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The Hossenfeffer Bass Build

#664
Gilmourisgod said:
Year 4 of the torture! Thanks for hanging in all, I probably would have lost interest a while ago without encouragement here on TB. Laying on color and clearcoat to fix the headstock sand-through, hopefully my last major eff-up.
Click to expand...

Hah-hah that makes me feel better - I just passed year two!
 
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#669
Gilmourisgod said:
Wetsanding with naptha and 600 grit, then dry sanding with 1000 grit Abralon, looks great! I am the god of Luthiery...

D'oh! I'm worthless and weak..... Despite my excruciatingly slow and careful sanding along the top edge of the headstock, I go from black satiny goodness to instantaneous sand-through in a couple strokes of 600 grit, right to bare maple. Woe and the utterance of the Nine Mightiest Oaths transpire!


The sand-through is localized to one edge on the headstock, everything else sanded up to 100o grit without incident so... Time to mask this sucker and re-shoot that edge in black and clearcoat. I'll do 5 coats of black and and at least 10 of clear and try it again. The fact that this alone sanded through makes me think it was thin all along. Just for yucks, used my full-size Hosssenfeffer II printout as the masking paper. One step forward.......
Click to expand...

I feel for you my friend and I've been there in that same place more times than I care to mention. It's also why I call myself the "demi-god" of Luthiery. It gives me permission to get it wrong half of the time. At least with a flat black it's not too hard to do a localised repaint. With a clear coat, often the sanding burn through changes the colour of the wood. If you re-coat it with lacquer then the sand through really shows and the whole lot has to come off and sanded back to bare wood again.
 
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#670
Well, after a few days of sulking and evil thoughts, at may latest finish fiasco, I come crawling back to TB to try to regain my Happy Thoughts on this build.

So... I had an unfortunate sand-through episode on the headstock, documented above. The rest of the bass looks like a satin finish Steinway Piano, so i was loathe to re-spray the whole thing with clear. I reasoned (wrongly) that by re-spraying just the top and side edges of the headstock, any "witness" lines would be nearly invisible along the sharp edges. having easily sanded through 5 coats of black and 25 of clearcoat, I put 10 coats of black and 30 clear on the edges, resulting in... witness lines, with the added bonus of a little chip of clearcoat on the pointy tip coming off with the masking tape. Good times! Attempting to "feather" the witness lines, of course I had yet another tiny sand-through on the headstock tip. I probably already know the answer, but please advise on a course of action, in ascending order of painfulness:

1. Touch up the tiny sand-through with black, sand all the witness lines flush, and re-spray just the edges with clearcoat. Accept that my first paint job will never be perfect and move on.

2. Re-spray the whole headstock, including front and back faces and edges, with a break at the volute. This would probably result in a witness line at the volute, but at least it's on the back of the bass, and that's a pretty sharp edge.

3. Sand out all the headstock witness lines, retouch and black sand-throughs, and re-spray clearcoat over the whole bass. Repeat endless level sanding.

4. Sand the whole bass back to bare wood and start over.

5. Let it hang in it's nice cozy warm closet until I regain the Will To Live, and THEN proceed with option 4.

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#673
In auto finishing, to avoid witness lines, they use a back masking technique. Basically rolling the tape over to create a loop, then putting a piece on top to prevent overspray. I would touch up the black, then using the above technique feather on your clear coats, lightly polish the edges. You'll know it's there, everyone here reading your build will, the rest of the world? Nah

After really looking for that burn through, I'm more with mapleglo. First whack of the basement ceiling will be worse ☺
 
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#675
GrantR said:
In auto finishing, to avoid witness lines, they use a back masking technique. Basically rolling the tape over to create a loop, then putting a piece on top to prevent overspray. I would touch up the black, then using the above technique feather on your clear coats, lightly polish the edges. You'll know it's there, everyone here reading your build will, the rest of the world? Nah

After really looking for that burn through, I'm more with mapleglo. First whack of the basement ceiling will be worse ☺
Click to expand...
So the tape loop lets a mist of clear sneak by that "feathers" the clear out? I think i did something similar using cotton balls to create nice blurred-edge camouflage on model airplanes as a kid.

One other thought was black CA glue, which seems similar to the Glue Burst stuff. In my limited experience, its a lot harder than clearcoat though, I'd probably just sand-through around it before it knocked down. And yes, I did have dings worse than that on my old 4001, but now I am a Middle-Aged Psychotic Perfectionist, not some pot addled kid, dang it!
 
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#676
Gilmourisgod said:
So the tape loop lets a mist of clear sneak by that "feathers" the clear out? I think i did something similar using cotton balls to create nice blurred-edge camouflage on model airplanes as a kid.

One other thought was black CA glue, which seems similar to the Glue Burst stuff. In my limited experience, its a lot harder than clearcoat though, I'd probably just sand-through around it before it knocked down. And yes, I did have dings worse than that on my old 4001, but now I am a Middle-Aged Psychotic Perfectionist, not some pot addled kid, dang it!
Click to expand...
Sounds like the reasonable answer is more pot. :)
 
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#678
Gilmourisgod said:
So the tape loop lets a mist of clear sneak by that "feathers" the clear out? I think i did something similar using cotton balls to create nice blurred-edge camouflage on model airplanes as a kid.

One other thought was black CA glue, which seems similar to the Glue Burst stuff. In my limited experience, its a lot harder than clearcoat though, I'd probably just sand-through around it before it knocked down. And yes, I did have dings worse than that on my old 4001, but now I am a Middle-Aged Psychotic Perfectionist, not some pot addled kid, dang it!
Click to expand...

Up votes on @mapleglo and @GrantR.

It it were me I would stay away from black CA just because it may not match your black and may annoy you further. It would me for sure.
 
#680
Nomad98 said:
• Polish that thing up.
• Assemble it.
• Play the hell outa it.

If the finish still bothers you after you have played the hell outa the bass, then refinish it.

Hey, new Ricks come with finish imperfections, why shouldn’t yours! :D
Click to expand...

I like this

You know the first time you take it out, some drunk is going to come up to you, and thru some mishap, will put a ding in your bass.

You will commit suicide because your baby has a wound.

Avoid death and have a few imperfections as this will lessen the blow when the inebriated one strikes :)
 
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