Andyjr1515

Yes - it will be interesting. If the neck really does have that degree of bow and the trussrod was fitted the right way round and now has no tension (but I've learnt to never make assumptions until the board is off) then it is probably cause and effect. A trussrod is designed to counteract the string tension. If it is given the additional job of straightening a very bowed neck as well, then it is likely to fail. If it turns out that, once the board is off and the rod is out, the neck does still have that same degree of bow, then there are a number of things that can usually be done. Plane-ing the top surface flat again would normally be the first thing to consider in those circumstances so that, with the new rod installed but not tensioned, the neck and fretboard should be as near as makes no difference flat.

Many thanks to @Aidan63 for putting my name forward I'm one of many 'Basschatters willing to help other Basschatters' - and there are some very skilled folks amongst them - but Aidan is clearly in cahoots with MrsAndyjr1515 in her objective to keep me down in the cellar for as long as humanly possible. @evan47 did indeed get in touch and we have had a pm dialogue over the last week or so to talk through the issue, the potential remedies and risks. And this morning the neck arrived. And it's a thing of beauty. But it does have serious problems. The obvious one is the one we know - the trussrod has snapped: And that the neck is bowed even without the strings on: In fact, it's bowed a lot! Measured against my levelling beam, a full 2mm at the centre: @evan47 has a bass he can still use and so this will be very much an 'in between other stuff'. I probably won't start the fretboard removal until the weekend, but needed to at least confirm that the board is going to be removable. And so out comes my travel iron - ideal for the job - to do a test to see if the glue will soften with reasonable levels of heat: After about 10 minutes, I pressed a single-edged razor against the fretboard join to see if the glue had softened enough. Success: So we know it is going to be possible to remove the board. But before that, I will need to do something the other end. The veneer that has been used on the headstock matches the body and is beautiful. But it curves up and is bonded to the fretboard. As such, I am going to need to use a razor saw at the front of the nut spacer slot to cut down so that I can release the board without lifting the short piece of fretboard running up to the headstock and glued to its veneer: Once the board is off, we will be able to see what's going on and how best to fix it. With that apparent set-bow, it will need more than just replacing the trussrod.

OK - onto the final knockings, I think @fleabag has asked me if I can replicate a decal that he designed for the last time he threw down the gauntlet. Anyone remember this? I still wake up from time to time in a hot sweat about that challenge of challenges! Anyway, against all odds, I have found the original email to who did the decal for me so, all being well, that will be with me soon. Timing could be spot on because this is now at the 'fully harden before final polish' stage - another way of saying it will go into a cupboard for a couple of weeks. Here it is:

There are some jobs that folks think must take a long time - say, carving a neck - and that are actually very quick. Then there are others.... And so, a happy full afternoon just fitting the trussrod - and, if you remember the slot was already routed! But this has to have a recess for the spoke-wheel chiselled and, as with all truss rods, it is aiming for a good tight fit where no part of the rod is above the top surface that the fretboard will be glued to. Anyway, it's done: The slot in the rosewood will be opened up properly to look like it's meant to be there and to allow full swing of the adjusting rod once the board has been glued on, but it's easier to remove some of the bulk before that happens: Final job before the board gets glued on is routing the neck blank to final thickness, including the taper from nut to heel. All being well, that will be tomorrow's job And also soonish, I need to be ordering the fretwire. The plan is to match, as best as can be done, the material and size/shape of the fretwire used in a Wal. Which means that I have to first find out what those details might be

I've only just started the flattening process on the headstock, but I have done a couple more flattening rounds on the main neck area. Basically, when I flatten the coats(wet sand to take out the ridges down to the bottom of the dips and valleys), I have to be making sure it is only previous varnish levels I'm removing and not wood - with black, even the slightest catch will show as a light mark. And so I apply 3-4 coats, left to fully dry in between each, to start with and only then start the flattening and recoating stages. I reckon the neck length itself is 2-3 flatten-and-recoat stages away from being OK. With the back of the headstock, it's probably still 5 cycles to go :

It's not guaranteed to be...but it is usually the jack socket. If it is on the edge of not OK, then it may well immediately reconnect but the momentary break would have the same effect as if you pulled the lead out with the volumes up - a loud pop.

And heel fit done. It's actually one of the more challenging things. The pocket is a very specific shape, it is tapered and the neck needs to be straight to the body. Getting two of those three right is somewhat of a challenge. Getting all three right takes faith, hope and the charity of the gods. It pays to pray to all denominations, modern and ancient, religious and pagan while measuring and checking everything 100-200 times. Because if all three don't come right first time, there will be a gap. And so, two out of three OK - shape is right and taper is right: And it's straight!!!! Three out of three!!!! Starting to look more like a neck now:

Excellent Thanks for the update

I'd forgotten how much easier it is to cut fret slots in rosewood than ebony! The latter is more like a workout. This was a simple pleasure All 20 done. And yes - sunny in Derbyshire...who'd have thought...

Ahah! You live and learn

Fretboard blank is now radiused. It gets 90% there using the G&W router jig (this is after I'd hoovered up the sahara's worth of dust ) : Then some sanding with a standard radius block to remove the router lines: Note the all important collection of sanding dust! This is going to make a nice fretboard:

Oh - that's a b****r. I wonder what those are designed for then? Great link - didn't realise they did non-standard diameter ones. Thanks

OK - the rosewood is here. Lovely piece of AAA grade from David Dyke: And @funkle and I have decided to go for wheel adjustment trussrod cut into the neck heel itself so that he doesn't have to modify bodies or pickguards if he moves the neck to other bass bodies: And most importantly, @fleabag's neck is at the 'coat and wait to dry' stage; an exciting potential project for @Happy Jack is still at the early 'sketches and thinking' stages - and so there should be nothing stopping me from getting my lazy a*** (***=ndy) off the sofa and back down into the cellar. Which is also an idea that MrsAndyjr1515 fully supports. Next jobs, radiusing the board and cutting the fret slots

Generally, 30ml will easily do a bass

Yes - that is good too (probably technically better but the Quink, for black, is absolutely fine). When it comes to reds, though, I do tend to use calligraphy ink. With the standard fountain pen inks, it depends on the maker, but the purples tend to be the least colour-fast. The good thing is that there are fountain pen fanatics who do very comprehensive colour fastness tests of scores of available ink makes and colours. If it fades on paper, it is likely to fade on timber. The Quink range is actually very limited for colours - their black is good, but I use Diamine for the general colours, mainly because of the vast range of colours. Because the colour and type of timber significantly affects the finished colour, having such a wide range can help get exactly the right colour or mix of colours (and they are easy to mix ).

Well, there are two phrases that come to mind: "Stick with what you know!" But if you do that, you will never progress and "Nothing ventured, nothing gained!" So I'm pleased I tried the Fiebings, and can see why folks would like it for certain jobs...but it's not quite the straightforward spirit stain that I thought it was. There's another element in there and that, for this particular job (or yes maybe, @Fishman , the wood), is what gave me the issues. This is after just the first coat of the Quink. And I know that I can add as many more coats as I like - and it will fully dry. And I know it will take varnish just as well as unstained wood. Result!

Was that also done in with Fiebings? I'd like it to work, but it was the extra coats that seemed to be the Achilles Heel. The first coat soaked in nicely and seemed to dry just fine. The second coat just sat on top and would mark your hands days later. Anyway - interesting stuff coming up...

Hmmm...but there might be a Plan C I've started the removal. Using single-bladed razor blades as scrapers - and then a proper cabinet scraper - to remove the goop of the main part of the neck allowed me to start sanding without the paper clogging up within seconds. After an hour of sanding, I'm down to 'largely wood' where the black is from the first coat of Fiebings that was properly absorbed into the freshly sanded wood. But to get to fully clean wood will need a fair bit of wood removal. Which is fine - except for the heel where I don't want to lose any of the width. And that got me thinking. Long-term followers of my threads will know that my favourite stain is permanent fountain pen ink. Well, that was discounted on this project because it is generally not thought to be the 'blacker than black' that @fleabag is after. But...well, at least for the heel, worth a try? So here's what Quink does: Looks pretty black to me! And it's fully dry. And it has fully absorbed into the timber even though there is the residual Fiebings there. And I KNOW that polyurethane has no adverse reaction at all to it. For the sake of an afternoon lost if I'm wrong, I'm up for trying it all over...

And.... (drumroll) ...actually, the drummer can go and get a cup of tea. Actually, the drummer can probably go for a short away-break We've found the fatal flaw with Fiebings. When I did the sanding for the extra coats, I did wonder. I was expecting black and dusty on the sandpaper. Instead, it was black and lacquery blobs gumming up the paper almost immediately. More like a coating than a stain. And sure enough - I think that it is, used like this, much more of a coating than a stain. And add polyurethane varnish, it fully softens. And two days later it is still the consistency of warm tar - black and sticky and no sign whatsoever of curing. And for a neck - even if it started to harden - that's no good. It was worth a try, because that was blacker than any 'normal' black stain. But not suitable for this job. So we are back to Plan A, which is that @fleabag will get it sprayed. So, just got to get three coats of warm tar off** and we're away! **Hmmm... better tell the drummer to make his short away-break not that short...

Lovely!

@funkle and I have been PM'ing and come to a mutual conclusion - we're not going to use the Wal fretboard after all! On its own, the heel end being a bit narrower than a standard 'Fenderish' neck pocket isn't a big issue. But when we added up the other factors, it clearly wasn't going to be the best route: - I calipered it and actually it is 4mm narrower. Under a pickguard that is not a problem...but the donor body @funkle is using is probably temporary. And the body he will probably move to won't have a pickguard. - Added to that, the width at the nut of the Wal board is wider than @funkle's ideal. Oh - and at 4mm slimmer at the heel end, it would need to be a narrow-spaced bridge. - And the fretless board, of course is going to need to be fretted anyway. - And..and..and......and so it became quite clear, quite quickly that, actually, a new rosewood board was a better option. So there will be a short delay while I get hold of a blank - but then we'll get steaming ahead again!

Very much so. It's a common problem which is why they sell the specific washers that fit

Yes - you should find that it unscrews completely. You then pop one or two washers over the threaded end and screw it back on.

Those look right to me. Odd description but it is the small outside diameter that is key - much smaller than a standard M5 washer.

I think it has the type of truss rod with a brass nut? There are a number of things that may have happened, but it maybe that the nut has bottomed on the thread of the rod. If so, Fender sell spacer washers (the inside and outside dia's are a bit unusual which is why standard washers are no good. It says something, though, that Fender sell them...) that you pop under the nut to give it a few more turns before bottoming. Worth a try...