Anyway, it's a good project bass. My intention is to ultimately have it finished in Azure with chequerboard binding to the body, and perhaps the headstock.
I've searched and read the forum but haven't found particular answers to my questions, so here goes:
- There's a few extraneous holes dotted around the body that I will fill with dowel and sand flush. Is there a particular type of wooden dowel I should use to prevent future shrinkage?
You can see in the photo that someone has gouged out wood in the tailpiece routing to fit (I assume) a different bridge/tailpiece. I plan to route the gouging out neatly then fill it with a piece of maple so that it looks original. What's a good filler that won't shrink? I know it won't really be seen once the tailpiece is fitted, but the front edge of the "gouging" is very close to where the front edge of the tailpiece will sit once it's fitted and no matter how well I make a fill piece, I'd imagine there'll be a join line that the paint will eventually sink into and I'd like to fill it correctly to prevent this.
How do I remove the body binding. I've read Paul's posts about using an Exacto chisel blade but what's the best way to start lifting it?
Back to the non-shrinking filler - there's a few dings around the body and headstock that I'd like to fill.
No offence to the people that like Mapleglo, but to me it looks like Pooglo, lol. I was going to sand the whole thing back with 180 dry and a rubbing block before repainting it Azure. Do I need to go back to bare timber or just key the original finish?
This thing is almost a fretless now the frets are so low. I want to re-fret it but want to keep it looking "correct" Rickenbacker. I read about slicing down beside the frets before removing them etc but what's the process for finishing the ends. I want to re-bind the neck too, so will be removing the old binding.
When routing the body for the chequer binding, does it really matter how deep the route is (from front face towards the back) and how much binding is left proud of the body, as I've read about scraping it flush with the body and the replacement white binding will obviously cover it up anyway.
If I go for the headstock binding, how deep do I make that route? Do I try and leave as little as possible to scrape away? The black/white binding I have is approximately 5.5mm "tall".
so.. why not do it properly. And, you are going to refinish the whole bass, so then you can clear coat the fretboard at the same time as the rest of the bass. Also, if you strip the finish of the fretboard you'll be able to level the fretboard properly.
