Building Bass no. 5

Everything is coming together now.

 I finished sanding and details on the varnish and separated the two parts to dry and cure. It will be strange not to be able to work on the bass but at least I have the tailpiece to do. And plenty of other tidying and reorganising and repair work.

 This is how lovely the bass looked after sanding and before the coating which just makes it look wet and shiny and difficult to photograph. I think I'm happy with the colour saturation, transparency and texture and will only do one layer of coating. The varnish feels good and I don't want it to end up being too glazed and losing the wood feel. 

 I sanded and worked in some more dirt and then did another layer of varnish with extra brown and red. Then I brushed away some of the new varnish in places it would naturally wear and I really like the effect. It's not the kind of antiquing that creates damage but rather brings out life and the natural richness and beauty of the wood. I thought it might need more colour tomorrow as well, but right now I'm really happy with it. So maybe we'll go straight to the coating tomorrow.

 I managed 2 layers of colour today. Sunbathing And then a little dirt treatment which looks so nice.

 In the morning I rubbed some colour into the spruce to get more contrast between the summer and winter grain, and lightly sanded the rest. This time I started with a dark brown colour which I plan to warm up in subsequent layers. In the afternoon I did some subtle shading and details. Taking pictures of varnish is very deceptive. From one angle the bass looks very dark, but if you look by the window light, it really isn't that dark.

The ash has magnificent flames but also greener tones than the maple and spruce, so I put some green in with the primer for the top and neck which has helped to balance it out. Tomorrow we can start with the colour varnish.

Today was a nice change of pace, going slowly and thoroughly over the whole instrument preparing the ground.  The three different wood types react quite differently with the stain. The differences will be evened out in the varnish process by adjusting the colour for the different parts. The flames in the ash came out so beautifully with the primer.

 Finished all the neck shaping and details and went over all the edges and glue joints so we're all ready to go tomorrow. All the measurements and angles are looking good and the bolted neck joint is super strong. 

 Over the weekend I've done the last details and glued fingerboard and saddle. So we should be ready to varnish tomorrow. It'll just be final shaping of neck and checking everything in the morning. 

Fitted and glued purfling on the back and carried on shaping the neck. Here you can see the carbon fibre reinforcement and the space for the next CF reinforcement around the neck bolt.

This morning the sun was out after days of rain. I had my morning tea outside. Then I finished planing the shape of the fingerboard and glued in a carbon fibre reinforcement into the neck. By the afternoon the bass parts had been in the dehumidifier for 3 days and it was finally time to glue them together. It was quite special to get to that milestone and also I really enjoyed planing the fingerboard. This is such an important part of the instrument as it is the main point of contact with the musician's hands.

Still working on lowering the humidity of the body before gluing. While that was happening I continued working on the scroll. It's nearly finished, just the button and the chamfering left. I'm waiting to get the exact neck angle before cutting away the pegbox below the nut. Axel 3-D printed fingerboard templates for me.

 While the body of the bass is in the dehydration room - the humidity is quite high at the moment - I starting preparing the fingerboard. I got it to the right width dimensions and then roughly shaped the surface. Then I just started the fluting 

 Just worked on some small details this morning.

I went in this morning with the new weight reduced tuners and figured out a placement. Now to order a 15mm Forstner bit. (I have 14 and 16) I also looked at the fitting of the back.