Doing Things Wrong

Superfreaky Part IIa

I finished the shaping with a big metal file and 80-grit. Then finish-sanded 100-150 and cleaned out the fret slots. 150 is good enough for now. For final finishing, I'll take it up to 320, which is smooth but leaves plenty of 'tooth' for the finish to grab onto. I wouldn't go any higher - the surface becomes too smooth.

Finally I put several coats of poly wet-on-wet on the fretboard, to build up a single thick layer of plastic. That will give a nice thick protective covering over the stained surface. That will need a few days to harden-off, then I can smooth it down, install the frets, and give it a thin top-coat, and also finish the rest.


I crunched some numbers based on the excellent data that D'Addario provides, and it turns out that a 25.5" scale bass is quite workable with off-the-shelf string sets. The trick is to get a 5-string BEADG long-scale set and discard the G. Tune the remaining strings to EADG. This is equivalent to capo-ing the long scale at the 5th fret, or lopping 5 frets off the neck, so of course, it will work! In hindsight, it's all pretty obvious. I worked out the following scales and string sets: