Encore Bass Refinish - 4 - Refinish Finished

The Encore Bass refinish is finally complete.  I spent a week or so sanding down the nitro lacquer flat before buffing the scratches out.

I started with 800 grit wet and dry sand paper and gradually worked up to 1500 and then onto gradually finer polishing compounds.

Slowly the scratches and swirls start to disappear and the shine begins to form.  I used a hand held car polisher buffer to apply the compounds and  polish but did the hard to reach places by hand.

Once I had a nice mirror finish I re-assembled the guitar.  I had purchased replacement tuners as one of the originals had gone missing and had been replaced by something similar in the past.  Also the tone pot was very noisy so I ended up replacing both pots.

I also replaced the worn out control knobs but everything else is original.  I set the string heights and intonations and tested the bass out and it sounded great.

Unfortunately I only took one picture of the finished guitar as a colleague snapped it up as soon as it was finished.  It looks beautiful though, I would describe the finish as a very very light relic.  It was always my intention to portray this 30+ year old guitar as one that had been hidden away for years and years and hardly ever used, like finding a gem in the loft one day.

Ibanez Blazer Bass Re-Fret

A colleague mentioned that he had an old bass which has no frets... not because it's a fretless bass because the previous owner had pulled them all out!  He asked me if I would be able to fit new frets and I agreed. This is a Ibanez Blazer serious bass, a serious contender of the Fender P bass I'm told.  It's a well worn but solid guitar.

The guitar itself has been modified in the past, there is a non standard pickup installed and the pickguard has been cut down to bare minimum.  There is also a plate on the back of the guitar which is completely nonstandard.  

The first thing I noticed is how long the scale length is compared to an Encore bass I own.  I started by cleaning out the existing slots with a fine saw then blowing them out with compressed air.  I measured the width of the marks left by the previous frets and sourced so fret wire to match.

I profiled the fret wire and cut 21 pieces to size and then began installing them with the assistance of some super glue.  I don't want the new frets coming lose in the old slots.

It took a few hours to install all 21 frets but I wanted to make sure each one was seated as well as possible.

I then trimmed the overhang as close as I could and started filing the frets as close to flush to the neck as possible.  I have to consider the fact that this is a maple neck and it has been lacquered so I have to be careful not too remove any of the finish.  Another option would be to rub the old finish back and respray but that changes the scope of the job completely.

Once the edges were made flush I made the neck as flat as possible by adjusting the truss rod to remove the natural bow in the neck. I then marked the face of each fret with blue indelible marker and started leveling the frets relative to each other using a straight edge with sandpaper double sided to the flat edge.

Once I have removed a little of the blue pen across the face of each fret I know that there are no high or low spots across the entire neck.next I have to re-crown each fret so I marked each fret again with blue pen and then, after masking the face of the neck, I took a modified triangular file and started re-profiling each fret.

I did this along the top of each fret and then put an angle on the edges of each of the frets and moved onto progressively finer grades of sand paper to remove the tool marks left by the course crowning file.

Once I had sanded each fret down to 1500 grit sand paper I moved onto abrasive polishing compounds using my dremel tool giving each fret a beautiful shine.  Before I started to refit the neck and set everything up I thought I would have a look under the two covers.

To my surprise I found a 9v battery under the rear cover implying that the pickup must be a passive one, looking under the front cover I found that the jack socket it a stereo one rather than mono.

It would be fascinating to know a little bit more about the set up of the electrics but that is something for another day.  I replaced the battery as a courtesy and reassembled the guitar.

I had chosen a string gauge as per the factory specifications from the Ibanez website and adjusted the string height as per the factory specs.  I check intonation and finally gave everything a quick polish and test.

The frets look like they have always been there.  By selecting a gauge of wire that matched the original width there is not much to give away the fact that this is a re-fret.  It was difficult to file the frets flush to the sides of the neck without damaging the existing finish but overall I am very pleased with this and hope the owner is as he has a fine instrument here.

What's on the workbench today?

I have been working on several different projects simultaneously over the past week or so and so here is a brief summary:

DLP Mandolin Prototype

I have all but finished this project now, although there is still some minor adjustments to the bridge required as the string action is a little high.  Also the two pots I used for the volume and tone need replacing (I recycled a couple of very old pots and they are just not up to the job!)  I have a couple of small knobs to fit as well.  All in all the sound is great and even though it is primarily an electric instrument it still sounds good when played acoustically.

Encore Bass Refinish 

This project is all but finished, I still have to string it up and set the string height and intonation.  I am waiting for two knobs (black with a silver hat) to finish the front and a colleague has expressed a strong interest in purchasing this from me.

Ibanez Blazer Bass Re-fret

Another colleague asked me if I could install frets on an old Ibanez Blazer bass guitar he owns.  The bass was given to him some years ago without any frets as the previous owner had pulled them all out as he wanted a fretless bass.

I ordered some wide fret wire (matching the marks left by the original frets), bent it to profile and cut the 21 pieces and started installing them last night.  First I cleaned the existing slots out and I used super glue to ensure a secure hold. Next I will trim the sides and file them flush before levelling, crowning and polishing the frets to a nice shine.

Other Ongoing Projects

Elsewhere I had sprayed the two Telecaster bodies with a dark red nitrocellulose paint, I'm not happy with the finish on one of the bodies so I will attend to that before respraying and lacquering.  One of the DLP Lap Steels is finished and the other body is awaiting finishing and carving.  I have decided to finish them with Tru-Oil but I'm having too much fun playing the one I have finished to take it apart and apply the finish!

DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 7 - Electrics and Stringing Up

I rounded the back of the body with my router and a round over bit, taking my time and been careful to avoid any splitting.  The cherry machines beautifully as it is quite hard and there wont be that much sanding to do at the end of the day.

The lap steel will have two simple controls, volume and tone.  Space is limited in the control cavity and it would be impossible to solder everything in in place with the pots installed so I positioned the two potentiometers in my vice spaced as they will be when installed and began soldering the appropriate connections.

I used 500k pots (A for tone and B for volume) and a 0.047 capacitor.  I left enough wire to the jack socket to allow the connections to be soldered outside of the body but not too much to fill the cavity.  I was able to connect the pickup wires outside the body as well and then the two pots slid onto place perfectly.

The ferules will need glueing into place after finishing but other than that the back of the Lap Steel is all but finished now.

 Next I started filing the nut and bridge to accommodate the strings. I tried to keep the spacing even but taking into account the different thickness's of  each string whilst maintaining an even gap between them.

It took quite a bit of fine filing trying to ensure that the strings sit at the same height relative to each other so the bar presses each string evenly if it is laid across all six strings.

I've just got to make a final decision on what finish to apply, I want to emphasise the difference between the light and dark and bring the grain patten out as well.  But I don't really want a high gloss shine.  I'm undecided between Tru-Oil or something like Danish Oil.