I kinda like that stripey edge look, nothing wrong with plywood as long as no voids. Cool build!
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Resurrecting a '60's short-scale bass
- Thread starter JIO
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- short-scale
- Jun 30, 2010
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Found this 60's (presumably) vintage Japanese ashtray for cheap on eBay and took a chance it would fit. I had to do a bit of filing on the corners of the bent flange of the bridge plate but once done it fits like a glove. Had to do a bit of reshaping of the pg 'hook' and just made it.
Positioned the thumb-rest
...and here it is so far. This shot helps think about how the body can be finished. Looking at it it would look best if I stained the edge/bevels/laminate section to match the mahogany hs face and as initially planned, finish the front & back 'islands' in hand-rubbed bronze metallic w/gold glitter blast.
Positioned the thumb-rest
...and here it is so far. This shot helps think about how the body can be finished. Looking at it it would look best if I stained the edge/bevels/laminate section to match the mahogany hs face and as initially planned, finish the front & back 'islands' in hand-rubbed bronze metallic w/gold glitter blast.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Or... instead of hand rubbed bronze metallic (very dark-looks black)... what about this - "Bullion Gold" - if matched as close as possible to the hue of the laminate it would look consistent/flow but look distinctively different (wood vs paint) and black & gold is always a winning combo. A trip to my local Ace Hardware (or the auto supply store around the corner) is in order.
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As you know, I'm not usually a fan of gold in any flavor, but that looks pretty hot.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
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I think the gold would highlight the curves of that groovy pickguard
Curious to see how you do the transition from paint to wood. Black and gold FTW! 
Yeah, masking that transition from paint to wood is tough. I used this stuff to mask the binding on my build, worked incredibly well, super sharp, clean paint line. Order of magnitude better than any other tape I’ve tried. They make it in 1/8” width that will follow nearly any curve without kinking. It stretches enough to take very tight radius. Burnish it down good, and Bob’s your Uncle.
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Curious to see how you do the transition from paint to wood. Black and gold FTW!
Actually it won't be that difficult. Some of my beveling was done with sharp edges which define the outline transition and even the deeper scallops have a soft defined line where it hits flat. I do use a 3M product [#2080EL]- it's the orange-center type you can buy readily in hardware and paint stores in various widths. It's very thin, sticks well and leaves no residue behind. I use it all the time and have great success with it. I'll have to order some of the one you posted to try out. There are auto-finisher grade tapes out there as well, and the one you posted may be one of them.
I wiped the laminate areas with "Old Masters" Golden Oak wiping stain (alkyd) and it looks very good. To further synchronize the neck, I wiped a thin coat over it also. It looks pretty much the same but moved the colour just enough to align it visually with the body edges/bevels. It's a decorative painter trick repairing furniture - you mix your stain as close to the section you are matching as possible, and then wipe some on the (un-repaired) sections around it to visually blend it all together. The thin glaze won't darken the overall translucency but bumps it colour-wise into visual alignment. I went more for chroma level than colour match (similar light/dark scale) as I want the body to look less 'reddish' (like the mahogany neck) so the gold I choose will not emphasis "red" once next to it. I did a body of red alder once and it looked ok until the gold finish was put next to it. It just looked wrong. The laminates have mahogany so I chose 'golden' oak to emphasize amber more than red. So my hopes are to find just the right gold which will work bumped up against the wood and subtly invite mahogany alignment w/o instigating a pronounced red-amber difference.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Black and gold is a classic combo in the guitar world and yes it will emphasis the pg shape. I'm hoping the mid-tone laminate edging will visually balance the dark/light contrast of that combo.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I think that's gold and black.
This is the binding edge/black paint line I got using just 1/8" 3M indigo, no scraping!! it's made of some kind of plastic that just doesn't bleed. Going from painted to stained is tougher though, sometimes it "wicks" into the wood fibers along the edge.
. Some people have been using epoxy as a grain filler/sealant for stained wood finishes, I wonder if that would kill any "fiber creep"?
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Cool - that is tight! I'll be skimming a thin layer of bondo to fill the face/back grain before painting and the laminate will get more coats of poly so with those two things, grain-creep shouldn't be an issue.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,592
- 221,985
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Made a trip to my Ace HW store, two auto supply stores and one paint store and came up with nothing. Then I visited Home Depot and bingo! - they had a wall of rattle cans. So check this out - Rust-olium has a new line of paints (Universal) with a crazy shaped integrated cap/spray-nozzle and in cool colours. The one I bought isn't gold and not copper but a new choice called Sienna Mist which is perfect for what I envisioned. It's a sort or orange-gold metallic that will be work with the laminate section and look great against the black pg. They had a gold which was good, but when Im saw this my search was over! They had other cool shades like a lime and pale silver. Plus it's the new "paint & primer in one" which I've been using lately with success. Once the last coat of poly cures I'll start preparing the surfaces for painting.
Saw this bit of Italian loveliness on CL today and thought of JIO:
Whoops my mistake it's a Dutch Egmond. Listed with a pair of Italian guitars. hence my confusion.
Whoops my mistake it's a Dutch Egmond. Listed with a pair of Italian guitars. hence my confusion.
Actually (or also?) an early plastic topped Hagström, or Selmer/Kent/Futurama! A friend of mine has one of those. Dark, limited sustain, and endlessly charming. It partly inspired my slider switch love for my avatar bass.
Seller says it's an Ehmond, though I note there's no branding on the HS so who knows? It is kinda cool though.
