Unfinished Jazz bass project...cleanup

Gizmo

Hey guys

So poking through some more unfinished projects and i came across the first thing i ever made/built (but never finished) guitar wise

which is this Ash/lace-snake wood jazz bass body,it never got finished as i sold the pups and schaller bridge from it so i could buy a better router.

This body/neck has been sat in a gig bag for about 10 years forgotten about so i thought it was time to dig it out a clean it up!

As i recall i sloppd on some liberon finishing oil (or might have been danish oil) as it was the only oil finish they had at my local wilkos at the time.

Super handy then that i found 2 cans of this during last weeks clean up (seem i only payed 80p a can for it,homebase want £11for it now)

So about 30 mins of wire wool and wax remover rubbing later its back to 99% clean wood,there are a few bit of the ash end grain that need a bit more of a clean but i might just drum sand it off



I recall mixing the lace wood dust with the the finishing oil to get a juju finish into the ash body but most of it has come out with the wax remover so as i do like the effect i think i'll redo it before i RPC this,also need to clean up/finish the routes and maybe make some bar/slab ash pup covers....might also fret the neck



Laters
Giz

mart

That looks beautiful!

Andyjr1515

Stunning.  Never seen anything quite like that....

WezV

I had a lacewood top (craft supplies) just like that, but like yours it ended up being put aside.

i ended up painting the guitar a dark metallic blue.  Sold it to a student for peanuts after it being my personal guitar for 4 years or so.  I made the mistake of telling him there was in interesting bit of wood underneath.

he eventually stripped it, oiled it, and has a very brown guitar for his efforts.  He loves it but it's a bit too furniture like for me.

my original plan was a stain, but I was never happy with that either which is why I sprayed it solid.... but I still have thoughts about a green stain/burst on a scaly lacewood top



Go on... do a stain

paulnb57

Nice project, it will be good to see it finished after all that time....

Gizmo

Hey guys

Thanks for the feedback Ive been mulling over what to do with this tonight as i dug out a box of bass bits....

Its either use some EMG 5 string Jazz pups i have kicking about and build a 5 string neck for it (the body wouldn't look strange as a 5 string as it massive) or build another 4 string fretted neck so i can swap it out with the fretless but keep the fretless incase i fancy a bit of mwhoarrrr

@WezV yep i can see why you'd think lace wood it looks a little like furniture,kind of reminds me of lady punk's laddered tights

i might try and bleach/stain on a few offcuts see how they work as that green snake burst idea is intriguing (yes even after 10 years i still have the offcuts from the original cut as i cant throw anything "i might" need away it seems

have to say i was impressed with how the corlon wax remover did its job, this was also a trial run for that stuff as i have a 6 string zerba wood bass (yep its a heavy as a black hole) that was finished in danish oiled about 8-9 years ago that im thinking of stripping back & tweaking come the new year.

Cheers
Giz

Corvus

Nice... that top seems ripe for staining, looks like it could get pretty 'deep'. That wax remover could be handy for me, says it does shellac, I've got a French polished on to strip which has refused to budge to meths, thinners etc.

Gizmo

Corvus said:

Nice... that top seems ripe for staining, looks like it could get pretty 'deep'. That wax remover could be handy for me, says it does shellac, I've got a French polished on to strip which has refused to budge to meths, thinners etc.

Hey @Corvus if you want a bottle of it to try PM my your details and i'll decant 100ml into a bottle and send it along for you to try
before you have to buy a full tub.

Corvus

Mate that's very kind Message a-coming..

nick_s

That's got the potential to be a stunning bass!

usedtobe

Nice wood(s)!