Wednesday 15 April 2015

The amazing colour changing bass guitar

Some of you will know that I play bass guitar (occasionally). I have long fancied making another and adding an extra string. When I spotted this 5 string guitar kit I decided it was time to have one. This time, rather than cutting the body out myself I got someone else to do it but it still needed finishing and assembling. Here's the picture highlights!

Dry assembly for marking the bridge location for pilot holes

Testing the finishes in places that don't matter once the sanding was finished.

Dye applied to the wood (wet). I had a pile of ancient fabric dyes in the garage I decided to try and they seemed to work quite well!

And the colour once dry. It really did change that much!

With the first layers of french polish it changed again.

All polished up.

Applying lemon oil to the fretboard.

Earthing the bridge with a bit of aluminium tape.

Checking the conductivity - you want the strings to be well grounded.

More bits go on. Several of the tiny screws for putting all the bits on were useless! I snapped a few even with pilot holes.

Wired up and fitting strings.