Update on building a lighter bass; need neck help in Puyallup/Tacoma

[AprioriMark]

Ok, so... I made a recent post on here concerning my need to build a lighter bass, and I managed to find a black, painted 3 lb 2 oz poplar P-bass body.  Obviously, I'd prefer natural wood, but this is a pretty darned light body.  I'm thinking that I'm going to toss in a Duncan pickup that I have and order a green pearloid pickguard and a neck from Warmoth.  Now, I'm thinking that I want to order a maple/maple neck, and have it finished in a vintage tint.

I notice that it says that Warmoth finishes over the frets (/boggle), and that it'd need to be removed during a setup.  I'm not comfortable doing this myself, and if I'm going to have to have someone set it up and fix the finish/fret issue, I feel like I might as well pay the same guy to do the finish in the first place, and maybe have a decal applied to the headstock.

Do any of you have any advice as far as who I might seek out to do this work in the Puyallup/Tacoma area?  I'll post pictures after it's built, of this bass and my other Warmoth basses.

Thanks!

-Mark

 

[UTSC]

you don't need to remove it, it'll come off on its own with player wear

if you need to remove it, just tape off the area between the frets and use some steel wool on the frets

 

[AprioriMark]

That won't bork up the tone or playability?

-Mark

 

[UTSC]

To tell you the truth, i didn't notice too much of a difference on my maple guitar neck.

If you still feel it's an issue for you, then i would hit the frets with some steel wool in the method i outlined above. Blue painter's tape works well.
As a side note, have you considered going exotic for a neck wood? With the cost of finishing, they come out to about the same as a finished maple neck. I find a raw neck to have much better playability if that's what you're after.


Cheers,

 

[AprioriMark]

Yeah, my main bass is a Bloodwood/Ebony unfinished neck, and I love it.  I'm just building this one to visually match my Jazzmaster, and I don't have a maple/maple Fender-style bass right now.  My original plan was to build a lighter bass from scratch, but this body fell into my lap from a friend's American P-bass.  He actually was putting his neck on a Warmoth body, so win/win.  I just decided to go with a more Traditional look with this one (sorta), and I'm still pondering building another bass.

My other idea for a lightweight bass (since I'm building the above one because I need it for a couple gigs in Japan in May, assuming I can get the neck from Warmoth in time):

I want to get a lightweight body and create a template that I can overlay text around the border (I lost a daughter 4 years ago, and I want to put a poem that I've written to her on this bass, so that every time I play it, it's like a prayer).  I'll then use a router/whatever to carve out the words (I say I will, but my woodworking friend will), and perhaps fill them with dark paint or dye before overlaying a transparent color.  I'll consult Jack at JP Guitars, since he's done amazing finishing work for me in the past, and perhaps even have him build the whole bass... I'm undecided, because I want to pick the actual piece of wood.  I'll likely use Warmoth parts because of that.

I just figured that this was a little ambitious, and needs to be done perfectly, so I should build a utilitarian instrument with this body I was given and take my time with this second lighter bass.

-Mark

 

[UTSC]

Wow, sorry to hear about your daughter, and that's a wonderful idea you have there. If you're kicking around something done in inlay perhaps you may want to check out www.sharkinlay.com Looking at his work I am impressed and I think that he could come up with something meaningful for you. I'm sure he can do something along the lines of an angel or a dove if you're into that sort of thing.

Cheers,

 

[SkuttleFunk]

Jack is a great guy and does stellar work (including finishing). he finished several of my first custom scratch builds for me, and did a knock-out job at a very reasonable price

all the best,

R