finishing up a jazz bass project..

Doc_Savage

hi lads,
just thought i'd fill you all in on a little jazz bass project i've been doing on and off for the past two months.

i bought a jazz bass for not a lo because it was de-fretted and here were a few nicks and bangs in be paint on the body..

i wanted to re-fret it and repaint the body. Well thats what it was supposed to start out as...i had he "brilliant idea" of puting leds in as the fret markers. i watched a few of the online videos where people remove the fretboard with a thin knife and an iron, looks easy said i! well it wasn't... whatever they filled the old fret slots with rotted the wood and every time i came to a fret slot the fingerboard snapped. so i needed a nice replacement from stewmac.

once that arrived i put a channel up the middle of the back of the fretboard and inserted my wiring loom. glued down the board and as has been recommended here many times used tung oil to finish the neck.

the body was stripped and repainted, using mtn paints and car laquer. came out pretty good.

now i have to clean all the old hardware and wire and assemble! should be finished over the weekend.

i'll put up some pics to show you how it came out when it's all finished.

All i wanna say here is that i've picked up a lot of the ricks i used by reading threads on this forum and everyone that posts help will end up helping someone if they dont help the original poster.

oh and there are no visible body modifications necessary to accommodate the electronics for the leds!:pac:

so thanks i guess!

bayles

Hey Doc

Any chance you could give me a bit more info on your method of respraying your guitar . I am making enquiries for a friend of mine , i have a thread up here looking for guys who do it but i would be interested in trying it out myself if its handy enough . What exactly did you use .

Cheers

Doc_Savage

i used car primer, Mtn colour (from all city in temple bar) and car laquer, then i polished it with stewmac's colourtone polishes.

sanding flat with wet and dry between every coat, just to keep it nice and flat!

made a little fake neck up so i could hang up the body and spray everywhere!

i'll put up some pics in a minute...

Doc_Savage

the LED's don't really photograph that well in the daylight, the first volume knob is pulled up to turn on all the LED's and the second volume knob is pulled to change it to follow how you play... ie. only the LEDs on depressed frets will light up!








and with the LEDS on!

bayles

Hey Doc

Thanks for all the info , these guys in all city have they got a range of coulours and can you recommend any type of laquer . I take it you already had an air gun to apply this stuff .

Doc_Savage

No air gun was used, it was all rattle cans...
All you'll need to do is to practice on a scrap of wood first and keep the head of the can moving when you're spraying, apply paint four or five times very lightly at twenty minute intervals and that counts as a coat, leave it for a few hours and flatten it with wet and dry sandpaper. Allow it to harden a bit and apply another coat. Patience is the key here, you're not looking for a wet covering just a uniform coat. Then I polished it when I ran out of paint. One can of primer one can of colour and two cans of laquer were all that I used. The primer was car primer and the laquer was car laquer, they were all acrylic based. I think the car products are made by hi-coat. And most car polishes could be used to finish it up!

I like the mtn paints for colour as they come in some really nice shades. The photos make my bass look like its arctic white but its actually more like an aged white. Looks good in the flesh anyway!

bayles

Cheers mate

I will forward this link onto my mate and let him have a read . Im half thinking of doing a bass project for myself , been looking at a few sites for bodys and necks so this is all handy to know .

Regards

Doc_Savage

fretting it was the biggest challenge and although i'm happy with the job i did i still feel it'll keep getting better and better each time i do something!

next time there'll be more lights and more crazy wiring!!

if you want any more info then just PM me.. i'll get back to you!:D