Christine

10 hours ago, honza992 said:

Ah, thanks for that.  I've always wondered how people glue with titebond without it slithering around like Torvil and Dean. I'll try it next time, cheers!

Edit: Oh and is that just for titebond, or Epoxy as well?  When I'm dong veneers, that's turned into my glue of choice, titebond introduces too much water and warping for my liking....

Just Titebond

Something I learnt to do years ago with aliphatic glues like titebond, similar to using hide glues where you can rub the glued surfaces together until they get a grip of each other (with hide glue you can leave it like that) just make sure when you get that gripping that the pieces are in the right position then put a clamp on the bit that's stuck first, it wont move anywhere, once that first one is on you can put on the others as needed.

Might come in handy sometime, it saves me a lot of grief when I'm glueing slippery bits

1 minute ago, honza992 said:

Thanks Christine.  I have no skill with hand planes but can rout virtually anything!  Though part of me wishes it was the other way round🙄

I've been looking at that cut out for ages and seeing splinters of wood and break out all over the shop in my mind. I would have! It's really turned out well on that intersection

That was a difficult rout, it's turned out very well

Perhaps @Andyjr1515 as some thoughts?

The trouble with staining is that it's a really difficult thing to do well. I've never been able to do it with commercial stains, they always but always turn out blotchy and uneven, hence I've tended to use chemical staining on the few times I've had to do any. It's a lot easier to put a tinted finish on top, you don't get that unevenness across spring and summer growth areas

I'm not sure what's going on there , if there has been some wax on the body at some time it may have been drawn into the pores of the wood, that would prevent even staining. I've never used waxed shellac, I've always made my own as needed from flakes or buttons. Rubbing down will need to be done to extremes to get rid of anything that has soaked in to the wood. Meths will soak in but not into the finer pores that have been blocked with wax if that's what happened. Meths won't usually dissolve wax but white spirits will but using white spirits on that would only drive the wax further in but it will also dilute the concentration. Maybe flooding the body with white spirits and wiping it off a couple of times might help

17 hours ago, Fishman said:

 

@Christine – thanks for this – where might I buy the chems without ending up on an MI5 list?

 

Ebay probably but I bought them from the chemist in the dark past before the internet hit us

The very best thing for doing this is 0000 wire wool, it leaves tiny ridges along the neck, barely discernable but enough to reduce friction on your hand from a gloss finish on polyurethane, nitro for some reason suffers less from friction I find. The trouble is though that eventually the effect gets polished back by your hand which means doing the same again, eventually you're going to sand down into the wood but think of a good few years

Mine, I painted the headstock myself

Oh and the mother of pearl too now I think back, not easy to do with the frets still in, hindsight I should have pulled them out first

I like the extra security you get from a tenon type joint, the shoulders add just a bit extra mechanical strength... BUT... unless you intend swinging it around by the neck...  Watch out for excess glue squeezing out, mask the body top and the fret board before final assembly.

The binding mitre is easy, calculate the angle at the tip of the join where the two tangents meet, then make an angled block enough to support a chisel or a sanding block to trim the end. Do the main body side first then the cut out bit you can fiddle with in the same way until the join is perfect. The mitre is the most difficult part so start the glueing there and work away

5 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yup - and going to have to again after Brexit!

Actually no, the best seamed stockings are made in the UK, could have problems with knicker elastic though

15 hours ago, honza992 said:

Nice progress Andy, looks great.

Quick question about the ebano as I've just ordered some for my build. Do you think you could bend it round the standard lower horn of a Les Paul, or is it too small a radius? If so I may try thicknessing two pieces down to 1mm each and gluing them both on at the same time.

I don't know either but at 1mm you have a good chance, heat and support on the outside will stop it breaking, maybe you have some 2mm plastic banding or something similar you could use? Just bend that around the outside as you go and I think you will get away with it

I was thinking looking at the carve on your top that French polish was the only finish worthy. So glad to see it

I've always fancied one of these but I was never a fan of a short scale so I've never actually made the effort to try one.

1 hour ago, Dov65 said:

Some books by him are available online free..pdf files so it says

Indeed and here it is:

I really can't remember the recipe but there is a method for the ultimate black but it only works with an oil finish. It is described in detail in Tage Frid's book 3 on Wood Finishing. I sold mine years ago like an idiot but it's a very good book to have and worth getting. I did try the method once and the finished colour was a s black as midnight  in a dark cave. It went on like a dark green but as soon as the oil touched it it went jet black, that was 30 years ago and is still jet black today

These were builds I was addicted too over on TalkBass, stunning work

Hope you're keeping well old friend

2 hours ago, Dov65 said:

Thought you would know about irons 😁

Go buy red paint!!!!

Wow, you make that look easy, I never knew you could remelt PVA what a useful bit of information. Next time I do some binding I'm going to do it this way. Out of interest, what type of iron are you using? Household ones are a bit unwieldy sometimes like in cutouts

53 minutes ago, Dov65 said:

Aye ok i'll submit..red it is...i think

Yey!!!

27 minutes ago, Slappindabass said:

Thanks, I think thats more to do with the router bit ,then to do with me!!🤣🤣

 

 

Never a truer word!

No to be fair, that was well executed, credit where it's due

See, red, it's the only choice 🤩

Have you tightened it with a spanner?

I suppose it could be a peculiarity of the string where it vibrated more but the tighter they are the less movement it can make and the less chance you have of fret buzz

10 hours ago, wishface said:

When it comes to stringing the bass, is it best to thread the tip into the machine head, or pass it through and wind over it?

Cut the string about 75mm mast the machine, bend the tip of the string 90 degrees and push it into the central hole on the machine barrel (post thing), then wind it up the right way

I suspect your problem was light gauge strings so they were looser than a heavier gauge so the magnitude of the string movement is such that it hits the frets, the only way round that is to raise the action on the bass side more than the treble. If that's the case, check the nut for string fit just in case they're a bit tight. The truss rod mat need some adjustment too, worth a check