Thread: Bass body WIP

A lot of work over the last week but not much to show from the pictures. I started shaping the top with a combination of rasps, files, planes, scrapers and spoke shaves. The hard maple was fantastic to shape and conversely the punky spalting was woeful. I tried very hard to keep things level and found myself at times chasing my tail. I refrained from adding super glue to the spalting as I'm worried about the glue showing up with a start finishing. It showed up quite clearly when I tested this out on a sample cut off. I could just cover the whole guitar again with superglue... I don't know. Something to think about I guess.


Top basic shape:






For the underside I used a jack plane with a curved blade, slowly extending the blade until I it reached the join in the centre. This worked extremely well.


Underside basic shape:






I then moved onto sanding. Man do I hate sanding. I am so used to getting a beautiful glossy surface from hand planes that I rarely have to do any sanding at all. For this project it was a requirement as I needed to tame the spalting and boy has it taken some effort.


Here it is so far:



The back after using the edge of a ROS.



The punky spalting is so delicate that I think I'm going to have to use superglue to stabilise one more time so I sand the body to a perfectly level state. At the moment the slightest touch with the sandpaper and I end up taking more of the spalting away. :cry It's that or I stabilise the punky parts with hard shellac, tidy those bits up and then keep layering the shellac until have a level surface.


Thanks for looking.




Regards,


Denim.

Hi, Looking very nice. I have read somewhere that spalted maple was difficult to work with and although I really like the look of it, I don't think I will try using it. Anyhow good luck with it !!!

Thanks for the kind words ajileguitar. Honestly, if I'd kept things together with regular applications of superglue I wouldn't have any trouble. This is a new process for me and the next spalted item I make will come out much better.


A little more progress this evening. I thought I'd fit the neck while I'm waiting for the superglue to arrive from Stewmac.


I thought I'd take advantage of the existing holes in the neck, so I found 4 screws that had the same thread as the neck screws and inserted them into the screw holes.





I then cut the heads off with a small pair of bolt cutters, cleaned up and inserted the cut end into the neck screw holes.





Inserting the neck into the neck pocket I gently pressed down to create an imprint of where the screw holes should line up.





I then drilled the holes in the drill press after making a small curved block to sit under the screw holes so I don't get any tear out from the drill bit.





A nice fit.










Regards,


Denim.

Looks pretty good with the neck on. I'm looking forward to seeing that body with a finish on it.

Originally Posted by Denim

A lot of work over the last week but not much to show from the pictures. I started shaping the top with a combination of rasps, files, planes, scrapers and spoke shaves. The hard maple was fantastic to shape and conversely the punky spalting was woeful. I tried very hard to keep things level and found myself at times chasing my tail. I refrained from adding super glue to the spalting as I'm worried about the glue showing up with a start finishing. It showed up quite clearly when I tested this out on a sample cut off. I could just cover the whole guitar again with superglue... I don't know. Something to think about I guess.


Top basic shape:






For the underside I used a jack plane with a curved blade, slowly extending the blade until I it reached the join in the centre. This worked extremely well.


Underside basic shape:






I then moved onto sanding. Man do I hate sanding. I am so used to getting a beautiful glossy surface from hand planes that I rarely have to do any sanding at all. For this project it was a requirement as I needed to tame the spalting and boy has it taken some effort.


Here it is so far:



The back after using the edge of a ROS.



The punky spalting is so delicate that I think I'm going to have to use superglue to stabilise one more time so I sand the body to a perfectly level state. At the moment the slightest touch with the sandpaper and I end up taking more of the spalting away. :cry It's that or I stabilise the punky parts with hard shellac, tidy those bits up and then keep layering the shellac until have a level surface.


Thanks for looking.




Regards,


Denim.

G'day Denim,

As an alternative to superglue you can use epoxy resin thinned with xylene. It should penetrate deeper and give you the firmer surface you need to work the spalting cleanly. Ring ATL composites (they are at Wacol) and discuss your problem. They may even have a proprietry product for your circumstance.

Cheers Timboz

Thanks for the info Timboz. I'll look it up, although the superglue has been very good but a little more penetration would be nice.

A little more progress on the bass. Delays in posting were due to being sick for a few weeks. I didn't want to touch this project while I was sick just in case I did something irreversible.


So, after while sanding and touching up, sanding, touching up I finally got a nice level surface. This took most of the time to complete.





I then moved to shaping the sides and the back edge. I spent quite a lot of time contemplating how to work the drop top into the sides. I finally decided to curve the sides and round the sides to the back and leave a sharp defined edge where the sides meet the spalting. I'm really happy with how it came out.











I then flipped the body over and re-routed the electronics cavity. Next stop, the final routing of the pot depth and more sanding.


Denim.

It's really starting to take shape now. Nice work, Denim.

First stage in finishing the body was to fill the pores. I looked at a few options and finally settled on sealing the wood with shellac and then rubbing the surface back with Tripoli powder from Ubeaut and a french polish rubber (See technique here). I was going to move on to polywipe after this but I was curious to see what the surface would look with another coat of shellac.


You can see below the body has been finished with one layer of shellac. The electronics cover is how the body looked after the filler stage.







I think I'll continue with the french polishing. I'm only new to it, I've found it a little hard on the arm but the results are really exciting!


Denim.

Well, finally got the body finished although I'm still fitting the hardware. The pre-amp needs to be wired up and I'm still trying to work out whether the chrome knobs should stay or buy some black aluminium ones. I fitted the old neck to check the balance and location of the strap pins. So here's a couple photos of the finish and the neck fitted. BTW the balance is perfect! I was very surprised and I'm extremely happy. Can't wait to finish the neck now and start playing the beauty.











Thank everyone for their advice and encouragement.


Denim.

You've done it proud. Very nice job.

Looking good Denim!

I know this post is no longer active but I just wanted to say I very much enjoyed your post as I am about to start building my own bass body. I will be using Tassie Blackwood and have been thinking it through for weeks.
So now I feel better prepared! cheers.