Andyjr1515

^ This, @Happy Jack Not entirely sure why the cavities were different - especially as it was the one with the pre-amp and battery (and, typically, the cover) that was the shorter one. The two bodies may have been from different years (the donor is a 1991 model but there's no way of knowing what year the other body is) so maybe just a random design change as it evolved. Happily, the neck pocket and bolt holes were smack on so no adjustment was needed there at all (the neck also came from the scrap body)

The irony is that the one with the battery compartment incorporated - which was the one that had the hatch - was the shorter one! Yes...quite...

Thanks folks for your very kind remarks. Credit also to the concept - which is entirely @TheGreek 's And talking of @TheGreek, I'll add this here because otherwise I am bound to forget to tell him! The hatch is fixed with magnets: Shamelessly stealing from, I think, @Jabba_the_gut , there is a slight dip cut in the rebate. So to open, just press here and it will pop up the other side: Saves getting the kitchen knife out... Just waiting the replacement barrel jack socket and this will be shipped back to Mick

That's coming on very nicely indeed! Great work.

That's beautiful. It has so many things I like about it... Bravo!

Just something that happens sometimes. When you fret strings at the dusty end , you are basically bending them to the equivalent of the action height. Think what the pitch of a bass string does if you bend it 2 or 3 mm So all the intonation drop back distance of each of the saddles from scale length is doing, is compensating for them sharpening as you fret down. The amount each string sharpens depends on the action height, the string tension, string material and no doubt other stuff. Usually, the G sharpens the least and so the saddle usually ends up not much more than a mm past the scale length. The thicker strings usually sharpen more so tend to have to drop the saddles back more. But if, eg, you have a particularly high tension G and a low tension D, then that may end up the other way round. So it just depends. Just looked at the Nanyo save I've just finished for @TheGreek - and that's just like that... the D is forward from the G and the E is forward from the A

The first full scratch-build is a very special moment. You've done it well

Well - other than I'm going to recommend to @TheGreek that I order a replacement barrel jack for it (it works - but it crackles when you really start rocking!), it's finished. Hatch fitted and magnets installed; frets polished; fretboard cleaned and oiled; bridge fitted; bass set up; sound check completed Here it is:

By the way, I've used this type of decal recently. They are fantastic and much better than the traditional waterslide decal...but it can be a bit of a shock how gossamer thin they are. Do R&F send a spare? The guys I bought off do and if so, it's worth trying it out first - I tried my spare one out on the kitchen worktop to the evident delight of MrsAndyjr1515. I found that the technique was subtly different to the normal 'airfix' type. With 'airfix' I got into the habit of sliding the decal off the backing paper. This does not work with these newer type. With these it's more about sliding the paper off the decal. I found the easiest was to lightly hold the one end in position, then smoothly pull the backing from the other side, continuing to hold the other end in place and so keeping the decal under tension. Same with straightening wrinkles - gently pulling the wrinkle out from the edges, again keeping the decal under tension. That said, I was delighted with the results and would certainly favour this type over the older type for future projects.

Ah - Ok. In which case your original plan is a good one

Lovely job

Hi Personally, I would go simpler, assuming it's a normal decal and that it doesn't specifically exclude tru-oil (which would be very surprising - tru-oil is exceptionally unreactive)... If I was using Tru-oil for the neck, personally I would also use tru-oil for the headstock too. It will take a number of coats to soak into the wood and start to build to a shine, but once that's done, the decal should adhere perfectly well. Once the decal is on and dried, a few new coats of tru-oil, allowed to dry between each coat, will seal the decal perfectly well.

Excellent stuff, @Jabba_the_gut

Have to yet do the final fit, but I reckon mission accomplished, @TheGreek ?

Don't get too excited - the bridge isn't fixed yet and I haven't started on the back cover or the frets tidy-up, but with most of the rest done, thought it was worth a quick mock-up. I know I say this about all of @TheGreek 's builds and saves, but this is one of my favourites :

Something I was aware of was how narrow the headstock is on the Nanyo. So how was that going to work ref string runs? Well, you live and learn... A quick internet search revealed the answer - which I'm sure many of you already knew, but I didn't: Yup - two of the tuners are fitted upside down and strung from the other side. Well, I'm not going to steal THAT idea And the neck headstock screw holes confirmed this. This is how it looks from the back: And - for good measure - from the front: So a couple of side issues occupied my thoughts for a while. First - what to do with the donor body now a big chunk of wood has been taken off to repair the lower horn issue and all the electrics and remaining hardware is now off: Second issue is the replacement control cover. Mick had asked me to try to match the colour of the new body as far as I could rather than going with a contrasting colour. Closest I had in my bits pile was some mahogany sheeting. Close but still a bit dark once the finish is on (eg the dampened patches here): Hmmm....I wonder where I could get some wood of the same species? Altogether now, Pantomime style: "IT'S BEEEEEHIND YOU!!!!! So one of my jobs this morning is seeing if I can take a 3mm hatch-sized slice off the donor body on my modest but reasonably accurate bandsaw

Yes - I agree with @BassBunny Can be interesting to experiment with different pickup heights for the two - you may well find a sweet spot combination of heights that suits your style and rig.

After cleaning a few decades of crud off them, I installed the pickups. Certainly some mojo with that string rub! Then the transfer of the main circuits followed be a tap test to make sure it was still all working: Then remember the template I took before veneering? Well - as it happens, that was only useful for finding the bridge earth hole - the bridge off the donor is a different type...a 5 screw one: So, once the neck and the machine heads are on, I'll recheck the position of the bridge and install from fresh. But knowing where the bridge earth hole is important - and, trust me, you would never find it without the paper template! Nowadays, I solder the earth wire to a piece of sticky-backed copper tape for good electrical contact: So, all being well, neck, tuners and bridge will be fitted tomorrow

Came back from Scotland with a stinker of a cold. Good news is that it gives me the perfect excuse to sit in the spare room tinkering with stuff. The reconditioned body came without screw inserts so I tapped them out of the donor body and cleaned them up with some dampened micro-mesh cloth. In spite of the cold, I could still smell strong nicotine off these tiny bits of metal. Makes you remember what pubs and clubs used to be like! This afternoon I will probably transfer the electrics. Using a tap test, I've checked it all works and it seems OK. There are quite a few wires you have to unsolder and so one of the most essential things is to take a photo and a note of which wires go where. No matter how confident you are of remembering...

The neck is drying after its penultimate light-slurry-and-buff. In the meantime, I have copper shielded the control chamber ahead of transferring the electronics: The electronics and cover are planned to come from the donor body. And there was a little surprise waiting: Pity in a way because this one has the SGC Nanyo stuff on it but, I have a number of wood plates in my bag of bits that I can thickness and cut to shape. I'll consult with Mick what wood he wants - including maybe this nice piece of (I think) cocobolo that would explode with colour depth once it was sanded and buffed up:

Back from a week in the Scottish Highlands. 7 hour drive back but the first thing that I saw, despite being completely kn******d, when I opened the door was @TheGreek 's bass and it made me smile Today, I've been stripping back the test stain and doing the full stain on the neck, followed by a couple of coats of Danish Oil. It'll take a couple more to fully seal the wood and the stain and then I will 'satin' it with a very light slurry-and-buff. Then it should be just a case of transferring the electrics, polishing up the frets and reassemble. The plan was to stain the neck to a similar depth of colour of the unstained wood body with a colour tone different but complimentary to the top and back. In that the final finishing will soften everything a touch and the neck will end up the same satin look as the body, I'm quite chuffed with this. What I'm particularly pleased with is that - certainly in real life - it looks more like a well cared-for original rather than a full blown contemporary makeover. Excepting last minute surprises, ETA is that it should be all sorted before the end of this coming week.

Beautiful job. I have a soft spot for all things Westone Thunder

If you want to see the lines clearly, then it probably does want to be either white plastic as @Manton Customs suggests or a very light veneer such as maple. Standard veneer is generally 0.6mm and should either slot in straight away or after a very light sanding. How I personally do it is: - Cut the pieces oversize, with the grain parallel to the slot - When the glue is fully set, trim down, still leaving a little oversize, with a single edge razor or very sharp scalpel / modelling knife, starting at the middle and cutting towards each edge so that any grain splits lead the blade away from the fretboard. - Sand flush along the direction of the slot with fine paper c 240 grit using a sanding block - Once the inserts are flush, then sand along the length of the fretboard with the same grade to remove any crossgrain sanding marks before progressing down the grades of paper fineness, again using a sanding block and always along the length of the fretboard

If the pickups have the normal high-density foam under them, two things can happen: - the foam can lose its spring - the foam can stick a bit to the bottom of the chamber or pickup or sometimes the chamber is a touch tight Either way, take all the screws out, then rock the cover back and forwards or side to side. Then do the same while trying to lift. It should gradually ease free. I've also used the windscreen sucker off my old sat nav holder in the past...

Beautiful bass. Top drawer!