Manton Customs

Thank you very much, glad you’re enjoying the bass! 😁

Much appreciated, thank you! 😃

Curved channel, straight rod, some compression around the anchor. 😃

They deliver outside that range too, but just charge a bit more at £99 plus vat. Obviously a lot more than a standard courier at that price, but worth it if it’s a vintage or valuable instrument.

Routing Carbon, truss rod and truss rod filler strip in

The original rod was on the short side yes, the new one is longer and will extend further in the neck. A truss rod doesn’t have to be the full length of the neck, but close to it is good.

Sure, will post some pics as I go 😃

Great to see the finished bass! Hope you have plenty of fun with it

You’ve got two options- 1 - Strip the dye again, this time use a water based dye to reapply. This shouldn’t have the same problem as the base of the dye is different to the base of your oil top coat. 2 - Develop your spray skills and get a few cans of clear nitrocellulose. This would also work fine if you mist on the first couple of coats. It’s easier than it seems, especially if you go for a satin or matte. Obviously wear a mask if you do this. Option one may be tricky as the wood has been previously oiled, which can sink in to the pores a bit. This will give a blotchy result if you don’t remove it all throughly. With either option it’s important to test your finishing procedure (all steps) first on a piece of scrap. It is always worth doing this and will save a lot of time in the long run.

Unless you have dedicated spray room and equipment, you probably won’t find a suitable Poly. This would be done with a 2k clear with tint added to it. You should be able to spray Nitro over the top of the existing finish, but it depends what type of Poly it was sprayed with in the first place. People use the word for a lot of different finishes. If it was a catalysed 2k finish as is used on mass produced guitars then you should be fine. You can spray tinted nitro over it after first sanding it with 600 grit to give the finish a key. Also make sure you throughly wipe down and degrease the surface first. Then once your tint is sprayed, follow up with clear nitro to protect the tint. You’ll need enough clear to be able to completely level sand and buff afterwards without breaking through into your tinted coats… So it’s not a 5 minute job! Nitro over the type of Poly(ester) you usually find on bodies works well and is what the majority of the new Fender nitro finishes are. If you do go ahead…spraying a tinted finish takes practice to get it even. So maybe do some practice goes on card first.

That looks a lot like Utera basses logo. Guessing Hipshot made them some with their logo on perhaps?

I’d try lifting it out first which often works. Using a scalpel I would score around any areas of the nut which may have finish joining (edges and headstock side). Also pay special attention to scoring the edge where the repair was. Typically rosewood fender necks have the nut installed after finish, so should be reasonably safe, but you can’t be too careful! Then I would get some pincers/fret pullers on it. Grip it from above and try to wiggle it towards the headstock and back (towards fretboard). Usually there isn’t much glue holding them in place and it isn’t very resistant to flexing/movement. If that doesn’t work you’ll need to collapse the nut as mentioned above and remove it in pieces using whatever tools you’re comfortable with…obviously don’t tap or put pressure towards either bass or treble direction or you’ll pop the binding off. Here’s one of my videos (around 2:00) where I did something similar on a neck without binding. As you have binding at the edges you won’t be able to extend the slot used to collapse the nut all the way down, but it should still be enough. Obviously fitting the new nut is a little more challenging too, as you’ll want it to drop in from above and fit nice and tightly.

Glad it’s going well…good luck with the rest of the project 😃