Primed and Pumped!

Finished priming everything this weekend. Today I put everything together to be sure there wasn't any issues before I get it painted. (Tomorrow!)

I had to deepen the control cavity with the router. One of the anchors for the bridge is slightly undersized. One fits snugly in either hole and the other one is loose in either hole, hmmm. I bought some epoxy glue to fix the loose one. The epoxy did the trick.

Otherwise every thing else fit fine.

I bought the paint today and my friend Ray is coming by to paint it tomorrow. Check out his work at FLAMES ETC.

The pick guard material came Saturday and this one worked out fine. Of course as always there are things I would change but it will do just fine. I bought a 45 degree bit for the router and made a template out of 11/16th plywood. This bit has a bearing verses the straight shaft of the Dremel bit. The thickness of the plywood is needed to guide the router bit. Stewart McDonald has instructions for this on their website.

I couldn't leave the pickguard alone, so I took it off and tweaked it a little. Oh well.

The pick guard isn't scratched. It's the protective film that covers it. I'll remove it after the final assembly.

For the more astute observer, the strap button on the heel of the bass is positioned higher up than the normal position. I saw a picture of another bass with the same set up and decided to use it on this project. The basswood is a very soft wood and I was afraid that the routing for the bridge might have weakened the area where the strap button would normally be located, so I moved it up and away from the route.

Regular guitars with tremolos have a lot more wood between the bridge and the heel of the guitar.