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Refurbishing and upgrading my first bass!

#21
CarbonTom said:
Success! The headstock and neck look pretty awesome. Although the kevlar is a total b!tch to cut. Im getting frayed ends, I am hoping I can either sand them off (unlikely) Or try and pull them down into the clear coat.

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Gotta clean this up a bit.. the kevlar pulled away from the nut while I was spreading. I tried to cover up the naked spot with some carbon strands but it looks like crap. I will have to figure up another cover up method. Also very rough cut out for the truss rod, plenty of cleaning up to do.

Also the epoxy test was a success!! I will be able to put epoxy over the current pickguard and carbon it! Super pumped about this.
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Very good work so far man!! I have to say you are going up have one quite unique looking bass when alls said and done. How do you cut Kevlar anyway?! Thats cra cra
 
#22
Thanks man. I just used a really sharp box cutter, like I do for carbon, it just takes a lot more effort. I am wishing that I had vacuum bagged this, then the yellow strands would have gotten properly impregnated and probably cut better.
 
#24
Just a quick update, since the rest of my week was pretty busy last week. The pickguard turned out great.

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The fingerboard is scuffed up since I already did a bit of sanding on it.


Tonight I will be sanding everything down and spraying I believe. I think I am going to spray the body with nitrocellulose lacquer. I've never sprayed the stuff before, im more familiar with spraying varnish and poly. And suggestions for thinning the first coat? I am going to either lacquer or awlgrip the pickguard, depending on how clear it is. I am deciding whether or not to awl the fingerboard and headstock or do an epoxy hot coat.

Is epoxy hot coating the way to go? I feel like this is what most people are doing to be like what jaco did. For this is it a very thick layer? or just a thin saturation of the wood? If that's the case I guess I'm SOL. For those who are unfamiliar with Awlgrip, it is a 2 part linear polyurethane (I only brush it because it contains isocyanates). Very hard, scratch resistant, and clear clear clear. Since I would brush it on I could get a thinner layer and keep it lower profile.

Example of Awlgrip on one of my skateboards:
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Thoughts?

BTW I'm so stoked you guys are as interested in this project as I am! Thanks for the encouragement!
 
#26
looks GREAT! Are you planning on adding some sort of fret lines, or not?
i assume you have dots on the side of the neck.

I'm VERY curious to hear how it sounds when you're done.
 
#28
Hopkins said:
I have never dealt with carbon fiber. How do you get rid of the stray fiber strands like on the side of the neck?
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Carbon almost never does that, the neck has kevlar, which I had never worked with before. I think I just didn't impregnate it enough. Usually with carbon it gets brittle when impregnated, so you can just cut it off in a clean line with a razor blade like on the headstock.

Kevlar is really hard and annoying to cut when its dry, much more than carbon fiber. All of the frayed ends were from the 0 degree tow of fibers, which means I had to go through a thicker strand of fibers per tow while cutting down the neck. I think the razor blade was just too dull when I did the initial cuts.

I did tape off the side of the neck before laminating and was able to pull the tape up under the fabric while I cut and it helped a lot as well.

Sorry, I feel like I get wordy, but its hard to explain. I am probably going to make some carbon and kevlar badges for my car tonight. I'll take pics of how I cut off the excess for you.
 
#29
CarbonTom said:
Carbon almost never does that, the neck has kevlar, which I had never worked with before. I think I just didn't impregnate it enough. Usually with carbon it gets brittle when impregnated, so you can just cut it off in a clean line with a razor blade like on the headstock.

Kevlar is really hard and annoying to cut when its dry, much more than carbon fiber. All of the frayed ends were from the 0 degree tow of fibers, which means I had to go through a thicker strand of fibers per tow while cutting down the neck. I think the razor blade was just too dull when I did the initial cuts.

I did tape off the side of the neck before laminating and was able to pull the tape up under the fabric while I cut and it helped a lot as well.

Sorry, I feel like I get wordy, but its hard to explain. I am probably going to make some carbon and kevlar badges for my car tonight. I'll take pics of how I cut off the excess for you.
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How are you going to deal with the fibers that are on it now? Are they impregnated enough to where you can just sand them down?
 
#30
Minimal update too.

I sanded down the back of the neck to respray with nitro lac
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I know its overkill, but I had nice clothes on and I wanted to get some milage out of my breaking bad halloween costume. Time to spray!

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It turns out this lacquer was not much like what I was used to spraying at all. I totally should have done some sort of sealer on the body. The Plywood sides just soaked it all up like a sponge. I was pretty pissed. Ended up pulling it out of the booth to paint some more on (unthinned) to try and seal it up a bit. Tonight I am going to have a poopon of sanding to do to get this down smooth again. I really liked how the neck came out, feels nice and satin-y like a vintage neck.


I am really hoping that the body will end up coming out like that too:crying::crying: I did 2 coats thinned 50/50 and a couple more at 65/35 (lac/thin?) Did I progress too quickly? With varnish I would usually do 1 at 50/50 and then a 65/35 and a couple of 75/25 and I was done. I have a feeling that that wont be the case for lacquer. Any tips? Or good resources for lacquer spraying?
 
#31
Hopkins said:
How are you going to deal with the fibers that are on it now? Are they impregnated enough to where you can just sand them down?
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I was able to sand most of em out. But for the rest im going to try n cut them off after the first clear coat hardens on them. It should make them brittle enough to cut. The last picture of the fingerboard doesnt reflect how it is now. There are probably only 4-5 frays left.
 
#34
CarbonTom said:
I was able to sand most of em out. But for the rest im going to try n cut them off after the first clear coat hardens on them. It should make them brittle enough to cut. The last picture of the fingerboard doesnt reflect how it is now. There are probably only 4-5 frays left.
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Cool, thanks for sharing.
 
#38
Haha its actually the one I use in the shop. Which is why i opted for the breaking bad costume. Only cost me $5 for the yellow suit haha. Routing and sanding carbon you need the fullface and coveralls. At least with my longboard production methods. Think millions of tiny fiberglass splinters. Nice and itchy.
 
#40
Jensby design said:
:eyebrow:Doesn't everybody?
Anyway, really cool project.If you don't mind me asking how much money are you putting into this?
__________________
damn kids and their cool projects
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Thanks! I am fortunate enough that I work as a composites purchaser so the kevlar was a sample from a vendor, the epoxy is leftover free samples from when I helped develop it. The carbon is from scraps left over from some boards I built. The stains I already had too. The only really out of pocket expense for this has been the lacquer, but I had originally bought it as a clear coat to test on my boards:hiding:, which I am doing along side with this. So the only real cost is time :D
 

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