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Short scale Eight string?

#161
I spent a few hours sanding this afternoon and put the first coat of tung oil on it. I'm cautiously optimistic as I didn't see any scratches in it, usually I immediately see evidence that I didn't spend enough time sanding. We'll see after it dries though. There were a few spots (like in the inside curves) where I didn't sand all the way to wood, once the oil hit the other wood you couldn't tell at all.

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That headstock inlay is all kinds of wrong, I don't think it's worth re-doing or anything, but there are others things I could have done to hide that better.
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#163
Jisch said:
Nothing new to show, but I'm about 2 coats from being done with the finish, it looks pretty great, with the exception of the headstock, not at all happy with what I did there. Just something to bug me for the rest of the time I own this thing. Maybe a decapitation down the road?
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Not my business but.....Well......If I had the skills to turn out basses that are as beautiful as the one's that you do......Well.....I don't think that I could leave any part of the bass that I felt was sub par to annoy me for the rest of the time that I owned it....

I don't get the impression that you are under any amount of time pressure with your builds, so why not just do the headstock over again to a level that leaves you happy with it?.....

As I said....Not my business, just a little puzzled....:)
 
#164
It's a good question that I don't have a good answer for and perhaps that's where I'll end up. I think some of my "problem" with this build is I kind of had the mindset that it was a lost cause already - I did some serious surgery on this thing and figured it wasn't going to work out. Of course now that things are working out, 20/20 hindsight says I should have had a different attitude. Not a big deal. I think at this point I'll finish it as is and relook at it later on. I could fill in the holes, attach new wings and put a nice laminate on top. I could do that without interrupting the scarf joint.

And thanks for the compliment!
 
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#168
I ran into a bit of setback - in a stupid way - the nut that was on the bass was way too tall and crooked, I filed it down, but I filed the wrong side, so it was MORE crooked and too short on one side. No problem, I made a second one before mounting everything. Then when I went to mount the nut, I couldn't find the stupid thing. I searched for it longer than it would have taken me to make one. I just got home and searched again, no dice. I made a third one, let's hope three times a charm. I'll get strings mounted tonight or tomorrow.

I hate slotting nuts and to have to do it for eight strings (twice - I never got the second one slotted), sigh.
 
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#172
yep, at least I can always use nut blanks (when I find the one I lost today). I did the same with the strap locks for the the other bass I just finished. After giving up searching for them, I took the black ones off my own strap so I didn't have to send him chrome ones. Cleaning up today while looking for the nut blank I found the new strap locks in a "safe place".
 
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#177
I got the set up mostly done. I had to shim the neck as the pocket was too deep and the string saddles were bottomed. All good (one more patch!). I got the intonation set up and it's mostly good to go - I have one high fret I need to deal with and still need to make a truss rod cover, but I sat down for 10 minutes and put this "song" together. It's a joy to play, I'll be doing more soon! I have to admit it is a little scary just how close this sounds to my regular bass through the whammy pedal
 
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#178
I am procrastinating putting strap buttons on, but I need to do that today, I'd appreciate any input. The upper horn is pointy so the bottom of the button wouldn't sit flush on the point of the horn. I use Dunlop straploks on all my basses. I have both the "standard" button that sticks out and the ones that are recessed into the body.

I have a couple options:
1) file a flat spot in the horn so the button sits flush, I don't think this would look good at all
2) just put it on and do nothing, I'm sure it would be strong enough, I just don't think it would look good
3) install recessed button into the back of the horn - my concern here is that with all those tuners the head is pretty heavy and the end of the upper horn is just at the 12th fret, so putting it in the back means it would be further back than if it was installed on the end of the horn.

Any opinions? I hate playing sitting down, so I want to get this worked out today, if possible.
 

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