Special Edition Build Off: The Paper Birch Precision

[AK4570]

A feature it is.

I’ve got the roundovers and comfortable cuts done (Belly and arm bevel... will post pictures in a bit.).

I went with a 3/8” roundover both due to preference and also because that’s the router bit I had handy.

 

[AK4570]

I don’t know how some of you guys give us such detailed updates… I’m having so much fun and getting so focused on what I’m doing that I barely remember to take pictures!

Anyway, started off the night by adjusting the control route. I needed about 1/16” more room to get the pots and jack in with a little breathing space.

Once that had been addressed, I acquired a piece of brass “tubing,” lined up the 3/16” aircraft drill, held my breath, and went for it.

Double-checked all my edges, drew some arrows around the body front and back to (hopefully) keep me from doing anything stupid, loaded a 3/8 roundover bit into the router, held my breath (again), and tried my best to follow my own directions.

Truth be told, routing the edges was fairly anti-climactic… this birch is some of the easiest machining wood I’ve ever routed and has a hardness/consistency that is reminiscent of poplar.

Additionally, the knot in the lower waist area (now a feature), was virtually a non-issue after being soaked with CA and allowed to sit for a couple of days prior to applying roundovers... it looks pretty good actually.

With the heavy lifting done, I went back and touched up the roundovers by hand, drew some lines for the arm and belly contours, then applied the “saw-to-the-line” method popularized here on the LC.

A few minutes with chisel, rasp, Sureform, and plane…

…and it’s really starting to look like a bass.

Next up is drilling for the jack and neck screws, and then my favorite part… Sanding!

 

[AK4570]

I'm considering taking those contours a little deeper. They're right around 1/3 of the body depth currently but look a little shallow to my admittedly inexperienced Mark II eyeball.

Talk me into leaving them, or tell me to bust out the files!

 

[Dark Horse]

I personally prefer deeper contours, like the 58 precision’s have

 

[AK4570]

I fully agree on deeper contours... guess I was just looking for someone to push me over the edge.

There we go. I initially had them at approximately 1/3 body depth... they're fulling 1/2 body depth now and - in my opinion, at least - look way better.

 

[AK4570]

Next up was drilling for the jack. I chose an electrosocket for this build. Don't ask me why... I guess I just like the way they look. Anyway, did some measuring and then taped a straight edge to the body to give me something to sight along

Used a 1" forstner for the lip, then a 7/8" forstner for the remainder.

a little nerve-wracking drilling a 7/8" hole in the side of a 1 1/2" body but it worked out so alls well that ends well, I guess.

 

[AK4570]

I'm considering doing something unique with that pin-knot right above the jack... maybe bury a tiny bead in CA inside it or something.

I need to pick up some threaded inserts for the neck as well, however, I've got a question on bolt size. I'm guessing either 8-32 or 10-24?

 

[AK4570]

Next up after drilling the jack hole was jumping into making a pickguard.

I started out by drilling both holes for the control plate in the body, laid a sheet of .063 Kydex (upside down) on the body, figured out where to poke a hole, then drilled, countersunk, and screwed it down.

I took one of my stolen colored pencils (my 9 year old's contribution to the build), sanded it in half

...flipped the body with attached sheet goods upside down, and traced the edge.

Once flipped back over and unscrewed, we've got this:

 

[AK4570]

The next step was to scroll-saw to the line, reattach the Kydex to the body, and drop the Telebass pickguard on top to locate the screw hole at the tip of the upper horn.

After the drill, countersink, and attach routine, it was time to route to the Kydex back to the body edge as well as the neck pocket.

...and, done!

Hereafter, a minor de-rail occurred which I will detail later...

 

[AK4570]

I was having so much fun at this point (and getting a little big for my britches, truth be told) so I decided to make a marking gauge out of 1/2" mdf and a sharpened finish nail to mark a line 5/16" in from the body edge on the pickguard to which I would then cut, sand, finish, and that would be that!

Unfortunately, the maxim about measure twice and cut (or drill) once, is still as true as the first time it was given utterance...

I neither double checked my measurements when making my jig, nor did I do a test run with it prior to applying it to the only piece of .063 Kydex I have in stock...

Here's the evidence:

Due to my negligence, I have a lovely, accurate scratch line around approximately 60% of the pickguard that is pretty close to 9/16"!

My plan prior to stuffing this up was to sand the shiny side of the Kydex to around 400 grit for a matte appearance... I'm going to try to knock the scratch line down with some 220 and see how it goes. Worst case scenario, I've got some .08 Kydex that I can make a new guard from.

 

[AK4570]

Looks like it's been a couple weeks since I updated this...

...hopefully the sordid tale of ANOTHER P-Bass build won't bore too many of us to tears.

At any rate, I threw some 120 grit on the RO sander and did my best to disguise my screw up on the pickguard...

Not too bad, all things considered.

Moving along, I decided it was time to attach the neck.

Plugged previous screw holes, re-drilled for inserts, and got them all in with limited mishaps.

You can see the one that decided to blow out approximately .02 seconds after the first thread engaged the wood (grumble, grumble...)

And just like that, we've got a bass-shaped-object!

After double-checking that everything lined up, I drilled the bridge screw holes, forstnered a start for the bridge-earthing wire, Lined up the long 3/16" drill bit, and, yep!

... blew right out the back (insert sounds of weeping here...)

 

[AK4570]

After collecting the pieces of my broken heart, I briefly considered finding the best grain match and fixing with a birch plug...

...but then again, why not make it a feature?!

I drilled the offending hole out with a 7/8" forstner,

... tracked down the West Texas Walnut that I've been dragging around through umpteen moves over the last 15+ years,

...made a plug,

...glued it, seated it, and shaved it down,

...and we now have a Walnut "Tone Block" (insert appropriate eye-rolls here...)

 

[AK4570]

Catching us up to today, I spent some quality time with the RO and various blocks, dowels, and rubber erasers with 320grit wrapped around them...

...knocked together a finishing stand,

...mixed up a combination of clear and amber shellac (70/30 I would guess)... and applied liberally.

I'm going to let that sit for a while before I start clear coating. I've got a quart of Varathane WB sitting here patiently waiting its turn...

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Nice. For future reference, on the threaded inserts, it seems to help if you chamfer the hole for the insert before screwing it in. Less tear out on the times I’ve used them, anyway.

 

[AK4570]

Thanks, Matt. There was a bit of a “duh” moment right after it happened... particularly in light of the fact that I had a chamfer bit sitting about 10 inches away when it happened! There’s definitely a bit of a learning curve happening here but it’s also whetting my appetite to continue building. Thanks again for the input

 

[AK4570]

Made another noob discovery today:

If you fail to remove your watch prior to spraying Varathane on your bass neck whilst holding said neck in the hand attached to the wrist attached to the aforementioned watch...

Yep. You’ll clear-coat your watch!

Lesson learned.

 

[postalflunkie]

Made another noob discovery today:

If you fail to remove your watch prior to spraying Varathane on your bass neck whilst holding said neck in the hand attached to the wrist attached to the aforementioned watch...

Yep. You’ll clear-coat your watch!

Lesson learned.

Wedding rings too...

 

[5tring]

I’ve got 2 watches with a speckle finish. Managed to wash the paint off my Fitbit, so that’s the timepiece of choice for painting now.

 

[5tring]

P.S. I like the walnut tone block!

 

[AK4570]

Thanks, all!

A quick non-bass update: About 24 hours after that last picture was taken, my older daughter came down to the dungeon to grab ice cream out of the “backdrop”... also known as the white, upright freezer that has shown up in a multitude of the pictures on this build.

“Dad,” she says, “did someone leave the freezer door open?”

So we check it out and, sure enough, there’s a couple hundred pounds of homemade moose sausage sitting there thawed, but thankfully, still cold! Based on the level of “thawed out”, the freezer had quit freezin’ a couple days previously. The compressor was running non-stop but no chillin’

Ah, well... an hour later the esteemed and lovely Mrs. AK4570 and I had redistributed the sausage, veggies, coffee, and sundry fowl to a couple of other freezers. The only thing we couldn’t fit was 23 lbs of chicken breast... which is in the canner as we speak.

All’s well that ends well, I suppose, and now I’ve got more room in the shop!

OK... back to bass building ;o)