Manton Customs

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1494321080' post='3294886'] This sounds more like the frets aren't lifting out of the slots, rather they're just sticking out a little bit. If you run your finger along the edge of the fingerboard it's a bit like a saw, right? If so, it's just that the wood has shrunk slightly, leaving the fret ends prominent. An easy job for any decent repair shop, then it most likely won't trouble you ever again. [/quote] Yep, this. it's called fret sprout.

No, it won't affect the tone. Unless the fretboard is also damaged it wouldn't need redoing. It'd be masked off. The binding would also be masked off from any colour coats. The differences between the finishes is a pretty broad subject so I'll leave that one out . Ricks use CV varnish, so if you wanted it as original as possible you'd need someone who has experience spraying that....I don't, Polys, Nitros, Shellacs and oils for me. CV varnish is usually pretty thick, so you might want to try getting a local luthier to give it a wetsand and buff to remove the scratches. This might just do the trick. But there is obviously a risk of burn through, in which case you'd need the respray which you were considering anyway. A neckthrough will be quite expensive to refinish and gloss black is a difficult colour to get right as it'll show every imperfection. Good luck .

[quote name='mark76' timestamp='1491850911' post='3275894'] I'm not surprised rosewoods's been CITEd. It's so ubiquitous (especially on guitars from Far Eastern manufacturers) that I'm surprised it wasn't done years ago. [/quote] It's actually pretty ridiculous, they didn't add the restrictions to protect Indian Rosewood (the Rosewood which 99% of all guitar manufacturers currently use). But it's to protect Brazilian Rosewood and a couple of other rare Rosewoods. So the easy option was to restrict all Rosewoods including the very sustainable IR. The knock on effect of this could be devestating to woods like Ebony. So there will almost certainly be tighter restrictions on Ebony soon also. Indian Rosewood is one of the most sustainable trees out there, grown in huge plantations. It's in literally no danger. Ebony is. Brazilian Rosewood is endangered and has been for years. Thats partly due to us guitar/bass player insisting that the original materials Fender/Gibson/Martin used were best and getting so stuck in the past that we can't see forward. There are other species of Rosewood also but the two above are the ones used most frequently in instruments....just most people stopped using BR years ago. Edit to say also that it's not that difficult to get the required paperwork (in bulk) for companies like Fender. So I'd be surprised if they stopped all together throughout the range

I doubt you'll find one specifically for bass. You could try looking for G&L ASAT plans... but I'm not sure they are any bigger than the guitar version. I use the guitar size, however the scale length is only 30" or 32" on my tele basses. You could of course still use the guitar size with 34" scale, it'll just mean the nut sits further away and effects the balance in a negative way. To be honest I'd think twice before using 34" scale, it'd take some substantial modifications to the body shape to make the bass balance correctly. The G&L ASAT even comes with the option of a metal extender to extend the strap button location where it needs to be. Which is hardly ideal! This one (below) at 30" scale balances perfectly, even with the vintage style tuners, but at 34" it'd neck dive. [url="http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Manton-Customs/media/Echo.png.html"][/url]

The saw cut is most likely for the nut face, just as you describe. A pic would confirm that though. Cutting the nut slot out is not complicated, but can get messy if you aren't careful/experienced. It might be best to get a luthier to do it for you. But the basic idea is to cut a notch for the opposite (headstock) side to the same depth as the one you already have. Then chisel out the middle.

I havent seen that range of paints before, they look nice. Metallics/candies/pearls are quite difficult as you can't sand any imperfections out and you need to dust on the "sparkles" so good luck with that, looks like it'll be fun . You can use the West Systems Epoxy as a grain filler also. I haven't done much with 2K (I use Polys and Nitro) so I can't personally recommend a primer. It's also probably worth saying that I haven't used the west systems with 2k either, though I'm fairly sure it'd be fine. I previously thought you were shooting Nitro for some reason!

Yes, plastic wood is crap. Fill the screw holes with hardwood cocktail sticks to almost flush, but ever slightly below the surface. Then fill the remaining void with West System Epoxy. Don't use superglue as Nitro doesn't like it! For dents just use the epoxy, and apply masking tape over the top of the fill to hold in place. Remove the tape when dry.

Sadly, there is no easy trick to be able to play like your bass heroes....other than practice and practice some more. I'm sure the likes of Mark King could play really well on a crap bass with a poor setup. That's not to say setup is not important...it is. But you may be overlooking the fact that you're already there setup wise...this observation is based on your other threads where you say your luthier has already setup and addressed the frets on your bass. By all means take it to another luthier, but don't expect miracles. I'd also add, there really isn't any way to accurately judge action by watching a video like that, a half MM is a big deal in setup, but certainly not visible in a video like that. There's also rarely a point in the video where he's not fretting/muting/popping a note, which also makes it difficult to properly judge. Again I'm not saying his action isn't low, I'm sure it is. But it's not going to be outside the boundaries of what any good tech/luthier can achieve.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1489327537' post='3256036'] We talked about a sunburst nitro relic p if you recall [/quote] I do

Oil if it's unfinished

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1489271707' post='3255707'] Manton customs? [/quote] Thanks for the mention . I'd be glad to help, pm me if you'd like more details.

Take it to a luthier, he'll be able to advise what's necessary. If its just the frets (level, crown, polish) you're looking at somewhere in between £50-£100 ish depending on where you go.

This distance is dictated by the basses neck angle. A Fender style bass has zero or very close to zero angle, unless shimmed. So there will be a gap roughly the height of the bridge between strings and body.

You're best bet is a very light touch and the 2000 paper on a rubber eraser as a block. Sand in one direction to create a uniform scratch pattern. 0000 steel wool will also dull it nicely, but great care would need to be taken that the pickups didn't attract all the steel wool dust. To be honest, I'd leave it alone. It's one of the drawbacks of a Satin finish...they will gloss up in areas which have a lot of traffic. So it will only return, either there or on other parts. If you aren't careful or experienced doing things like this you could make things a lot worse by burning through. If you did burn through you'd go down to bare wood before realising you've gone through the clear coat.

It's a fair way but you could post it if necessary, feel free to PM for more info.

Yes, I've done it before. It's reasonably straight forward, but you'd obviously need a refinish afterwards, which is the expensive/time consuming part. The key things are using the same species of wood to fill the routs and to make sure the fit is tight, also using a suitable glue which doesn't creep. If you don't do one of those you run the risk of the filled blocks telegraphing through the finish.

I like medium scales too, here's a couple I built last year. [URL=http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Manton-Customs/media/Manton%20Customs%20Echo%20MK%20II%20Tele%20Bass%20Build%20progress/Finished%20Echo%20MK%20II%20basses/1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u425/Manton-Customs/Manton%20Customs%20Echo%20MK%20II%20Tele%20Bass%20Build%20progress/Finished%20Echo%20MK%20II%20basses/1.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Manton-Customs/media/Manton%20Customs%20Echo%20MK%20II%20Tele%20Bass%20Build%20progress/Finished%20Echo%20MK%20II%20basses/6.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u425/Manton-Customs/Manton%20Customs%20Echo%20MK%20II%20Tele%20Bass%20Build%20progress/Finished%20Echo%20MK%20II%20basses/6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

If you haven't refretted a bass before I'd advise against tackling this one yourself. Simply fretting a bass with the slots already cut is a fairly challenging task for a beginner and your first fret job will not be perfect. Just look at some of the pics of bad refrets on here which were done by people who are supposed to know what they are doing!! Then take into account that you'll have to re-slot the board, which also takes practice and itd make it quite easy to ruin the board. Really this is not even a job for the average tech, it's a job for a luthier who has experience cutting their own fret boards. If you were to have a go at it yourself, you would need: Fret saw and depth stop Fret bender Fret wire Flush cutters Crowning file Levelling beam Abrasive Polish You'd also need to make a new nut, so a nut blank and nut files too. Assuming you don't already have all of those, it wouldn't be much cheaper doing it yourself than paying a pro to do it. If you do pay someone to do it then use someone reputable, I could see this in the wrong hands turning ugly fast! Hope this helps but I'm guessing it's not the kind of reply you were hoping for! Edit: Rich replied while I was writing that...none of it was directed towards him!

Lighter fluid is the best for this task as it'll leave next to no residue behind and will not harm the finish. Other products can make any future refinish work very difficult.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1486724141' post='3234078'] Being relatively rubbish at anything technical I don`t know if my fretboard is laquered or not. Aaaarrrrgggg! [/quote] It's pretty safe to say that if it's Maple it's lacquered/finished. Maple has to have a finish (unless it's baked) or it'll turn ugly very quickly. Satin Poly is often mistaken for natural due to to feel and the fact it's usually quite thin. As Rich says, don't use lemon oil on it. Lemon oil and Danish oil are two very different products and not to be used interchangeably. Danish oil is a wiping varnish which dries and builds a film finish whereas lemon oil is just scented mineral oil so does neither.

Thanks for sharing Annette

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1485886243' post='3227517'] I think radius can have an affect, but I'm not sure if it's enough to be significant. Think of a 5 string bass, as it has a string in the middle making this easier to visualise. The string in the middle is parallel with the neck, but due to the nut width being narrower than the neck pocket, the other strings fan out slightly. For any string at an angle like this, on a flat board, everything is constant, just like the string that goes straight down the middle. But on a radiused board, the frets get further from the string the higher you go due to the curvature. Take it to extremes and picture a baseball bat with 3 strings anchored to the same point at the 'nut' but widely spaced at the 'bridge' and you can see that on a bass this must have a similar effect no matter how subtle. [/quote] Yes, you are inadvertently referring to what I mentioned earlier . You're correct in your thinking and also that the difference is very minor. But it's still there. However what you're describing is no longer an issue if the frets have been levelled correctly-along the string paths rather than to the radius. Most factory basses don't have their frets levelled at all, so come as you describe with the frets plane following the radius rather than string paths. Again, the actual difference in action height is very minor, probably somewhere in the 0.25- 0.5mm area. I'd also imagine the OPs luthier has done just as I describe, as it's not particularly common to level with a radius block.

All finishes have their downsides. Nitro (cellulose) is a good choice as it's readily available in aerosols (I'm assuming you don't have spray equipment) in lots of guitar colours. It can punish you, but that's finishing! If the body comes out good enough for a natural finish you could look at doing an oil finish, which is much easier! If you go the Nitro route make sure you spray somewhere that isn't too damp or you'll get bloom (cloudiness). Also keep everything scrupulously clean...both the work area and the body itself or you'll have problems. Make sure you build up enough finish, a thin finish is nice, but if you haven't got much experience it's easy to burn through when you come to level the finish. As mentioned above, the prep is the key and it's best to give it a month to cure before wetsanding and buffing. There's lots on info on rattle can Nitro finishing on the Reranch website. It's an American site, but the info is good.

Not really, no. If you're luthier is leveling the frets correctly he will level along the string paths rather than exactly to the radius, this creates the same result (as far as action is concerned) as a flat fingerboard. If you're luthier is leveling with a radius block, then yes, the greater radius on the board will mean a (slightly) higher action... we are talking small amounts here, but it will be more susceptible to choking when bending. A cylinder is really not the optimal shape for a fretboard. Most luthiers will use a flat block or file, leveling along the strings paths. So I imagine yours has done just this.

Another vote for it won't help. It's most likely the neck profile that's causing your issues rather than the front to back thickness. The extra thickness heavier strings would add would be next to non existent anyway.