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Trying to fix a worthless Bass
- Thread starter Markshan
- Start date
I'm glad I'm not the only anal retentive.I like that the pole screws are lined up…I’m the same way…
The bottom left screw is off a bit…
The pressure is on. Kathy just complimented me on being a completest and I have reached a crossroads point in this project where I have to decide between being a perfectionist and acknowledging the point of diminishing returns.
My question is how do you know how much fret is enough fret? How do you know when it's time for new frets as opposed to dressing the existing ones?
You may recall this project started with a major bow and a troublesome twist in the neck. I did several heat treatments to correct this and have it 96% corrected. However, there is still about a thirty second of an inch dip on the bass side of the neck. It's close enough to correct that if I were to pull all the frets I could get it just about perfect with a radius block. Initially I decided that though that would be good it probably was not actually worth the effort. However, I have since noticed that in a past life somebody tried to correct the bowing neck by filing down the last three frets. I'm not sure if it comes over in the photo but I'm also not sure if they left enough material for me to bring those frets back to a crown. On the one hand it's largely a cosmetic issue cuz I never play up that high. I could rip them right out and never miss them. On the other hand is that the straw that broke the camel's back and makes a refret the most practical way to proceed? I'm leaning toward not bothering with a refret, but as Kathy points out I kind of always want to do the best job I can. But this one seems to me like it would be more time and effort than it's actually worth.
What say you?
I’ve never re-fretted an instrument. I just dress them, re-seat them and polish them. I usually get the results that I want.
That said…I mostly play fretless basses…
As an aside, I wish I had the ear to play fretless. To the main point, do you think there is enough thickness left on the last fret to bring it back to a decent crown?
Looks like it. But, it won’t get much use anyways. But I’ll let others chime in.
You won’t be satisfied if the neck is only 96% straight.
the look of the frets and the playability is moot if you still know the neck is warped. Probably diminishing returns for everything except your mental health.
the look of the frets and the playability is moot if you still know the neck is warped. Probably diminishing returns for everything except your mental health.
Yeah I can see that but honestly I thought about it and I've seen those malmsteen guitars where between every fret is scooped out. So I figure as long as I can get the frets all the way straight does a 32nd of rosewood between two frets down near the bottom really matter?
Plus I have no guarantee that the neck won't twist again. My Hope is that filling that void with epoxy will make it more stable, but that's only a hope. Only Time Will tell, right? I feel like I'm getting to the stage of make it pretty and enjoy playing it. I've gotten a lot of education from this project already. If everyone's telling me there's enough fret for me to crown it I can learn to refret on another project.
I think filling that void did nothing for you other than the satisfaction you got from doing it. I think you should save those last three frets for your last three things to fix, mainly because they are just taking up space since neither one of us play up there; but also because they may not be an issue. If you can get music from them why bother fixing something that ain't broke?
I mostly agree. I can't see how adding density to an area would do anything other than make it more stable. It seems to me it's basically the difference between trying to bend a hollow tube versus trying to bend a rod.
I didn't have much time this weekend to work on instruments. I did dig out the logo on Wednesday and got a good look at it. It was the first time I had seen it with my cheaters. I believe that earlier in the thread I said it was plastic and the tangs had busted off of it. Since I could see better I realized that it wasn't plastic it was metal and that the tanks didn't bust off but rather they were very tiny finishing braids. I didn't much care for that so I ordered some tiny black Phillips screws. I touched up the spots that were scratched with Testors gloss black model paint. Flat would have actually been better but I wasn't buying another jar of paint for such tiny little touch-ups. I also used it to touch up the spot above the truss rod that I nicked out with the Allen key. It was surprisingly good for that. I had no idea that acrylic could match lacquer that well, at least in little spots.
It's been almost a month since this project has gotten an update. Other things both guitar related and not have been taking up my time. When I have had time to work on guitars my Tele kit build has been getting most of the attention. This coming week might be the last coat of tung oil on that body. I also wanted to put one coat on this neck so I figured I'd do them both on Wednesday. But that meant I had to work up the courage to try to burst the back of this neck. I went with Rit fabric dye for the dark brown because I didn't want to have to scrape the bindings again and the leather dye has in the past immediately stained plastic that it came in contact with. So even though I think the brown leather dye might have been a touch deeper darker and better, I went with the leather dye. To do the middle I had yellow Angelus leather dye.
I didn't get the two sides even and the yellow was far too yellow. I should have just done one quick skunk stripe and called it a day or maybe even just faded to natural but for a first attempt I guess it's not terrible. I think if I do a lot of rubbing with the oil when I put it on that might help smooth it up a shade more. We will see.
The heel is a mess but who cares? I didn't do nearly as much sanding there because I knew it wouldn't be seen. I don't know what I was thinking when I mixed up a whole cup of brown dye, but luckily it is quite cheap and it is also ecologically friendly compared to a lot of dyes. What I didn't use will simply get poured down the drain.
I guess it's not terrible for a first try but it's certainly not great either.
I didn't get the two sides even and the yellow was far too yellow. I should have just done one quick skunk stripe and called it a day or maybe even just faded to natural but for a first attempt I guess it's not terrible. I think if I do a lot of rubbing with the oil when I put it on that might help smooth it up a shade more. We will see.
The heel is a mess but who cares? I didn't do nearly as much sanding there because I knew it wouldn't be seen. I don't know what I was thinking when I mixed up a whole cup of brown dye, but luckily it is quite cheap and it is also ecologically friendly compared to a lot of dyes. What I didn't use will simply get poured down the drain.
I guess it's not terrible for a first try but it's certainly not great either.
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So last night I said that I thought I could straighten it out with the oil. I still do think that I can manipulate the two colors to fade into each other a little better, however I just didn't like either the amount of darkness of the yellow or the crookedness of my lines. So I decided as I'm watching the game here to grab the neck and a piece of sandpaper and try to lighten up that yellow and straighten out the lines a little bit. I think the oil will still help the colors to bleed a little more but I think this is a better starting point then what I was left with last night. I just can't help myself but fool with things. Do we agree that this looks a little better? Middy seems to approve.
Ha! You're right, lol. I guess I did do it different from the conventional approach. However, after I read your post I did a quick Google search and it seems my approach isn't completely unprecedented although this maker did not take the burst up into the headstock.That's alright I guess. I think this is what your really want, with a better blend between the two colors.
View attachment 5256631
So this is my call weekend at work but I got a little bit of down time and decided it was time to take all of the patches that I had made and try to get them a little closer to color matched. The epoxy wood filler that I used dried basically White. You can refer to earlier pictures in the thread. I didn't expect to get an exact match but just wanted to get it so it didn't stick out quite so much. I colored all of those patches with "English Tan" Angelo's leather dye. It went on frightfully red, but when it dried it did dry to an English tan. At least I think it did, in the interest of full disclosure I have to mention that I'm not really sure what the difference is between an English tan or an American tan.
One big glob of UV glue down, probably about 30 more to go. I hope they all remove as cleanly as this one did, I'm very pleased with the way that it filled in the crack in the old finish.
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