Bass Update #6

Bass Update #6

So applying epoxy isn't as easy as I thought. The 2 part crystal clear epoxy will harden to a glass like finish- which is awesome on a fretless fingerboard. It prevents string wear, and adds its own tone to the mix. Jaco Pastorious, according to legend, pried the frets off his bass and coated the neck in epoxy. Without the thick layer of epoxy, the roundwound strings would eat through the fingerboard and cause all sorts of problems later on. I join the ranks of 500 bored teenagers that have taken apart their guitars in the name of science.

Problems can mess it all up though. I combined the two parts and mixed it too much... causing microscopic bubbles to develop. I then brushed it on too thin... and didn't blow out the bubbles like I was supposed to. The result was a glassy surface that looked like the craters of the moon. I had to sand it off and start all over again.

This time I mixed it better, there were only a few bubbles. I then poured it on thick and smoothed it out with a sponge brush. The epoxy evened itself out and there were few bubbles to be seen. I checked the surface with light and saw that there were a few tiny dust particles that show up here and there on the neck. When the epoxy hardens in a couple days, I'll wet sand some of the rough spots and give it another coat. I think two coats will do the job.

Sticky stuff. I'm not sure how the professionals do it. HG Thor Guitar Lab specializes in fretless neck epoxy coatings. They create a crystal clear job that looks awesome from the pictures I've seen. I'm not aiming for a super professional job, I just want something that looks neat and sounds awesome. The cure time is 72 hours... so I'm going to wait and then sand and recoat. Then wait another 72 hours, and then sand and buff.

It doesn't look like staining will work... so I'm thinking of a solid color.