jbybj, that turned out beautifully! I'm getting antsy to start on mine.
Which kind of tung oil? Straight tung oil or self polymerizing? Did you use any grain filler? I don't know if you read the link I posted earlier in the thread; are you concerned with the purpleheart browning with UV exposure over time?
Thanks for that detail shot of the string relief on the throat of the neck; I've thought about doing the same thing and it is good to see how little material needs to be removed.
What size radius block did you use, both length of block and radius? I'm hopeful to do the same with mine.
I'm all stoked now, your work is very inspiring. Going to be tough getting any more (paying) work done tonight...
=wr=
The first tung oil I bought at my local hardware store was a tung oil/polyeurethane blend. It got kind of goopy and thick, and I couldn't find that blend again, so I have been using straight tung oil. The last coat though I was able to salvage a little of the poly blend and it seemed to darken it up a bit. Grain filler?, I'm not that patient, I just want to play them.............
I don't think the bass will be spending much time in the sun, but it is not in my nature to spend much time or effort to keep the wood from doing what comes naturally.
The radius block is the longer one that stewmac sells, 8" long I think, and I choose the 12" radius, just because. My luthier told me to only use the radius block after the fretboard had been properly leveled, with a big long heavy steel rod, (stewmac sells those too) but common sense told me, that if I was careful, and lucky, and the neck wasn't too f'd up, that I should be successful with just a radius block. Apparently all those conditions were met.
Hello 49sfine,
The sidejack is pretty straightforward. Switchcraft, allparts, and proline all make one. It's a threaded cylinder with a lip at one end and the leads on the other. Drill a hole, (one bit down from 1/2"), slide it in, tighten the nut from inside the control cavity and solder away.
The neck was the worst I've ever seen from Wish. There was a strip along the mahogany, from about the third to the 12th fret, 1/2" wide, that had the texture of 60 grit sandpaper, very odd, and painful. The other big issue was the ledge, an almost 90 degree shelf, about 2-3 inches long, on the bottom of the neck near the join to the body, also very uncomfortable, even though I rarely play up there. Oh yeah, I also had to cut the A and D slots on the nut, as Wish had forgotten to.
I wouldn't worry about the fret markers, having a nicely shaped fretboard is most important. I had the exact fear with my Scarab that I took to the luthier for leveling. Somehow they didn't poke through, and he took off a fair amount of wood. I would assume that if one did poke through, there is no reason why it couldn't be filed and sanded to be flush, and feel comfortable to the finger. It would be on the edge anyway so string contact is unlikely. But I've never had to find out, let me know how it goes.
