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  I had purchased replacement tuners as one of the originals had gone missing and had been replaced by something similar in the past.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.

DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 6 - Finishing the Fret Board

During the week I have been working on the fret board for the DLP Lap Steel Guitar.  I had decided to use cream binding to mark the positions of the notes but the thickness of the binding meant I would have to slot the board first and then file each groove to the correct width of about 1.5mm.

This turned out to be a rather laborious process to say the least!  I uses a fine saw to initially, then a slightly less fine saw and finally 2 different size files to get the slots to the perfect size.  I then cut strips of binding slightly oversize and glued them all in position.

With all 24 slots filed to size and the strips glued in place using super glue, I left them to set overnight before trimming them flush.

I'm sure there is an easy way of trimming the fret marker flush but I once again chose the difficult labour intensive route and filed each one close to the fretboard been careful not to damage the fretboard itself.

Once I got close I used a spirit level with sand paper attached to one side with double sided tape to level and then flush the markers.  Once again this was a laborious task but I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

With the top flush I trimmed the side as near to flush as I could and then sanded then edge smooth.

There was a little filling to be done so I melted some spare binding in thinners and pasted into the gaps and then filed everything smooth once it had set.  Next I marked out positions of the fret markers.

I'm using green abalone for the first time.   I drilled the holes as carefully as possible and used super glue to secure them and then sanded everything flush using progressively finer grades of sand paper.

 They came out perfect and wont need any additional filling as the holes I drilled were all perfect!   Finally I clamped the fret board to the body and used titebond carpenters glue to secure everything in place.

Next I will round over the back for comfort and more onto installing the electronics so i can test everything before applying a finish... Danish Oil?

DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 5 - Fitting The Hardware

Last night I started laying out for the jack socket, the jack will enter the volume and tone cavity and I know it will be a tight fit but after some careful measuring I know everything will fit OK.

I drilled a 22mm hole into the cavity and test fitted the pots and jack socket just to double check and there is enough room for all the wires.  Next I drilled a hole between the control cavity and the P90 cavity for the pickup loom to pass through.

Everything fits comfortably, the pickup cavity is very tight and will need a little sanding before final assembly.

I then marked up the 6 holes for the strings to pass through as I have decided to have through body strings.  I used a centre punch to make an initial mark then over to the drill press to make the 6 holes.  I just about managed to find a bit that was both the desired diameter and long enough to go all the way through the body.  I barely let the drill bit pass through the body to avoid splitting the back and then drill through from the back to give nice clean holes both sides.

I then set the drill press up to drill a hole in the back large enough to hole the six string ferules, they needed to be flush with the back of the body so as not to rub on the players legs.

On the top of the guitar I screwed a piece of mecano which happens to have six holes spaced almost exactly the same as the P90 poles.  This will stop the strings wearing away the wood at the point where they enter the body and I think it looks kind of cool as well!  I also drilled a couple of holes to mount the bridge and nut.

My final job for the night was to fit the machine heads, I reamed the holes to the correct size and test fitted all six tuners.  I need to sort out the slots on the fingerboard, I plan to glue binding into each of the slots once I've found a way to cut the slots to the correct size.  Then the fret board needs to be attached and I'm ready to string it up.

DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 4 - Some Cavity Work

Having shaped the head angle recently I decided to move on to routing cavities for the pickup and electronics.  I was also wanted to make a bridge and nut out of a piece of 12mm  by 12mm aluminium angle.

I started with the bridge and nut by cutting two lengths of aluminium to size and rounding over the corners before drilling and countersinking 2 holes in each piece. I then polished the two pieces and they are ready for slotting for the strings.

Next I marked and drilled two holes for the volume and tone pots. I plan to keep the control cavity as small as possible.  Its a thick piece of wood to drill through but the drill press made light work of the task.

For the cavity cover itself I made a cover from a piece of copper printed circuit board what hasn't yet been etched.  I cut out the shape by hand then refined the edges on the drum sander attachment on my drill press.  I then drilled two holes and countersunk them before making a router template to create the cavity.

 

I want the cover to sit flush or slightly below the back of the guitar so I made an oversize template and then used the collar attachment on the router to guide the cutting bit.  The template was 2.5mm oversize, the exact same size as the gap between the outside of the collar and the edge of the cutting bit.

The template cutter and oversized template made a for a nice easy, clean route.  What this doesn't demonstrate is just how long it takes to create a simple template like this, however in the long run it should pay off.

The indent for the cover routed beautifully, it sits just below the back of the guitar which is exactly how I wanted it to turn out.  Cherry is a hard wood but lovely to route and machine.  I routed the rest of the cavity using another template and finished it off with a sharp chisel as the router bit would not reach all the way down.  The pots sit perfectly at the bottom of the recess with just enough clearance for the wires.

Next I made another template for the P90 pickup cavity, well I actually already had a P90 template but I spent some time refining the inner edges to ensure the router runs perfectly smoothly over the edges, this time I will be using a router bit with a ball bearing on the shaft which will transmit every imperfection to the cavity edges.

Initially though I drilled as many holes as I could on the drill press to reduce the amount of material the router has to remove.  With the drill bit set  stop at a predetermined depth I could ensure all the holes would be the same.

Then I used double sided tape to secure the template to the top of the guitar and carefully routed away the remaining wood in a couple of passes.  I think the result was perfect, and the pickup slides in beautifully with the minimal amount of clearance around the edge.

The top is finally starting to look like something special now.  My final job this weekend was to drill the six holes for the machine heads.  There is a little chip out at the back but the machine heads should hide that anyway.