Kit jazz bass arrived (pictures when camera charges)

[JimBeed]

Well recieved my kit jazz bass for my university project this morning, and as i didnt know what make it would be for the kit, i had a nice surprise when i saw it was infact the saga kit.
Measuring up the thing it looks as though the neck pocket would be a snug fit for a warmoth jazz neck.
As it appears a little under the size the warmoth pocket is width wise, and nearly the same depth and length wise.
I will get more accurate measurements when i get onto a inches to cm converter to check out my measurements i took. 
Looking at the bridge it comes with 5 main holes for attaching the bridge at the back, and two further up the body.
Measuring it up to a gotoh 201 i believe a 201 would fit well for when i upgrade the parts on this thing in easter. As the gotoh is five holes and would cover the two further up i believe.
Pictures ill post later as the camera i bought today is charging.

Now, there is a place near me that sells spray cans of guitar laquer,
and what i was considering doing was a black back with a burst on the front with a deep transparent red colour they also sell.
This would happen in easter when it starts warming up.
from the guide the seller gives on how to do a burst paint scheme with his aerosol cans it doesnt look too hard to accomplish.
What do you guys think? or would i be safer off doing it a usual black or such.

The body looks like a nice stable piece of wood ( believe its basswood),
with a future upgrade of the neck and the electronics and pick ups i believe this could become a very nice halfmoth.
What do you guys think?

 

[Cagey]

I don't think you get enough control with a spray can to do bursts. You kinda need an airbrush, or a gun you can adjust the pressure/flow/pattern on. But, that may be just me.

As for your conversion, did you know Google has a built-in capability for that? Nothing to download or anything. It's part of the search engine, and it's incredibly comprehensive. You just give it the term you know, and ask for the metric you want, and it'll convert.

For instance, if you say "27kph in furlongs per fortnight", it comes back with "27 kph = 45,096.6356 furlongs per fortnight". Or, you could say "2 3/16 inches in centimeters" and it'll come back with "(2 3/16) inches = 5.55625 centimeters". "3 horsepower in watts" returns "3 horsepower = 2,237.09961 watts". On and on. It's pretty handy.

 

[JimBeed]

Well as it would be my first attempt at a finish maybe i should go with a plain black or something then,
even plain black would look nice with the neck from warmoth im hoping they still have in stock once my easter grant comes in.
So i think ill take your advice and go simpler this time, the guy that did the guide on how to has done alot of finishes, so probably has alot more control than me.
And no i did not know that google has a built in capability for that, thanks very much, ill get on with converting the measurements from the warmoth site into cms,
In my original measuring i did use the inches half of my tape measure, so it was fairly accurate, but know i can get the cm's reading more accurate.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I am by no means an authority on finishes, but I've heard that black can be a tough color too because it shows scratches so easily.  Take that with a grain of salt though, because I don't have any firsthand experience with guitar finishing.

 

[JimBeed]

Hmmm that does make sense though,  gawd what to do, really do want to do the finish myself,
as its a pretty cheap body but will im sure be alot better with a warmoth neck and improved electrics :confused4:
Least ive got till spring to decide what to do as its too cold to do any finishing in england right now.
Might do dakota red this person sells, would hopefully go with the neck planning on buying.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I did a couple of kits a number of years ago, one of them was this P-bass:

I replaced the pickup with an SD Quarter Pounder and added the tortoise pickguard, the thumbrest and the bridge/pu covers. Apart from that, it's stock. On a strat that I also built from a kit I had to replace the tuners but on this bass they're quite serviceable.
The finish is a simple antique white, I think it was called Ivory White, from a rattle can. The single most important thing when finishing using rattle cans, is preparing for the finish. On the kits which I did, the surface was already grain filled so I just had to shoot a couple of layers of primer and I was good to go. Incidentally, the Project Guitar site has a number of tutorials on finishing, including this one on shooting bursts: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/burst.htm

Very probably, when you do your first finishes, you'll have to restart a couple of times before you think you got it right. Then, in a year's time or so, you'll look at it again and realize it's nowhere near right and you need to strip it and do it over. Or start with a new build.

How does it stack up against my Warmoths? They all are better. Especially sustain but also general playability. But it will get the job done reliably: occasionally I drag it out on a gig where I don't want to put one of my other instruments at risk: if it's raining and we have to play outdoors, if there is a risk of theft, if there is a chance I may have to use it as a club...

 

[JimBeed]

Thanks very much, yeah the instructions for mine say its already grain filled
and would just require primer and the colour, which i can get both of along with the clear coat from same place

Well was definately going to replace the pickup and such with better components once its done as a project guitar for a university thing i have to do.
But then what im planning is a warmoth neck.
Gotoh bridge likely.
Seymour duncan or fender jazz set pick ups.
Thanks for the advice on the finishing.

 

[JimBeed]

Picture Filled Long Post Alert!

Sorry for the lack of pictures till now , university set deadlines way too close to handing work out  :tard:
Well heres the entire kit.

Now for finishing around easter ive looked at a few options, Im looking at tonetech rattle can laquers for doing the finish with, Either dakota red or black if i was to do a full solid finish.
But i like the look of there Deep purple tint or wine red tint, but if i go with the tint do you think the greenish/grey streaks in the bottom part of the body front would show up much? and the colour variation/extra bit of wood added just underneath that? (the streaks show more in person than in the picture.
If i go with the tint im thinking of doing a careful job with low tack masking tape to mask off the sides and spray the front with the tint. then when the front is dry, mask off the front and spray the back and sides black, likely with a burst over onto the front purple, or should i just do the back front and sides in the tint colour if i do that, however there are one or two blemishes on the back of the body, however i doubt thats a problem as theyre at the back, opinions?

This is a picture of the paddle headstock, now the instructions say you can outline the shape you want to cut, and then use a small saw with a wood blade fitted to it to cut the rough outline then course sandpaper then fine sandpaper is smooth.
Opinions again? however this neck wont have much of a life on this bass as when i get my next grant if the necks still in the showcase il be pairing the body with a purpleheart neck with ebony fingerboard with pearloid blocks, but for my project i cant leave the headstock as a paddle.

Now my final question for this post is this, this is a picture of the bridge area, now i dont know how well the bridge will work that came with the bass, but im thinking once i get round to upgrading this and finishing it, ill likely upgrade to a gotoh 201 bridge, which has five holes just like this one, and the spacing when i measured seems very close, by half a mm or less. and im thinking that the gotoh bridge would cover the two further up holes this bridge also uses, opinions again?

Thanks for any opinions/help with this.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

If you're doing a solid color you should shoot a primer coat first.
That would be matte white or light gray and would prevent any of the streaks showing through. Deep Purple or Wine Red would both be fine.
For the headstock, there are lots of options. Router, jigsaw, belt sander, ...
Two things are essential: you have to come up with a good design and you have to put enough effort into finishing. Dings and ripples in the edge of the headstock are certain to spoil the result.
This is how I finished the headstock on the kit which I mentioned previously. As you see you don't have to stick to the looks of the original.

 

[Cagey]

Nice job on that headstock, Mr. Frenzy. That looks both unique and attractive.

 

[JimBeed]

Yeah i heard about primer for solid colour from  finishing website too , but thanks for the reminder. :icon_thumright:
Im tempted to go with the wine red or the purple as would merge kind of with the purplewood neck hoping to get, the wine red i think more so maybe judging by the picture,
Suggestions on doing the whole body in the colour or masking the sides off and doing a black back and sides burst over onto the purple or red top colour?
Will be careful when i do the headstock then,
Im not entirely sure if i will replace the neck with a warmoth neck or not, but i might well at a later date.
But definately be swapping out the pickups for better ones, possibly the bridge, but the tuners on my kit look stable aswell. so have to wait and see.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I'm not too keen on the masking the body thing. I can see that working on something with a sharp edge between the body top and sides, like a tele, but here you have radiused edges and I don't really see where you could have a sharp line between the front and the back without it looking awkward. Personally I'd go for the same color front, back and sides. If you want to go with different colors I'd say you'd have to learn to blend or burst the transition. You do know that you should always practice any new technique on a piece of scrap, don't you? Some of us here look at guitar kits as the scrap we practice on before taking the torch to a $450 W neck, but you may want to just pick up some assorted pieces of timber from the local DIY. You may end up using a couple more rattle cans than originally planned but believe me that is a small price to pay.

 

[JimBeed]

Yeah if i went with black back it wouldve been burst over, but ill go with the front back and sides the same.
And yup heard plenty of times about the using scrap pieces of wood to practice on, which is exactly what
ill do with some i know i have back at home when i move home for summer
I mean if i finish it nice enough with practice i wil most likely put a warmoth neck on and seymour duncans or other pickups and that in it.

 

[JimBeed]

Well got up at 10 today on my day off university, borrowed friends larger screw driver, and here is the result

  :blob7:

Tested the pickups with the screw driver and the bridge responds to the volume increase/decrease, aswell as any change in the tone, however the neck pickup only gives off a very weak sound at best,
now when i was installing them just as i was screwing down the control plate i think i saw the white wire from the neck pickup had got a part of it where the plastic housing was damaged and the wire was showing a bit,
now i think some of the wires in that one maybe broken at that point, could this be a reason for the very low output of the neck pickup? , Would it possibly cause damage to myself or anything to not rectify the wire problem?
Simply as the original electrics arent going to be in it for long after i have finished my university project, till i get my hands on some rio grande, fender or seymour duncan jazz bass pick ups.