Continued from page one…
The first page finished with the body and neck essentially made. There was still quite a lot of work to be done with the inlays, fretwork and finishing. Again, I made the fretboard dots from a brass tube with resin inside, and I put my oak leaf inlay at the 12th fret – this time using some fake abalone.
Finishing this guitar proved difficult. I decided to use shellac, which I hadn’t used before, and so that was a whole learning process – and, frankly, not a process that I’m keen to repeat! I had a lot of problems with trying to get a good surface – for example, you can see below some rather ugly flecks in the grains that appeared at one stage.
Now, I think I would avoid this problem by applying a layer of sanding sealer before the finish. It’s an area where I still have a lot to learn, but that seems to be a good tip, particularly with wood that has a lot of pits in the grain. It doesn’t seem to be necessary with more consistent woods like maple.
After much work, though, I eventually finished the bass. I don’t have a lot of pictures of it, but here’s a nice one of the body. I do think it turned out looking good – I like the body shape, and the cocobolo top is beautiful.
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