duane v

I decided I would do some other finishing work since the weather isn't at all good for spraying lacquer. But next this weekend is looking hopeful. So I spent some time reshaping and cutting the nut and getting it glued on as the nut was originally cut for a right hand bass, I still need to shave some material off the top. Converting a nut that was originally for a right hand bass to work properly left handed was no easy task I then had to drill two pickup channel holes for the lead wires as the centerblock wouldn't allow to use the original two holes to feed the leads to the left hand volume plate location. I also drilled the four holes for the surround mounting. I had to drill a hole in the center block so the tailpiece ground wire could be fed. Also cut the grooves on the bridge saddle. Plays good but I'm going to file down the frets as the are super tall. They would be great for a guitar but it feels weird on a bass. Kinda glad I did this now then after the bass was completely sprayed.

With the binding removed, the neck has been scraped, contoured and sanded. I also clean up the fretboard, filed the sharper than &:%# fret-ends and polished the frets. Cabinet maker forums have me some killer advice in using cabinet scrapers.

Removed the stock fretboard dots and replaced them with the 8mm and 6mm dots, then replaced the last fretboard dot with a rosewood dot because the 61 Hofner didn't have that dot. Next I'm going to sand the fretboard with 1600 grit to clean up the gloss stuff that Hofner put on the fretboard. Then I'm going to drop fill the the side marker holes and fret slots with rosewood powder and super glue . Then I'm going to completely remove the finish from the back of the neck.

The binding is gone. A heat gun and a very sharp chisel is a must. The average binding channel depth was about .040" which means sanding won't be a huge undertaking. No damage and trimming the fret ends is next.

The neck is a maple slab.... I don't think there will be any issue in regards to rigidity with the loss of material It's a one day job

See the below image of a Hofner bass with binding. There is plenty of room to remove material so that the neck will be flush with the fretboard. The binding channel is about 1/8"

My sweeter half sent me images of the 8mm and 6.3mm MOP fret dots that came in the mail, and the rosewood fret dots to remove the extra fret dot. I'm sure out of that bag I'll find one that will somewhat match the fret board.

I own six Hofner basses and have performed neck resets on two of them. I thought about painting the binding to match the fretboard but I thought that would look pretty cheesy. since the bottom neck is about 3/8" away from the body and the neck pocket is even further away from the fret board there would be no issue at all. I'll take images for you when I remove the binding so you can have a better understanding

It's a beauty but $5k is a bit steep.... but it is pristine

Been at the Boeing plants in St. Louis and just finished up at the Boeing plant in St Charleston SC. heading home in about an hour.

I don't think you have an understanding of how the neck, fretboard and neck joint interface with each other on a Hofner bass.

An update on on the neck binding. I have decided to remove the neck binding, trim the frets and sand the neck flush to the fret board. At that point I may need to do a little back filling at the fret ends but that's a quick and easy cosmetic fix. This would be a quicker fix rather than adding rosewood binding.

Funny you bring this up but I went through a month stretch where I I wore a wrist brace on my right hand for a month and had to stop playing bass for about two weeks. I explained to the doctor I had started playing bass left handed back in April and had been practicing 2 hours a day at least. Basically he prescribed a brace and a weeks worth of physical therapy and now I'm fine. Turned out it was a hypertension of the tendon.

I have found the hand woven straps with no leather backing are by far the most comfortable straps .... but they run between $80-$100

Actually I have sprayed nitro in 60-80 degrees F but I make sure the RH humidity is below 45% .

I have a black Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite stuffed in one of my closets I haven't played in 10 years.... but from what I can remember it was a great player and comfortable ....

That sure is an odd blemish. I would try some medium or fine rubbing compound and see if the blemish is at the surface of the clear. Nitrocellulose is easy to deal with.

I'm hoping that it does, but am please I was able to get this much coverage with the butterscotch

Ya i was worried about the nitro not adhering but it attached well.

I laid four coats of the butterscotch to get some coverage on the patch and the dark brown on the cutouts and the top so that the red would would pop. So far I'm presently surprised how well it covered the patch. Gonna let dry for about a week then a couple more coats of butterscotch on the cutaways then I'll address the back... then it's the whole thing with a couple of coats of vintage amber..... then I'll do the sunburst effect.

Man I should had posted something, because it was the fan that stopped working. I'm gonna get it from the garbage area and buy a new fan and use it in our bedroom, as we have sinus issues.

So I purchased the one below with extra filters and another bottle of Bacteriostatic Treatment stuff. Thank god it's going to rain for the next few days. A good investment for those that don't keep their guitars in cases. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087KN4D8S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What's interesting with all the things we currently do to planet, human life expectancy is longer than any other time humans have been walking the earth. For example if you go back 4000-5000 years humans average life span was 30-40 years, and I'm sure there were very few man made toxins spit into the atmosphere. I know we all want to complain about everything, but we all buy / use products that have harmful chemicals, eat foods we know aren't healthy for us and we still manage to live for 70 years on the average. So there's going to be a trade off for a life of comfort that contributes to a longer life span. Ya train accidents are unfortunate and it's even more unfortunate people are affected by these types of accidents. Let's hope it all gets cleaned up.

So I am just about ready to spray the nitro sanding sealer and will probably go with 6 coats. Just a few small details to go over. And final sanding. I had to go in a different direction regarding the nut. As I was shaping / leveling the bottom part of the nut, the NuGlu backing soda concoction I made is a bit crumbly so I filed it off and added epoxy to the area of the bass where the nut sits to give the nut a little more height so when it comes time to cut the grooves it will be ready to go. I also plugged the jack hole and drilled another. One other thing I noticed about Paul's bass is the the 21st fret doesn't have a fret marker, so I ordered some rosewood fret markers to eliminate it, and I also noticed from the 15th fret and down the fret marker dots are bigger so I ordered 8 mm acrylic fret markers. I still need to trim down the the stencils a little but I have plenty of time for that.

To me solid body electrics always sound like crap to me acoustically.