New build thread: Paulownia body • Nitro • Dakota Red • MIM neck

[Silky999]

Starting a new build for a fellow Basschat member, because this one deserves documenting properly — if only as a cautionary tale.

 

The brief: a paulownia body, finished properly in nitrocellulose, going Dakota Red, paired with a MIM Fender neck.

The timing: while fighting a genuinely world-ending case of manflu.

The wood: paulownia, which has zero sympathy and even less respect for human suffering.

 

As usual, this will be a warts-and-all build thread — no carefully curated highlights, just the reality of what’s involved in getting a nitro finish right on a wood that actively resists it.

 

This is very much not a “quick colour and clear” job. Paulownia has a habit of revealing grain, pores and dents you were sure you’d already dealt with — especially once primer goes on and you’re already feeling sorry for yourself.

 

The plan (and yes, this is the long way round):

 

Multiple coats of nitro primer

Careful flattening

Shellac to lock everything down before colour

Grain filler, because the grain will come back if given even half a chance

More sanding than feels medically advisable

Eventually… Dakota Red

 

 

At the moment it’s firmly in the “primer shows everything you missed” stage — which is nitro’s favourite moment to kick you while you’re down. The aim here isn’t speed; it’s getting a finish that won’t sink, print through, or look like it’s been applied with a teaspoon. I’ve also added a cut out to the neck pocket as the neck is a heel adjustment truss rod. My cunning plan is that it will be covered by the pickguard in normal use but means that the neck can be adjusted in situ by just taking the pickguard off and not having to de-string, remove the neck, adjust, attach neck, re-string, tune and repeat until it’s right. 

 

Progress may be slower than usual, fuelled mainly by tea, ibuprofen and stubbornness — but it will be done properly.

 

I’ll keep this thread updated as it goes along, warts, mistakes, fixes and all, including the usual sanding, swearing, re-priming, and pretending this was all part of the plan from the start.

 

Dakota Red to follow… once both the finish and the builder are fully cured.

Edited February 3 by Silky999

[Silky999]

Quick update on this one

 

Paulownia body is finally flat, sealed and mostly behaving after the usual prime → sand → spot fill → repeat cycle. Shellac down, primer back on, and it’ll get a couple more coats of high-build to properly finish it off.

 

Paired with a MIM neck and then it’s onto Dakota Red nitro, which means it’ll look finished long before it actually is.

 

As ever, slow progress — but very close to colour now.

 

MGCS — Made to play. Built to last.

[HeadlessBassist]

Definitely liking the new logo & tagline 😃

[Silky999]

Colour going on this one…

 

This is the paulownia build for a BC member and it’s now officially very, very red. Dakota Red in nitro and it’s absolutely popping under the lights.

 

Paulownia is always an interesting one. Lovely and light, but it does like to remind you it’s basically made of compressed air and optimism. This body had the full routine — shellac, primer, grain attention, more primer, careful flattening — the whole “no, you are not sinking back on me again” conversation.

 

Happy to say it’s behaved.

 

Edges are nice and soft, belly carve is flowing well, and the horns have kept their shape without going blobby under colour. Always a relief.

 

Still a few coats and plenty of cure time before flatting and polishing, but it’s at that exciting stage where it actually looks like a bass rather than a woodworking experiment.

 

Going to look great once the hardware’s on and it’s all glassed up in clear.

 

More soon once it’s had time to harden off and I start the levelling dance.

 

Made to play. Built to last. 🔴

[LowB_FTW]

That is indeed very red red.

I like that.

 

Mark

[Hellzero]

I had a 1964 P-Bass in Dakota Red, it looked (and played) wonderfully with its old whitish pickguard/scratchplate.

[Silky999]

This one is going with a mint green pickguard…

[Silky999]

First coats of clearcoat today which is toning down the red nicely. 

[Silky999]

Dakota Red – clear building up nicely 🔥

 

Colour’s locked in and now it’s all about the clear.

 

Got the first sessions of nitro clear on and it’s starting to build properly. You can see the depth coming through already — that wet look beginning to form before it’s even been near paper or a mop.

 

A couple more coats of clear to really bury everything and give me some material to level back, then it’ll be hung up to cure while I try very hard not to keep wandering into the workshop “just to look at it”.

 

So far it’s laying down well — no drama, no major sags, just that lovely glossy build that makes you believe you know what you’re doing.

 

Flat, polish, then the real shine.

 

MGCS – Made to Play, Built to Last.

[Hellzero]

It will look terrific!