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Six string spalted maple, fretless, and first build ... kit

#121
I did drill out the too high, and a few of the too low, inlay dots and reglue new dots in. I'm glad I had the second set of 20 from LMII; I had plenty of "good" dots to use with nice abalone figuring.

I'm happy with the result. I hope no one is going to give me another suggestion to fix yesterday's mistake now. ;)

Next step, I think, is to sand the fretboard down and do the veneers and glueing. I want to have that sealed before taping it down for the back-of-neck staining.
 
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#122
How should I remove the plastic nut, so I can replace it with the GraphTech Tusq nut I bought? The original nut looks rather glued in snugly.

image.jpg
image.jpg
 
#123
I got the nut off easily with a tap or two from a plastic fretting hammer.

Today I worked on prepping the fret slots for the veneers with a coping saw, sandpaper, and a business card (to test the flatness of the saw). I only completed four of the 24 frets, so it'll hopefully be ready to set the blue and green veneers by the weekend.

I also cleaned off the excess glue from the dot inlays with acetone, and the fingerboard looks better than ever.
 
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#124
I've finished preparing the fret slots for the veneers. I found that even with sawing the slots flat and sanding the inside of the slots, I still need to sand the veneers a bit to make them thin enough to slide in the slot without resistance/cracking.

This weekend we'll glue in the veneers for the fretlines. I hope all the work I spent this week will make it a smooth and easy process.
 
#125
The veneers are in!

I spent today on the fingerboard, and glued in the blue and green veneers. I need to look back in the thread to see when I first got the idea to use blue and green, but it feels like it took months to get to this spot.

image.jpg


The veneer on the 16th fret snapped, but it's secure inside the slot, so I just saved time later. I had trouble with quite a few lines, but I think they're all good now. I'll let the glue (Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue) cure overnight before cutting off the excess veneers and sanding, but I am happy and relieved with the progress.

Here's the before shot, with the veneers preset and my tools:

image.jpg
 
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#126
The fingerboard is taking shape. No problem with the veneers, and I was even able to put little splinters along the side of the fingerboard where the veneers weren't set deep enough.

A few passes of sanding with 100, 220, and 400 grit sandpaper got me to this:

image.jpg


The blue lines are very subtle, which I wanted, and make the green at the 12th and 24th frets stand out more. I knocked out one of the abalone dots at the 12th fret with my sanding, but I replaced it after taking this photo.

I'll probably do another pass with 400 grit, and then 600 before starting on the CA glue.

My current dilemma is deciding how dark a blue to do the 8th fret inlay.

Does anyone have experience with water slide paper on a rosewood board? How should I attach it to the fingerboard so it stays put while I coat it with glue?
 
#127
It's looking good man! It may seem kind of quiet, but I'll bet you have more eyes on this build than you would expect based on the lack of comments. The waterslide decals should have a little glue on the paper already, so I am guessing it will stay put...but I have never attempted it with Rosewood. DO you have an extra you can test with on your test neck?
 
#130
I think the problem may be that your waterslide decal paper is white backed rather than clear - I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me. I suggest looking into something like this. Other's may have better product suggestions, but something similar to this should solve your problem.
 
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#131
michaelwayneharwood said:
I think the problem may be that your waterslide decal paper is white backed rather than clear - I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me. I suggest looking into something like this. Other's may have better product suggestions, but something similar to this should solve your problem.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's likely the issue. Unfortunately, those you linked to are for laser printers, not the HP inkjet printer I have. I'll keep looking.
 
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#132
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#135
Did you pull off the paper from the back of the waterslide decal? I use those for my baseball bats, and they come out clear - the turp melts the plastic, so all you have in the ink.

I use lazertran waterslide decal paper. My website is bulldogbatsonline.com - take a look under modern bats to give you an idea.
 
#138
buldog5151bass said:
Did you pull off the paper from the back of the waterslide decal? I use those for my baseball bats, and they come out clear - the turp melts the plastic, so all you have in the ink.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's exactly what I did for my tests (not pictured). The turpentine did not make the label clear. I'm not going to try it anymore, since I've ordered the correct clear labels.
 
#140
buldog5151bass said:
Good luck. Yeah, if you gotta spend a few bucks, it's worth it. Sorry the labels didn't work for ya.
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Oh, this bass has been a money pit, so an extra $15 or so isn't going to be a waste. I'll be able to re-use the white labels for the headstock logo, I think.

Back to the body... I pretty much decided against installing the coil tap switch, at least at first, due to concerns about overcrowding the control cavity with the Mike Pope FlexCore preamp. But, my wife's uncle might be able to help me route a cavity for a battery box, which would give me more room in the control cavity for the switch. I'll hopefully be in touch with the uncle this weekend. If I can't route for the battery box, I might get started on sanding and staining the front of the body soon.
 

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