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Veneering a headstock?

JACink

JACink

Mar 9, 2011
5,271
7,363
Spain
#1
I have a Westone body that is approximately an '80 or '81, mated to a Samick neck which results in a great little short scale p bass (and it was a gift from a fellow TBer).

The body has scars to show the years (nothing exagerated), and although I did think about trying to restore it, I decided that I like it how it is.

The Samick neck is a lot younger, and while I love the neck, I feel that it looks out of place with the Westone body. The actual shape of the headstock doesn't bother me, in fact, I don't think it looks bad combined with the shape of the body. I think it is more the fact that it looks so much newer (it's a shiny glossed light maple color that is difficult to show in the crappy cell phone pics).

I am thinking of sanding the neck and using Tung Oil as I did on another bass project and liked the resulting feel.

For the face of the headstock, I was wondering how difficult it would be to add a thin veneer to it to get it to either look closer to the body wood, or maybe copy the center striping of the body.

Is this a bad idea? Any tips or other ideas?

This is a photo of the bass, the lighting exagerates the difference, but you get the idea:

IMG_20160214_114611_zpsafbczzte.gif




This shows the body color better:

IMG_20160214_114630_zpsngopsckq.gif


The headstock:

IMG_20160214_114621_zpskqxsacbs.gif


And some of the war scars ;)


f1f6c454-0a49-4df6-a7e0-6fbe587fd338_zps703slcbi.gif




Thanks in advance!
 
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#3
Wow nice little bass! At first glance I thought it was an Alembic. Maybe it's the lighting as you say, but pics 2 and 3 look like the same color. I personally think it looks great as-is. You even have some grain at the headstock.

Matching a veneer to the body could be a hit or miss adventure. If the body really is darker, you might be able to refinish the headstock with a hint of stain to darken it slightly.
 
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#4
tlc1976 said:
Wow nice little bass! At first glance I thought it was an Alembic.
Click to expand...

It's funny you should say this, when I first saw the bass I thought it had a great Alembic "vibe" to it.


tlc1976 said:
Maybe it's the lighting as you say, but pics 2 and 3 look like the same color. I personally think it looks great as-is. You even have some grain at the headstock.

Matching a veneer to the body could be a hit or miss adventure. If the body really is darker, you might be able to refinish the headstock with a hint of stain to darken it slightly.
Click to expand...

I will try and take a daylight pic with better quality, but the body is a fair bit darker than the headstock (but not as exaggerated as in the first pic).

Maybe by doing Tung Oil on the neck it would darken it to something similar in tone to the body. My worry is that if the Tung Oiling doesn't work out well, then staining would no longer be an option (as far as I am aware).

Maybe I will try oiling the back of the neck first, to see what it look like, before doing the headstock.
 
#5
I'd go for matching the center stripe rather than trying to match the body; the center stripe is small and therefore harder to perceive a mismatch. Complete contrast with the body would look more deliberate than 'close, kinda'. IMO.

Also just going with shiny black lacquer would look good IMO.

My $0.02
 
#6
Jon Clegg said:
I'd go for matching the center stripe rather than trying to match the body; the center stripe is small and therefore harder to perceive a mismatch. Complete contrast with the body would look more deliberate than 'close, kinda'. IMO.

Also just going with shiny black lacquer would look good IMO.

My $0.02
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know that I am not going to match the body, but maybe I could find a tone that doesn't look so modern in comparison.

I would rather not go with a black headstock on this bass.

Thanks for your cash though ;)
 
#7
Veneering a headstock isn't too difficult. A simple approach would be to buy a "sample" piece of ash veneer. Before gluing it on, you could put some Tung Oil or Tru-Oil on it, and see how close the color matches to the body.

If you like it, trim it a little oversize to the headstock shape. Sand the surface of the headstock to get it clean and flat. Glue the veneer on with wood glue, waxed paper, a wood caul block, and several clamps. Gently trim the perimeter with a file, putting a slight bevel on the edge of the veneer. Trim out the truss rod access hole with a Dremel. Give it some coats of your oil finish.

Making it match the body's laminations is a little more complicated. Build up a laminated block, like 1/4" thick, from pieces of ash, maple and walnut (?). Flatten the back of the block and cleanup the headstock surface. Hold the block in position to line it up, and trace the outline on the back. Rough saw it a little oversize and glue it on, at its full thickness. Once it's on the headstock, carefully trim it down in thickness to maybe 1/16" thick. The best way to do this is with a router planing fixture, but you can do it, carefully, with a belt sander or hand tools. Bevel the edges, sand it smooth, slop on the finish.
 
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#8
Hi. New guy here.

Adding veneer isn't difficult as Bruce said. If you're going to do the front, you might as well do the back, too. Another idea is maybe try Behlen's Tone lacquer. Sand the headstock down to remove the clear coat and spray with Behlens. It is transparent so you have control over the shade of color. Just an idea.

Test it out on a sample if you can before doing the headstock.

Would you be keeping the metal logo piece?
 
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#9
Bruce Johnson said:
Veneering a headstock isn't too difficult. A simple approach would be to buy a "sample" piece of ash veneer. Before gluing it on, you could put some Tung Oil or Tru-Oil on it, and see how close the color matches to the body.

If you like it, trim it a little oversize to the headstock shape. Sand the surface of the headstock to get it clean and flat. Glue the veneer on with wood glue, waxed paper, a wood caul block, and several clamps. Gently trim the perimeter with a file, putting a slight bevel on the edge of the veneer. Trim out the truss rod access hole with a Dremel. Give it some coats of your oil finish.

Making it match the body's laminations is a little more complicated. Build up a laminated block, like 1/4" thick, from pieces of ash, maple and walnut (?). Flatten the back of the block and cleanup the headstock surface. Hold the block in position to line it up, and trace the outline on the back. Rough saw it a little oversize and glue it on, at its full thickness. Once it's on the headstock, carefully trim it down in thickness to maybe 1/16" thick. The best way to do this is with a router planing fixture, but you can do it, carefully, with a belt sander or hand tools. Bevel the edges, sand it smooth, slop on the finish.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I think I will take a trip into the city and see what veneer I can find. It doesn't have to match the body, just look more "in place" with the body.
 
#10
TexasHeat said:
Hi. New guy here.

Adding veneer isn't difficult as Bruce said. If you're going to do the front, you might as well do the back, too. Another idea is maybe try Behlen's Tone lacquer. Sand the headstock down to remove the clear coat and spray with Behlens. It is transparent so you have control over the shade of color. Just an idea.

Test it out on a sample if you can before doing the headstock.

Would you be keeping the metal logo piece?
Click to expand...

I had not heard of Behlen's, I have googled it and it seems that it is not available here. I will see if I can find something similar. Maybe the heel of the neck would be a good place to try it out and see what color I get (I can always light sand after if the lacquer interferes with the neck pocket, but I doubt it).

I don't think I would veneer (or lacquer) the back of the headstock as I would probably just do the whole back of the neck with Tung Oil.

As for the logo, I am not bothered about keeping it, I may add a personalized logo, or nothing.

Thanks for the info!
 
#11
Don't worry about Behlens. It's over hyped, overpriced and is available as quarts, gallons from your regular hardware store.

I refuse to buy their overpriced product .... just a hint: Stewmac sells it for serious markup too.

I have had no problems with the lacquers I buy at my local stores - not in all the thirteen years I've not used their "Acoustic Instrument Lacquer" for clear lacquer without the $$$ name.

As a matter of fact, this past winter I left a project in my garage where the temps dropped to -28ºF and there was no cracking, flaking, bending, bagging or sagging at the knees or elbows when I fired my wood stove to get the temp to 85ºF so I could do some other they of work out there.
 
#19
PDX Rich said:
Matching walnut to existing walnut can be a huge chore as well. I agree with Bruce on grabbing a bunch of samples and testing.

That begs the question, "What is the best tone veneer?" =D
Click to expand...

The problem is that there are no local suppliers, so i would need to order online.

I was thinking walnut because there are only two thin stripes of walnut on the body, and they don't really match each other, so walnut at the other en of the neck may not need to match as much as the ash would.

Just thinking out loud.
 
#20
JACink said:
The problem is that there are no local suppliers, so i would need to order online.

I was thinking walnut because there are only two thin stripes of walnut on the body, and they don't really match each other, so walnut at the other en of the neck may not need to match as much as the ash would.

Just thinking out loud.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. That certainly adds an element of challenge. I kind of like the idea of getting a lighter color of the wood you want to match and darken it to match as closely as possible. Grain pattern or figuring will be a bit easier on the eyes if the color tone is matching.
 

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