I've cut out the slot for the truss rod. This is a standard 540mm truss rod for a 34" scale bass. To make it fit in a 32" neck, I need to add one more fret. So my project will have one more fret than an actual Ric, just another way it will be better than the real thing. The jig and tools and method are all described in the Laboratory. Most of the work was done in the jig, with a little free-hand nipping for the adjuster end. I haven't carved out the access for the adjuster yet.
The first side came out good, now I am installing the second side. I trimmed both pieces so that I could use the short clamps. Using long clamps for a job like this would be a pain in the butt.
I smoothed down the brushed poly on this body and was dissatisfied with the result. The shape, with binding and German carve, is rather complex to sand, and the brushed-on finish required an excessive amount of sanding. The foam brush made no difference. Another bad idea from talk_ass, which is an endless spring of bad ideas. I will never again try to brush on a finish - there is no reason, I have excellent spray facilities.
I started assembling the Mosrite, finally. The routs are all so precise that I had to spend quite a while filing polyurethane out of them to make the neck and pickups fit again. Then I had to chisel out the pit for the output jack. You can see my solution for grounding the four individual bridges - a strip of aluminum tape, the same stuff as on the back of the dry-erase pickguard.
Been doing some quick experiments with CA and glitter for the last few days. At left is gold crushed glass. Center-top is very fine gunmetal plastic glitter. Center-bottom is silver crushed glass glitter. At right is standard plastic glitter. The green tube is medium CA, the pink one is thin, the standard formulation. Thick CA is quite rubbery when it dries, I would not use it for this.
Ebay is doing 10% bucks, and some knowledgeable people have said that this is not a complete piece of junk like the 'Overlord', so I ordered one. Merry Christmas for me.
This is the Kubicki bass body from last year (?) It is now wearing a nice chocolate burst and a thick coat of OIL-BASED polyurethane. It has been hanging up for over two months, and I figure the poly is 99% as hard as it will ever get.
Strung up with a rough setup. Everything tweaked and tightened. Feels good, haven't plugged it in yet. The guitar stands nicely on its two strap button feet without a stand, so you can safely lean it against a wall or amplifier. At least until your drummer gets loose, then nothing is safe. You can use the leather loop on the headstock to hang it up out of reach.
Not sure what possessed me at the time, but I built this with A250 tone pots and B500 volume pots, and the B pots are doing their usual on/off switch behavior - no change until almost zero, then cut off completely. After my most recent testing, I have concluded that B pots have no place in a guitar at all. I probably did this because I have just two A500 pots in the parts bin, one mini and one full sized. A few days ago I ordered a lot of them, when they come in, I will swap these out. In the meantime, the B's will do, especially at full volume, so I can check this thing out.
