The Hossenfeffer Bass Build

[Gilmourisgod]

Its like all the Stewmac stuff, good quality, high price, ridiculous "postage and handling" that jacks the prices into "you got hosed" territory. I'm sure its just some garden variety old school packing tape, but it works. Most of what Stewmac sells can be had elsewhere for less, but you pay for the convenience of not having to search for it. Now I'm shopping for card scrapers and the technique to sharpen them, definitely NOT getting one from Stewmac.

 

[gsnad2000]

A lot of that type of stuff can be had at regular woodcrafters or rockler stores. Your still paying highish retail markup prices (as compared to usual online shopping these days) but at least you can get it in your hands right away and not have to get hosed on shipping charges.

 

[Scoops]

Its like all the Stewmac stuff, good quality, high price, ridiculous "postage and handling" that jacks the prices into "you got hosed" territory. I'm sure its just some garden variety old school packing tape, but it works. Most of what Stewmac sells can be had elsewhere for less, but you pay for the convenience of not having to search for it. Now I'm shopping for card scrapers and the technique to sharpen them, definitely NOT getting one from Stewmac.

One way to fight the cost of shipping from StewMac is to join the "StewMac" club. You get free shipping.

I used to hold off on ordering from them until I put together a long grocery list. Now, whenever I need something, and I can't find a reasonable product elsewhere, I'll put an order into SM, even if it just for $10.00 worth of stuff.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Pulled the tape off the FB, binding looks good. It was about 1/32" proud of the face, so I scraped it flush. Don't have a card scraper yet, so I used utility blades with a burr turned on the edge, worked pretty well

I built a quick little jig to keep my radius block aligned with center and level to the FB as a I sand. Went to the hardware store that always carried stick-on PSA rolls, Dang! They discontinued it. Anybody got a good cheap source for 2-1/2" stick on PSA sandpaper rolls? I figured on starting with 80, then 120, 220, 320, probably 400 and 600 by hand to get the Faux MOP inlays back up to sparkly.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I built a quick little jig to keep my radius block aligned with center and level to the FB as a I sand. Went to the hardware store that always carried stick-on PSA rolls, Dang! They discontinued it. Anybody got a good cheap source for 2-1/2" stick on PSA sandpaper rolls? I figured on starting with 80, then 120, 220, 320, probably 400 and 600 by hand to get the Faux MOP inlays back up to sparkly.

I use bits of cloth-backed sanding belt attached to the radius sanding block with double-sided tape. Much cheaper and more durable than sticky sandpaper.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I use bits of cloth-backed sanding belt attached to the radius sanding block with double-sided tape. Much cheaper and more durable than sticky sandpaper.

Ha! A Cheap Bastid after my own heart! Great idea, now I gotta find a cheap supplier of sanding belts.... I live on cape Cod, it's like a hole in the ocean with no good tool, lumber, or guitar stores. Even my local Home Depot is half the size of normal, and they have a thin selection. Thank God for Amazon prime, I guess.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

The Freud/diablo belts from home depot are what I use.

 

[TonH]

I like your fretboard! Very beautiful!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Dang that Bubinga is hard! I totally stole Hammerhead's idea about using a sanding belt doublestick taped to my radius block, which worked fine, still took a LONG time to get through initial radius with 80 grit. I was as careful as I'm capable of to keep everything flat and consistent, think I did pretty well. It's dead straight anyway. I'll leave it in this jig and walk up through the grits.

 

[Scoops]

It's just such a cool feeling when you've conquered something.

Congrats, the FB looks wonderful

 

[Gilmourisgod]

It's just such a cool feeling when you've conquered something.

Congrats, the FB looks wonderful

Thanks Scoops, every step of this is a nail-biter, I've never done most of these techniques before, but this one is really just careful gruntwork. I see now why people make radius router jigs, I am going to be one sore dude tomorrow! I did "sets" of 100 strokes each, then vacuum off swarf and clean sanding grit, repeat ad infinitum. Hopefully the higher grits will go faster now that the radius is there.

 

[RaniBrandt]

They will, and soon your soreness will come from not being able to stop playing it!

 

[mellowinman]

Pulled the tape off the FB, binding looks good. It was about 1/32" proud of the face, so I scraped it flush. Don't have a card scraper yet, so I used utility blades with a burr turned on the edge, worked pretty well

I built a quick little jig to keep my radius block aligned with center and level to the FB as a I sand. Went to the hardware store that always carried stick-on PSA rolls, Dang! They discontinued it. Anybody got a good cheap source for 2-1/2" stick on PSA sandpaper rolls? I figured on starting with 80, then 120, 220, 320, probably 400 and 600 by hand to get the Faux MOP inlays back up to sparkly.

That is some really outstanding work. You should be very proud.

 

[ctmullins]

That is looking really sweet! It'll look that much better with a shine on it. Remind me, are you lacquering the fretboard a la Ric, or oiling it, or leaving it natural?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I was thinking about a couple coats of Tru Oil on the FB, never used it, but it seems to take a better shine than Watco or tung oil, definitely NOT drowning this with laquer, frets and all, like a standard Ric. The laquer looks slick, but I don't really like the feel of it on the FB.

 

[PDX Rich]

Looking awesome man! Big props on doing inlay work.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Thanks PDX Rich, your bass turned me on to Tru Oil, definitely using that on my next bass, a Walnut 4003w clone for my son. Maybe I can sneak some Purple Heart stringers into the neck!

 

[Rôckhewer]

Very nice work on that board!!!
You are definitely way more skilled than you give yourself credit for.
This entire build is looking fantastic! Really clean detail overall. It's going to be a primo instrument
(two thumbs up)

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Thanks Rock, incredibly slow progress, but I'm learning a lot.

 

[Rôckhewer]

I use bits of cloth-backed sanding belt attached to the radius sanding block with double-sided tape. Much cheaper and more durable than sticky sandpaper.

Another cheap alternative to double sided tape....

(Which can be kind of a pain, sometimes depending on the dbl sided tape you use...if it is the thick and really sticky kind that is hard to remove etc...)

Is....a trick I saw on a Crimson Guitars video....
(great tutorials BTW ...he builds guitars mostly but alot of the same principles apply to bass)

Put down an even layer of masking tape on your block and then several small drops of thin liquid super glue dispersed evenly, maybe 1" apart, then lay down another layer of tape sticky side up......voila....double side tape! That is flatter and not spongy like some dbl ST can be. & comes off easily, especially if you use painters tape.
And it works on templates etc. As well