Winter Build Off 2022 - Curly Redwood 4 String

[Gilmourisgod]

A lot of the pickup companies dont show the corner radius, so I'm not sure what the best all around radius would be to get. I Use a 3/8" diameter pattern bit, so already 3/16" radius. I should probably get a 1/4" diameter for those tight EMG style corners.

 

[Flamingo21]

let this picture be my entry into the jankiest jig competition

Wait till you see mine.
Winter Build Off 2022 - Explorer Bass

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Janky Jig sounds like something you’d do at the Boston St. Pattie’s day parade while S- Faced.

 

[dmarino]

I spent some time in the shop today, but I didn't get as far as I planned.

I couldn't resist a mockup while testing the pickup fit in the routs.

Then I broke out the rasps and roughed in the round-over on the top. Plenty of work to do still to smooth it out and fine-tune the waist areas, etc. before sanding starts. I realize this is the hard way, but I feel like it gives me a lot of control and I can approach the final shape slowly with plenty of time to make adjustments as I go.

I was doing the same for the rear of the bass and the neck heel, but I ran out of time and didn't finish. I might be able to get out there tomorrow for a while, but starting tuesday it'll be sub-zero temps and more snow, so things may stall for a while.

 

[RichterScale]

I'm always amazed at what a radical change a simple round over around the body makes.

 

[dmarino]

Feels like I've been creeping along, but I've been making some progress on this build.

I carved a little more with the rasps and then took some 80-grit to rough sand this body to see where things stand. It's hard to get the black veneer line smooth because the curls on the redwood top are of vastly different hardness, so the edge wants to be wavy. I don't know if that's from the wood itself being softer in places, or it soaked up more glue in the curls, but it's tough to get it real smooth.

I needed to finish shaping the heel. I was having trouble getting even the short rasp into the right places and finally remembered that I could probably get in there with the card scrapers. They worked great, I don't know why I don't reach for them more often.

Once I got the heel pretty close to where it needs to be, I cut out some more curly redwood for the control cavity covers. I used to shape these with a rasp, but my neighbor sold me an old belt-and-disk sander for $50 when he was cleaning out his garage. It made short work of this job, which used to take forever. Slowly, my process improves. These covers will need a little fine-tuning, but I think the rear of this body is going to look nice.

I wanted to start testing with this bottle of finish that I have. It's "Minwax Tung Oil Finish". If you read the reviews, there are a lot of complaints that it's not really Tung Oil. In fact, despite the name, it barely contains any real tung oil at all. But I'm not that concerned about that fact - it's a drying oil finish that builds and doesn't take forever to dry, which is really all I'm looking for. And, I already have it on hand, so if it works okay, then it's a go from my perspective. Like Jisch and the others mentioned, this redwood soaked up an impressive amount of oil in the first coat. I'll keep working this scrap as I finish up the bass so hopefully I'll know what I'm dealing with when it comes time to apply the finish. The curls look nice!

Here's where things stand presently

There's still a little woodworking to do. I need to drill out the jack access for one. Also, I'm using a hipshot A-type bridge and it can be strung through the body, so I need to drill out the string and ferrule holes for that.
I'm going to put in machine screws in the cavity covers, so I need to drill out and screw in the thread sleeve housings. I still need to make a truss rod cover. There will be a lot of final touch-ups and massive sanding to final smoothness.

I'll be fretting the board soon, though. I may take it on next.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Check out the Stumpy Nubs video about tung oil. Very rarely is any tung oil product you find at the store actually "tung oil". He sums it up and explains it very, very well.

 

[dmarino]

Thanks, @TerribleTim68 that was a good watch.
I looked into this topic quite a bit before going with this finish.
I was kind of amused at how angry some reviewers were that this isn't a real tung oil finish (OMG they lied to me)!
I think that I wouldn't actually want a "pure" tung oil finish, I think I want the drying & solids technology this Minwax product offers. I used Crimson Guitars oil finish in the past, it's pretty much the same as this Minwax oil finish - a fast drying high-build finish. I was happy with the Crimson oil finish and I think this one will work just as well.

 

[Beej]

That body is looking really good! The pinstripe veneer line is the bomb.

 

[dmarino]

It was a quick day in the shop today. It was cold, I didn't have great focus - in retrospect I was kinda rushing... I don't think I was doing my best work. But, I did get a couple things done.

I made this truss rod cover out of ebony. It's ok I guess. I'm not sure I like it - the roundness sort of doesn't go with the angular gestalt of the headstock. I may make some other ones and see how they look. If I had to go with it, it would probably be fine, but maybe I can do better.

I made a bit of a hack job out of the jack access hole. I ended up doing a lot of sanding and cleanup. I need to re-think the way I do that because drilling the inner hole with the spade bit didn't work well. The bit grabbed/jumped as I was withdrawing it and boogered up the wood around the hole a little. Disaster was averted, but there was cleanup and fixing/hiding to do.
Man, it's hard to build a bass without making and correcting painful mistakes.

Then I did the string-through holes for the bridge. This went fine, I guess. No real issues.
Here it is with the ferrules sitting in the holes.

Here's just the wood, you can see the jack area better. I should have taken a better pic of the janky jack-hole, but I guess I want to keep smoothing it out better.

The jack plate I'm using is a telecaster style like this one, so it sits in the hole a little bit.

There really isn't much woodworking left to do really. I guess I need to drill and install the thread sleeves for the cavity covers. I'll need to cut the nut slot, too. I think that's probably it for woodworking (not counting endless sanding).

Tomorrow will be warmer I think, and though I'll watch the big game it doesn't start 'til 4:30ish (Mountain).
I want to at least install the frets tomorrow, and we'll see if there is time and motivation to level, crown and polish them up.

If all that gets done, the bass will be ready for sanding and finish work. I can start to see over the hill to the finish line now. There's still a lot of work left to do, but a lot of the hard parts are over with.

 

[TFM94]

I made this truss rod cover out of ebony. It's ok I guess. I'm not sure I like it - the roundness sort of doesn't go with the angular gestalt of the headstock. I may make some other ones and see how they look. If I had to go with it, it would probably be fine, but maybe I can do better.

That trussrod cover ain't so bad. I like the stealthy black-on-black look. If you want it to fit the headstock shape better, you could just angle the end of the TR cover parallel to the headstock end.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

What if instead of rounded the end of the truss rod cover was angled to match the end of the headstock?

 

[RichterScale]

I made this truss rod cover out of ebony. It's ok I guess. I'm not sure I like it - the roundness sort of doesn't go with the angular gestalt of the headstock. I may make some other ones and see how they look.

I like it.
But you can cut a bunch from paper or card stock for a quick and easy way to try other shapes.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Spade bits always make a mess for me.

+1 to angling the end of the truss rod cover to match the headstock. Right now it almost looks like the cover is an extension of the fingerboard; if it were exactly the same width, it would enhance that.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Possibly a dumb idea, but basically taking the angled parts of the headstock shape, reduced.

 

[dmarino]

No, that's a good idea - probably what I should've done in the first place

 

[dmarino]

It was a good day in the shop. Spent a long time in there getting the fretting work done.

First, another coat of Minwax Tung Oil Finish on the test square. It's starting to build after about 4 coats. We'll see how many it takes to start getting good and glossy. I've hit it lightly with 400 grit a couple times before adding a coat.
I also threw a little on the covers to see the curl light up, but those still need sanding and drilling before I can really apply the finish.

On to fretting. I've been putting this off for a long time. I don't think I've ever waited this long in the build process to do it before. I touched up and deepened the slots, then chamfered them a little with the triangle file.

Installed the frets with a tiny bit of #10 CA wicked in there and the fretting hammer. I'm using wide/tall stew-mac fretwire. Set up the neck with a tiny bit of relief, marked and leveled the frets.

I crowned and polished these up. I didn't get a lot of in-process pics, since I was grinding away for a couple hours with the bluetooth speaker booming away.
I use micro-mesh pads to do the final polish.

Cleaned up and hit it with a little lemon oil to see what it's looking like. Very nice! I'm quite pleased with the results and also happy to be done with this fretwork.

There is a prodigious amount of finish sanding in my near future... not the most fun part but it's sweet when that first coat of oil goes on. Maybe next weekend.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

That test square would make a nice thing to cut your truss rod cover from, material & look-wise. Admittedly a very different look than the ebony.

 

[deff]

That test square would make a nice thing to cut your truss rod cover from, material & look-wise. Admittedly a very different look than the ebony.

+1 on that. Contrast on the ebony for the TRC and mimicking the HS shape would look cool.

 

[dmarino]

I will probably at least make one out of redwood to look at and compare. I think the contrast would be nice to tie the look together with the body. But, on the other hand - having the fretboard and the headstock all match has always been a look I liked.
Also the rounded cover is growing on me. There are curves between the end of the fretboard and the points on the ears of the headstock and it does all kind of go together, after a fashion.
There is still time to try things and make a final call