This is bass is made from some very nice maple. The neck is mahogany, maple and purpleheart, with a Ipe fingerboard. Rear controls and a EMG Select Jazz complete the spec. Overall the bass is quite tidy and played nicely out of the box.
This will be a fairly straightforward refinish, although I will be rerouting for a Delano Xtender 4 HE/S.
Work Completed:
Strip Bass of hardware
Sand/shape body, reshaping lower horn
Sand/shape neck
Route for Delano Xtender
Sand/radius fingerboard: 20”
Fill holes/gaps as required.
Seal wood
Apply Tru-Oil
Sand back and polish
Shield cavities with copper tape
Redo wiring harness with stepped vol/tone pot and parrallel/series/split micro-switch
Fabricate ebony nut and bridge
Refit hardware and final set-up
Notes:
The reshaping of the lower horn went really well. The back of the bass in particular has some lovely grain. With the new curvy shape a single J would look a little out of place, so I’ve decided to fit a Oval Delano Xtender, which I’ll wire to a micro-switch to select coils.
The bass has been sanded to 800 grit all over; very nice and smooth and awaiting sealing and Tru-Oil.
The routing for the Delano went well, p-up fits well and looks good.
The fingerboard is now radiussed to 20”, sanded to 8000 Micro Mesh and has the first coat of fingerboard oil applied. There has not been a lot of filling to do on this one at all: a couple of smallish knots and a couple of areas where the laminate needed filled.
The bass has had an overall sand to 800 grit in preparation for the first coat of sealer. The grain of maple is pretty small so I don’t expect to need more than two coats of sealer.
Started the Tru-Oil application and the flame on the back of the bass has really started to pop. I’ll be taking this up to as high a gloss as I can, so 7 coats down, plenty more to go!
Finished up at 25 coats of Tru-oil and then a sand back and polish. This bass is very smooth! Cavities have been shielded with copper tape and the Delano Xtender has been fitted.
Managed to wire the pot up in reverse; tone on top,vol on bottom and low to high anti-clockwise. Luckily an easy fix, but obviously my intuition failed me on that one! Still better than wiring a harness and it not working at all!
This bass is now finished. It’s not only a looker, but it’s a player too and the tonal variety from the Delano P-up is fantastic.