G5 Bass body-Black Korina;Deluxe 5 Neck-Flame Maple, Black Ebony Lined Fretless

[Picard]

Hey everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well. Here is the progress on my G5 Black Korina body and Maple/Ebony fretless neck.  I am  :icon_biggrin: enjoying :icon_biggrin: this building process.

In short, here is what I've done:

1. Black Korina body got 4 coats of Tung Oil, steel wool between coats. After 3 coats, the bass started to shine, so I stopped at 4 - my goal being a somewhat 'raw' natural woody look. Before oiling I lightly sanded some very minor rough areas.
2. The Flame Maple received 5 costs of Behlen Master Gel, steel wool between coats. I oiled a scrap piece of Home Depot maple with multiple costs of Behlen and Tru-Oil to see the difference - looked mostly the same and for me , it seemed Behlen went on easier and had less streaks after drying+sanding. But that is me talking, a novice  :dontknow:.

Drilling this weekend, going slooooww.

Here is the 'out of the box': http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=16565.0

Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Picard

 

[Picard]

Some neck pictures:

 

[Patriot54]

Looks awesome so far - what are you doing for hardware, pickups, etc?

 

[Picard]

Hey Partriot,

-Seymour Duncan ASB-5 / Bart P2 pickups
-Seymour Duncan STC-2aSB 2-band tone circuit <== that's an experiment, never tried this

-Black Hipshot non-thru bridge, all black hardware on the body

-Chrome Gotoh tuners

-D'Addario flat wounds at first, then will try some LaBella black nylons

I *think* the black hardware on the body, silver tuners will visually work. I originally had ordered black tuners, but changed my mind.

Picard

 

[Cagey]

Looks good so far - nice job!

I disagree about the chrome tuners vs. black bridge, though. Carpet should match the drapes, belt should match the shoes, etc. You don't notice when things match, but you do when they don't.

 

[Picard]

Thanks Cagey.  You could be right on the black bridge, chrome tuners. The Gotoh tuners are inexpensive enough, so changing them out isn't an issue. The Hipshot black bridge is all brass, that was a bit pricey.

 

[TheMilkman]

that is gorgeous, very nice!

 

[Picard]

My G5 Black Korina is almost complete .... newbies have faith .... it can be done  :icon_biggrin:

Just need to do some minor drilling and minor hardware replacements (need some  black screws, maybe new knobs,etc).

Later , I'll do a full 'photo shoot' and post for the fun of it.

This photo's color is a bit off - bass photographs a little 'red' ... it is closer to a 'honey' color than what is shown.

The bass has a nice punchy sound.

Have a great 4th

 

[Cagey]

Nice job! That little lovely looks great!

 

[Patriot54]

Sweet build!  :headbang:

 

[Picard]

Thank you Patriot

Sweet build!  :headbang:

 

[Picard]

Nice job! That little lovely looks great!

Thank you Cagey. I still like the chrome tuners and black body hardware ... it somehow works for me. 

It was a very gratifying experience assembling one of these ... took my sweet time and the only time I fumbled a bit was on the soldering.

I think it was you(?) on some other post, who wrote about using Flux + soldering - my 2nd round of solder with Flux did the trick.

Most of the credit has to go to Warmoth for their workmanship (and me chanting 'patience' through out the process).

Random notes: Korina and maple /ebony is punchy ... looking for that Eberhard Weber sound .... sounds good .... strung with DR Black Beauties, look nice but to bright for me.

Picard

 

[Cagey]

It wasn't me talking about adding flux, although I might have been in on a conversation about it. But, in fact, I'd argue against it. Electrical solder already has a rosin core flux in the core. Adding more is usually a waste that just makes a mess, unless the solder you're using is non-electrical solid core solder. There's not a great deal of difference in the solder itself, although solder used for electrical purposes is often of a slightly different alloy. The proportions of tin and lead are changed to allow for a lower and narrower melting point. Plumbing solder, for instance, is usually a 50/50 mix, while electrical is 60/40 or 63/37.

As long as you didn't use acid flux, you should be fine. If you did, you may as well rip out all the electronics and replace them now, because it's guaranteed to fail on you in the near future.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Congrats, it looks really cool!

 

[Picard]

Thank you Fernando

 

[Eric Banjitar]

Very nice work! I like the way that the mineral streaking in the body matches the black strings. This looks to be a very clean build. It looks crisp.  Good job.

 

[Picard]

Very nice work! I like the way that the mineral streaking in the body matches the black strings. This looks to be a very clean build. It looks crisp.  Good job.

Thanks Eric. Great point that the black strings emphasize the streaking in the wood. I hadn't even thought of that!

I tried to keep it simple but elegant, didn't want overstep my skills.  BTW, your 6 string 'banjo' is very innovative and I really liked the sound and chord progress near minute 2:09 of your video post.

 

[Picard]

Some close up picts:

 

[Picard]

And more picts ....

 

[Cagey]

'Tis a fine thing you've built there, Mr. Picard. Looks great even up close.