Rainy Day Build

[Scoops]

It's been raining off and on all weekend, so I thought I'd start another build in earnest.
For this one, I cut the body back in February and just finished cutting out the neck moments ago.

This will be my summer "rainy day" project

Specs:
Body - One piece flame maple
Body Color - TBD
Neck - One piece quarter sawed Wenge
Fingerboard - African Blackwood
Strings - 4
Pups - G&L MDF's
Preamp - G&L
Bridge - G&L
Tuners - Hipshot Ultra lights

Cheers

 

[Scoops]

Fabricated the neck route template, and routed the neck pocket.

Cheers

 

[MPU]

Looks great. I'm so jealous to you Americans and Canadians about those so cool maple billets. I wish we Finns had something similar too but no.

 

[gsnad2000]

Looks great. I'm so jealous to you Americans and Canadians about those so cool maple billets. I wish we Finns had something similar too but no.

Oh sure we have maple, but you get those cool carbon fiber trees.....

 

[RBS_Johnson]

This looks cool, and I love the body. But how much is a maple and wenge bass going to weigh?

-Jake

 

[Scoops]

This looks cool, and I love the body. But how much is a maple and wenge bass going to weigh?
-Jake

Thanks Jake

Right now, I have the pups, bridge, and control cavity routed. The neck is unprofiled. This weighs in at 7lbs. I figure I'll loose about 10% to 20% of that weight when I profile the neck, and put in the arm and tummy cuts. I'm guessing about an 8 to 9lb bass when completed

 

[RBS_Johnson]

That's not bad at all.

 

[Scoops]

It's not the heaviest piece of maple I've come across, and the body size has a smaller "footprint" as compared to something like a J or P bass.

 

[charlie monroe]

I don't say this often, but, I hope it keeps raining

 

[Scoops]

I don't say this often, but, I hope it keeps raining

Actually, it was a pretty crappy day again today, so I got alot done.

 

[Scoops]

It's sunny out today, so I'm about to move outside to do yard work
Got a chance to clean up some of the roundovers and level out the arm cut, and mount the neck.

Thanks for looking

 

[Scoops]

Update
Over the last couple days, between odd jobs, I was able to get the round overs cleaned up, the FB glued on, and mostly trimmed up. Still have a little clean up to do. Elected to go with a Macassar Ebony FB. I wet the grain to show how the stain will take. I might still go natural with this, but the mineral streak is a bit annoying. Putting a stain on will take the eye away from the mineral streak.

The two color options I'm considering are an amber stain with an amber top wash coat (right) and the other is a brown stain, with an amber top wash coat (left). I'm leaning towards the lighter of the two, and if the mineral stain is still annoying, I'll do a tobacco type sunburst. Nothing is set in stone yet though

Cheers and thanks for looking

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I like that body shape. The smaller body kinda makes the G&L pickups and bridge look oversized (in a good way). If you're taking votes I think the tobacco burst with the brown stain in the left example would look good.

 

[Scoops]

Update:

Got a little bit of this done late last night
The heel is going to be fun to carve and transition into the neck. I might put another screw where the knot/inclusion is.

 

[Scoops]

After a nice day of sunny weather, I managed to get a bit of bench time in this evening. I focused on the neck
First I cut the nut slot

Then I tapered the back of the neck

Then I drilled the tuner holes and cut the HS to thickness

I have a couple more machine type operations, but the Shinto is coming up real soon. I like that part of the project.

Cheers and thanks for looking

 

[Scoops]

OK,

A couple machining processes later and we are rocking with the Shinto

I have had good success using my Shinto rasp carving wenge necks.

I pulled this quote from a different thread, but it applies here. This is the most excellent tool for rough shaping wenge. I know that @gsnad2000 saw to it that Santa brought me one of these, but I have just realized it's utilitarian value.

Thanks!

 

[Scoops]

It's a rainy day!!!!

Finished up the rough profiling of the neck. I'll let it sit for a week or 2 so it can stabilize at it's new shape. After that, I'll detail it out.

Cheers

 

[Scoops]

Update
Sanded the body down to 120 and put a concoction of shellac and aniline dye down.
This will do 2 things for me. Highlight the grain, and show where I have some sanding to do
From here I will sand down to 180 in an effort to get the sanding marks out and to make the color look uniform (second pic)
I'm probably going to repeat another coat of shellac and aniline dye, and sand to 220. I may repeat the process for 320. Won't know till I get there.

Cheers and thanks for looking

 

[Scoops]

Sanded to 180, and got all my sanding marks out
One thing I'm happy to see is that the mineral streak is becoming a little less noticeable.
One thing I'm not so happy is that the end grain on this piece of wood is somewhat ugly, hence the possibility of a tobacco type burst

 

[Scoops]

And another color coat. I'll let this dry out tonight and sand to 220 tomorrow