During a hiatus in my acoustic build I thought I'd try my hand at 34" scale, bolt-on neck bass. Here's what happened...
Full scale drawing, a book-matched maple top from Surrey Timbers and piece of mahogany donated by a friend.
Mahogany blanks and maple top both prepared and glued together.
Neck cut from a maple board, again from Surrey Timbers, truss rod installed and ebony 'board from Mark glued in place
Neck carved, control cavity and neck pocket routed.
Thought I'd try my hand at binding the body... worked out pretty well.
Dots in... and then it all went wrong... the dots about the 12th are all offset by 1!
Mark's solution worked a treat... routed out between the fret slots of the areas in error and replace the blocks with generous fresh ones using black CA glue. After sanding down and re-cutting the fret slots you'd never know. This probably would only work this well with ebony. Magic!
Crimson Guitars black water-based stain throughout although heavily sanded back on the top. Followed this by multiple coats of Crimson Guitars finishing oil and Renaissance Wax.
And here she is...
Love the bass Herb, nice build. It really is a good fix for the inlays, glad you got it sorted, I bet it felt like nightmare when you realised you had put them in the wrong place. I can just imagine that feeling in the stomach. I think it looks great and I love the headstock shape. A bass or two is on my todo list.
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
yeah - it was sickening... hoorah for Mark eh!
I don't really play bass - you have to think differently don't you. I used cheap hardware thinking I can always upgrade if necessary. But it sounds great to me. Although it has a very slim neck it's quite a challenge for my pudgy little hands 😉
Cheers Herb - I know that feeling very well ? but one thing I have learnt over the years is that there is always something you can do...
That's what I'm here for!
Measure twice, cut once...