Bass refurb

martinedwards

my 13 year old has expressed an interest in playing bass.

he's lefty, so he'll be wanting a lefty bass then....

so I picked one up for a fiver.

this is how it arrived.........

it needs a little work.....




it's been defretted.... well, it's had all the frets ripped out.....



there are a few dings in the paintwork and the knobs are broken off.

so, lets start by refretting shall we?





More to follow.....

endacl

Are you using a hammer or a press on those frets?

martinedwards

I used a block of wood and a hammer.

I've only had bad experienced hammering frets directly with a metal hammer......

I thought about sanding the face of the fretboard a lot to get rid of some of the chips, but I couldn't be bothered.

Chances are the kid'll give up after 15 mins, so I'll end up either flipping it on or learning to play lefty.....

endacl

martinedwards wrote: »

I used a block of wood and a hammer.

I've only had bad experienced hammering frets directly with a metal hammer......

I thought about sanding the face of the fretboard a lot to get rid of some of the chips, but I couldn't be bothered.

Chances are the kid'll give up after 15 mins, so I'll end up either flipping it on or learning to play lefty.....

I use a small vinyl hammer. Almost weightless. Same as the one that Stewmac sell. I made a jiggity jig before with a shaped caul that fits a drill press. Just the job if you've to get a whole neckfull 'almost right'. Still need the hammer to finish seating them properly though.

martinedwards

I have the stewmac caul for the drill press, unfortunately, since I left work, I don't have a drill press any more!

endacl

martinedwards wrote: »

I have the stewmac caul for the drill press, unfortunately, since I left work, I don't have a drill press any more!

I picked up one of the Aldi/Lidl jobs just for the project. A bit crap as a drill press, but perfect for a fret press. Keep your eye out for the next time they're in. The caul I made from Sugru attached to a small block of rosewood. That Sugru stuff is amazing. You can use the fretboard itself to shape it exactly to radius. I've mentioned the stuff so often here on various forums that I'll probably get called out for schilling!



http://sugru.com/

martinedwards

any dings were only paint deep, so I sanded them out and then roughened the whole surface to give key when painting.

then hung it ip on the kid's swing to spray.

thankfully Saturday was really warm & bright here.....



36 hours to dry and the finish is really nice after 6 coats so I'm not going to bother buffing it out. its for a 13 year old after all.......

the pickups cover were a little discoloured so I removed them and gave them a little rub on fine wet & dry to take the outer .1mm off and leave them white & shiny again...

I replaced the pots because the shafts were broken off.

the new pots were slightly bigger so I had to take a chisel to the body to open out the cavity slightly, still, all hidden by the pick guard.....

looking well!

Rigsby

Good work Martin. Looks great.

Can I be first in line to buy, if your lad loses interest ?

martinedwards

good greif, not another lefty weirdo!!??

Rigsby

martinedwards wrote: »

good greif, not another lefty weirdo!!??

Sorry ! No ! Forgot it was a leftie. :P

martinedwards

whew!

OK folks, keep moving, nothing to see here.....

(I think we got away with it.....)

endacl

martinedwards wrote: »

whew!

OK folks, keep moving, nothing to see here.....

(I think we got away with it.....)

Invert all the pics Martin. Then go back and edit out any references to the word 'left'. Nobody ever needs to know...

She's looking great.

martinedwards

Now I need some strings....

they're ordered from ebayland......



then a setup and we're good to go.

and yes, I CAN play a lefty upside down......

Rigsby

endacl wrote: »

She's looking great.

She sure is !! :cool:

Passenger

Does the young fella appreciate all your effort to make him his first Bass? Looking tasty so far anyway. Did you remove the bridge when painting it?

martinedwards

Bridge? yup, everything came off.

and I'm not really MAKING him a bass, just a refurb.

the 15 yearold has a Classical that I put a new top on and a tenor banjo that I put a new neck on to bring it up from mando sized, and an electric cello that I built from scratch, so this isn't a big job!

c'mon postie, where are those strings????????