What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

Pauleo1214 said:
One for the bike nerds again.

A few months back I got a carbon fiber Trek bike. While I could ride it comfortably after adjustments, I found that it.was simply too big of a frame at 58cm but at least it will fit my dad.

I got myself a Bianchi Via Nirone 7 C2C. great aluminum frame and carbon fork but the Shimano Sora groupset is awful. The shifters feel flimsy. The Taiwanese Jalco wheels also felt rickety. So I sourced a period correct if not slightly older Shimano Dura Ace groupset and Mavic wheels (w/ Ultegra hubs). Cleaned them all up and polished them. Time to build!
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She's complete! Bianchi Via Nirrone 7 C2C. I ripped out the original SHimano Sora entry level groupset for early 00's Shimano Dura Ace. I also took out the stock Taiwanese wheels and subbed them for Mavics. The shifting is nice and crisp and the wheels with Shimano Ultegra hubs roll smooth.
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Attempting a rescue on a gifted spare body for my fretless Marco Bass:

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The finish on the front was extensively cracked and ratty from fire and then water damage in my friend's shop, and he's been burning wrecked bodies in his wood stove regularly lately. I'll be trimming down the goofy top horn and maybe the bottom one a bit this time around as well. Maybe just a natural oil finish, or maybe a tinted ceruse one, depending on how it all cleans up. The top is ash but the back wings look like they may be cedar or some other softer, looser grained species. Since all the other parts are already on a functioning bass it's a low pressure adventure, and this time around I'll have a more solid control layout plan for sure.
 
That's awesome the body doesn't have any control-holes in it yet.

For the body-mods, I'd start with reducing the lower horn, but I like the top horn as is!
Top horn is somewhere between a horn and a single-cut dealio.

The biggest benefit of cutting down the top horn, IMO, is overall weight-reduction.
 
Feral Feline said:
That's awesome the body doesn't have any control-holes in it yet.

For the body-mods, I'd start with reducing the lower horn, but I like the top horn as is!
Top horn is somewhere between a horn and a single-cut dealio.

The biggest benefit of cutting down the top horn, IMO, is overall weight-reduction.
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Marco's idea was kind of the split the difference on the singlecut thing. The bass as it currently is is not super heavy, so it just boils down to aesthetics really. And I think what finish I go with may dictate how much or little horn trimming I go for, so I want to see everything in bare wood before I do anything else. Could be quite a while before I can do any finish work anyway, so I'll just grab whatever weather windows come along for hand sanding and get there when I get there.

For a refresh, this is how I trimmed the upper horn on the first body:

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I really didn't want to mess with the burst finish too much, and tried to keep things simpatico with Marco's original shape, which never sold well and has been the brunt of many hack jobs over the years. This was his entry level line, but the other ones I've played all sound fantastic, and mine has much more uptown pickups, plus of course my super awesome electronics.:ROFLMAO:
 
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Only hardware fix I need to perform. Problem is, I have no way to get into the resonator without doing more harm to it... :unsure: I could take off the sympathetic string board and get to see into a small gap, that allows some tools to reach it from the inside, but not much more. Thank god I got tools for building some tools myself.

Anyone an idea what's the best approach for this? Online sources maybe?
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tegendemuur said:
Only hardware fix I need to perform. Problem is, I have no way to get into the resonator without doing more harm to it... :unsure: I could take off the sympathetic string board and get to see into a small gap, that allows some tools to reach it from the inside, but not much more. Thank god I got tools for building some tools myself.

Anyone an idea what's the best approach for this? Online sources maybe?
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Are we looking at a crack in an acoustic instrument here? Looks like a pretty stable situation. I might just rock it. You could maybe water down some wood glue and try and force some in there from the outside with finger pressure.
 
Erik S said:
Are we looking at a crack in an acoustic instrument here? Looks like a pretty stable situation. I might just rock it. You could maybe water down some wood glue and try and force some in there from the outside with finger pressure.
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Yeah, an acoustic. It's a bulbous curve, which might be helpful as well. I'll read up on how to do the water thing you mentioned! Using that was something that had crossed my mind, and as the gap is very slight it just needs a teensy tiny bit of expansion / pressure to get back together, but didn't know it was an actual way to do these minimal repairs on acoustics. The crack itself looks clean (no grime or anything has gotten in, so I suspect the bumpy / stormy ride in the ferry gave it a slap-around. Nothing too bad!).
 
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tegendemuur said:
Only hardware fix I need to perform. Problem is, I have no way to get into the resonator without doing more harm to it... :unsure: I could take off the sympathetic string board and get to see into a small gap, that allows some tools to reach it from the inside, but not much more. Thank god I got tools for building some tools myself.

Anyone an idea what's the best approach for this? Online sources maybe?
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I'd take the filings/superglue approach. Scrape/sand/file some of the wood from inside to create some fine powder of that wood and mix with a bit of super glue. Deftly apply that mixture to the crack and allow it to dry. Then carefully sand and buff accordingly.
 
Folks sell little mirrors that look like mini-laptops. I typically have to set one of those up to get my kitties to stop jumping on my keyboard.

I wonder if they sell mini soldering stations...
 
I’m working on custom wires for my EMG pickups for my new guitar. No way I’m paying $70 for a wiring harness I can make myself for way less. Also mine with have a push push switch and shadow kill pot. Waiting on the pots and a 7 pin connector.
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Passinwind said:
Attempting a rescue on a gifted spare body for my fretless Marco Bass:

The finish on the front was extensively cracked and ratty from fire and then water damage in my friend's shop, and he's been burning wrecked bodies in his wood stove regularly lately.
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I like the burned look on this it reminds me of Japanese shou sugi ban woodwork.
 
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