Special Edition Build Off - Toby Deluxe V facelift

[Reedt2000]

Alright, I'm in. With inspiration from @Fat Freddy who is willing to put himself out there (or out here ), I've got a stalled project that I'll enter here too. I dont have any aspirations of winning, placing, or even showing. Truth be told I need motivation so I'm hoping this will light the needed fire.

This bass started out as this bass:

An Epiphone made Tobias Toby Deluxe V I picked up from GC for just over $100. I've always loved the Tobias look. Used to lust over them in the early 90s when Rob Trujillo was in suicidal tendencies and infectious grooves. I could just buy one, but I was inspired by past build offs to get my hands dirty and start a project.

I took the poly off



Bought some thin wenge and bubinga, glued them to the top. Cleaned the edges and routes with a dremel tool and various attachments




I love the woods on top w just clear, but the pine of the body is another story. Up to this point things went great. I decided to mask the top and stain the back and sides. There were multiple unhappy attempts.



Finally I hit on a solution I like. Polyshade pecan on the back (it just warms up the pine and tones down the yellow look). Then clear the whole thing. This worked well, I was moving forward again. Then I got over zealous with the rattle can and got some small runs. I decided to let it cure for a while, sand em flat, and continue. The cure went longer than I planned, but today I got back at it. Took 800 grit wet/dry, flatted back the runs, gave the whole thing a light key, and got back to spraying.



I'm not expecting perfection. I did wet sand with wipe on poly to try and grain fill, probably should have done more, wenge pores are deep... I'm hoping the poly will fill in some more, but you'll see some pores, it's ok. The plan is to lay a bunch more clear, wet sand, and polish (or freak out and steel wool it satin )

I've got a pair of original bass Barts, a Bart 3 band pre, and a hipshot bridge for it. Once the finish is finalized the rest is assembly and setup, things I'm much more comfortable with

The body on this bass is really light and the neck has a super comfortable asymmetrical profile, so I think there is potential for a really useable result. My goal is to make it work well, and look good from about 6' out .

 

[ctmullins]

Toby Extreme Makeover Edition!

Nice, I have a soft spot for those things. My first "real" bass was a Gibson-era Tobias. That's where my love of the asymmetrical neck carve came from.

I like what you've done with it so far!

 

[Jon Clegg]

Cool project! Also happy that my kicking... errr... encouraging @Fat Freddy led to you jumping in as well.

 

[Beej]

Wow that was a lot in one post. The top looks fantastic.

 

[Reedt2000]

Wow that was a lot in one post. The top looks fantastic.

Thanks, it's been ongoing for just about a year now

I have masked, finished, and sanded back a number of times. After I noticed the runs, I figured it'd need a couple weeks to fully cure so I could sand the poly without worry of blowing the whole finish and having to take it back to wood. A couple weeks turned into a couple months.

I planned on putting up a thread (hence all the pics), but wanted to be sure I was gonna be able to pull it off first .

 

[dwizum]

Love the Tobias shape, it's so classic.

 

[ctmullins]

Love the Tobias shape, it's so classic.

Me too! Absolutely ergonomic.

But I recently discovered that I dislike the way offset shapes sit (or not) in a stand, so I’ve sworn off them now...

 

[Fat Freddy]

Me too! Absolutely ergonomic.

But I recently discovered that I dislike the way offset shapes sit (or not) in a stand, so I’ve sworn off them now...

You need a better stand!............

Sometimes, I wonder.........

 

[Dark Horse]

Quite a makeover you’ve got going on !!!

 

[Reedt2000]

Still shootin', starting to get a good build up. Got a couple tiny dust spots but hope to be able to wet sand and polish em out, we'll see...

 

[Fat Freddy]

Still shootin', starting to get a good build up. Got a couple tiny dust spots but hope to be able to wet sand and polish em out, we'll see...

View attachment 3776532 View attachment 3776533

That's looking really pretty man....

 

[Reedt2000]

That's looking really pretty man....

Thanks

I'm cautiously optimistic. It has a bit of orange peel that doesn't really show in the pics. I've got some really light sandpaper, and two levels of polishing compound. I've been reading and folks say poly doesn't really polish out like lacquer, its said to be most glossy on initial application. That seems to mean after compound I'll get a semi-gloss which I think will look cool. I think I'm gonna build the poly a bit more (cause I plan on cutting it back), then give it a week to get it so I can handle it, install the bridge, let it cure, sand and polish, assemble.

That sounds reasonably do-able. We'll see how it plays out

 

[ctmullins]

Why would you install the bridge before sand & polish?

 

[Reedt2000]

Why would you install the bridge before sand & polish?

So I can do it while I'll still have the ability to buff out scratches. I figure the less I have to work on it when the finish is good, the better

It's also a step I can do before the poly is fully cured. All advice out there is it must cure fully to wet sand and buff (I'll take the bridge off for sand & polish)

 

[Reedt2000]

Ordered another can o' clear, should be here Monday. Today I took out a couple dust flecks and gave the whole thing a key with imitation fine steel wool so it's ready to keep building.

 

[Beej]

Really lovely grain there

 

[Reedt2000]

Alright, need some advice.

So I've got a full rattle can of polyshades (tinted poly aerosol) on the back and sides, and 2 cans of clear gloss poly over the whole thing. (Don't mean to post the same pic over and over again, I swear there's a whole can of clear on this shot compared to the last one ).

I plan on wet sanding so I'm thinking another can of clear might be smart. The last thing I wanna do is have to sand it back to wood (again...). If I sanded through on the top it wouldn't be a huge deal, but the back has a layer of translucent color under the clear, get sandpaper into that and I'm screwed...

So LC, what say ye?

2 cans or 3?

 

[dwizum]

When in doubt, adding more doesn't really hurt (as long as it's properly curing). But I think it will ultimately depend on how much work you have in terms of wet sanding and polishing - how level is the surface (vs having a lot of orange peel, etc) and how perfect you want it, so on.

 

[Reedt2000]

When in doubt, adding more doesn't really hurt (as long as it's properly curing). But I think it will ultimately depend on how much work you have in terms of wet sanding and polishing - how level is the surface (vs having a lot of orange peel, etc) and how perfect you want it, so on.

There is a fair amount of orange peel, and some less than flat spots. I want to accept that there will be some imperfections, but I also wanna try to limit them. I'm gonna give it a full month to cure before final sanding and polish, I'll do a mockup before that cause I should be able to safely handle after a week or so when spraying is done. I was thinking another can couldn't hurt.

 

[dwizum]

What I like to do when using a finish for the first time is finish a piece of scrap that matches the wood used in the actual project at the same time - finish it with the same number of coats, etc. right along with the real bass. Then, if you find yourself thinking "I wonder if this is cured enough to polish out" or "I wonder if this is enough coats to not sand through" or whatever, you can try polishing your scrap and see if it's cured enough yet or has enough coats, etc or not.