The Last Bass Outpost

Sparkle Plenty gone to happy customer. 32" scale with Rotosound Jazz flats. 7.8 lbs.




NR 52 with ThunderBucker Wide5 pickups, 'doghaired' fumed white oak veneer and binding on poplar body. Satin hardware.

I custom mixed this from GM9792 waterbase/solvent basecoat with Kolorefx  'Silver Stunner' flake topped with Hi Performance Clear Acrylic Lacquer.  It's a combo of modern basecoat/clearcoat without the Isocyanate high or pot life of Urethane. It's actually 3 stage: Flat black/ Base Coat/Clear Coats.  The color coat required about five ounces of material.



It looks a lot better in this video:

Gets color sanded and buffed in about a week. The automotive acrylic lacquer is a durable but thin finish(compared to urethanes) with great transparency.  I'm gonna add 2 drops Mohawk Pano Lacquer per gallon and call it 'Nitro' Pretty much what everybody else does...

I'm finally moving on from shimmed neck pockets. Made a quick jig that rises .030 from the 15th fret to the 20th which gives about a .125 rise at the bridge on a 34" scale neck.

I worked with the blank of a 32" scale G8r I'm building and then decided to upgrade my MAX41 to a 21 fret set neck with tilt headstock and ebony fretboard.  Also going to do a raised center on it.







Harbor Freight $10 Wheel of Death makes a quick job of contouring.





One piece 1-1/2" poplar blank weighs 3.8 lbs.  About the same as basswood but harder.

Saturday Shop Snap

Wrong bridge for a '67, no matter if it's an early or late one.

Not surprised in the least.

A trademark application was $75 last time I checked. If Pistorio was in it for anything but fun he should have investigated the possibilities, especially before making expensive capital investment - and considering the Rick connection. 

A 3D printer would make quick work of producing those things. Tech marches on.

Uli Salm, my patron. six Cataldos among his five hundred plus bass collection.



40th anniversary celebration of 'Rudolf Rock & die Shocker' in Hamburg with two Cataldos, one on the shoulder and one in the rack.

White pickguard wasn't cutting it so I veneered the same oak I used on the top to either side.  This is the bottom already veneered/trimmed and stuck to the top.  I used Weldwood spray contact cement and a sharp utility knife to trim. I did get a bit of tear out on the bottom so I used more contact cement on the top.  That did the trick.



All the hardware sanded to a satin finish with 1000 wetordry, wood finished with two heavy sealer coats and steel wooled with #0000.




Now to find a buyer...

Revised G8R body for a 32" single pickup 4 string in Neptune Blue Firemist Metallic.