Finishing Touches

Most intense moment, gluing on the neck.  Did I use enough glue?   Are the clamps tight enough?  Too tight?  Is the neck level?  Is it flat against the body?  Rrrrrr.  I think it's OK.  I used curved blocks on the fingerboard again.  Also, you can see the 1/2" hole I drilled in the side for the guitar cord jack.  It goes into one of the control cavities.

On the bottom, the clamps sit on a piece of wood I drilled to let the dowel pins and excess glue through:

I needed to string the guitar to check bridge height, check for buzzing strings, nut height, so I installed the machines by pressing the machine bushings in with a vise, then screwing on the gear plate assemblies.   Here it is strung!

Here is the truss rod nut cover, made from a scrap of inlayed fingerboard.   There is a wood screw under the top inlayed circle to hold it on.

The mahogany control knobs:

Here is the finished bass, with linseed oil finish.  The oil beautifully brought out the grain of the mahogany.  Yay!  Now I just have to learn to play it.

July 2003.