that, the bass can be strung up and go through the setup process.
Thanks! Finishing that headstock was probably the most time consuming element of the build - after doing the triple step dye, getting that burl to seal up and build a level finish took what seemed like ages. Worth it though!
Wow! I've loved watching this bass take shape over the course of this thread! Can't wait to see the complete final project!!!
Hi Lonnybass, I was just curious, what dye/stain did you use to get that beautiful gradient finish? And do you have any tips for application? I notice that it's very transparent and it's more of a light tint instead of a full-blown stain. How did you achieve this?
You've made a really great instrument, congrats!
You've made a really great instrument, congrats!
In answer to the questions about the finish, the walnut was treated with several applications of Transtint dyes before being clear-coated.
The Transtint is much thinner than traditional wood stain, with smaller particles enabling deeper penetration into endgrain without obscuring it.
If I remember correctly, the walnut was hit with four different shades:
- dark mission brown
-red
-amber
-lemon yellow
In terms of tips and tricks, a few things. First, you want to wet down the top wood with mineral spirits to get an idea what the boards will look like - and more specifically, how they will darken - once they are clear coated with the oil/varnish blend.
I usually take a few photos of the body at this point, so I can take my time getting a good long look at the grain patterns and come up with a color scheme that will translate the best on the lumber. Specifically, which areas are the darkest, and how dark are they - and which areas are lightest, and how light are they.
With this walnut, the two darkest areas of the lumber run in a sort of parallel about five inches to the left and right of center, directly through the area of the controls and about two inches from the edge of the left wing. And the lightest areas are found within it, in a sort of feather pattern.
You can really see it in this shot from the finishing stage:
So the goal in getting this is to jack up the contrast as much as possible by carefully hitting the colors in the right areas to really accentuate the grain. I first wash-coated the entire body with dark mission brown to serve as the undertone color, and then sanded the whole thing to 400 so that the dark brown stain would remain ONLY in the burls. With that complete, I could carefully apply highlight colors (yellow, amber, red) directly over that, matching the direction of the fan pattern in the wood.
A sort of twist on a traditional sunburst - in this case, blending the colors to match the grain orientation rather than in a circular pattern around the outside edge of the body.
After the dye dried, I applied a coat of Seal-A-Cell to lock in the colors (you can also use shellac) followed by the Arm-R-Seal oil/urethane blend.
Immediately prior to applying the dye, I would also recommend lightly wetting down the top wood so that the grain opens up and more readily accepts the dye. NOTE -don't be tempted to flood the body with water, because puddles on the top wood will only dilute the dye colors. You only want it damp!
Let me know if you have more questions - happy to help.
The Transtint is much thinner than traditional wood stain, with smaller particles enabling deeper penetration into endgrain without obscuring it.
If I remember correctly, the walnut was hit with four different shades:
- dark mission brown
-red
-amber
-lemon yellow
In terms of tips and tricks, a few things. First, you want to wet down the top wood with mineral spirits to get an idea what the boards will look like - and more specifically, how they will darken - once they are clear coated with the oil/varnish blend.
I usually take a few photos of the body at this point, so I can take my time getting a good long look at the grain patterns and come up with a color scheme that will translate the best on the lumber. Specifically, which areas are the darkest, and how dark are they - and which areas are lightest, and how light are they.
With this walnut, the two darkest areas of the lumber run in a sort of parallel about five inches to the left and right of center, directly through the area of the controls and about two inches from the edge of the left wing. And the lightest areas are found within it, in a sort of feather pattern.
You can really see it in this shot from the finishing stage:
So the goal in getting this is to jack up the contrast as much as possible by carefully hitting the colors in the right areas to really accentuate the grain. I first wash-coated the entire body with dark mission brown to serve as the undertone color, and then sanded the whole thing to 400 so that the dark brown stain would remain ONLY in the burls. With that complete, I could carefully apply highlight colors (yellow, amber, red) directly over that, matching the direction of the fan pattern in the wood.
A sort of twist on a traditional sunburst - in this case, blending the colors to match the grain orientation rather than in a circular pattern around the outside edge of the body.
After the dye dried, I applied a coat of Seal-A-Cell to lock in the colors (you can also use shellac) followed by the Arm-R-Seal oil/urethane blend.
Immediately prior to applying the dye, I would also recommend lightly wetting down the top wood so that the grain opens up and more readily accepts the dye. NOTE -don't be tempted to flood the body with water, because puddles on the top wood will only dilute the dye colors. You only want it damp!
Let me know if you have more questions - happy to help.
@Lonnybass that was enormously helpful. Thank you very much! I hope to someday build basses as beautiful as the one you've done here!
Absolutely glad to help, my friend! I spent a lot of time working through the finish process and it was a lot of trial and error, to happy to share my experiences.
Along these lines - one thing I neglected to mention above...you gotta be really careful not to sand through the color coats as you are in process of adding and sanding back your clear coats. Especially because the dye process tends to open the grain somewhat, it's very easy to accidentally cut through your sealer layer and sand out some dye, leaving a bare spot.
Fortunately it's usually an easy fix to blend back in some color - but only if you haven't started clear coating. Imagine finding a bare spot down there after 10 to 15 coats of varnish over the top...oy vey!
I've used this process on a bunch of other basses, let me know if you want to see pics for reference or links to the bulld threads so you can see how the color was manipulated.
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