I hear you-
Been working in my garage and its been getting in the 90's here the last week, seem hotter in garage...so, I put a fan (small vornado) about 3 feet from my work space directed at me.  seems to have that added benefit of blowing sanding dust away as well and onto my wifes car (that wasn't so great, since she had recently had it washed...oopsie...

(Scotty's '77  s-1 is being worked on) removed finish, and did some small sanding.
Thats been a thing...
Since I convinced him to buy the bass - (he is probably going to sell it, and other equipment he has in an effort to downsize with his work issue)
I asked him to let me refinish it, and I may just buy it from him? Also not going to make the wife happy...
 
On another note - This has been a fun side project...Turning my friends old snowboard into a small sitting bench for a friend thats moving away to Lake Tahoe.  I know nothing of snowboards...the veneer is very thin, but managed to clean it up pretty well and match the stain look.  The bench underneath is fairly inexpensive bench from amazon I cut down and matched the parabolic shape.  Still work to do, but something different to keep brain busy.

I like that snowboard project Ed. Very cool upcycle. 

Just to close this one out... I finished up the S.L. Mossman guitar over the last few days in the shop and returned it to the store today along with a few other jobs. I was starting to get covered up with other work and needed to just get it outta' there, so enough with the detailed documentary. I'll tell you this much; the finish on that guitar... I don't know what happened to it. It was so oxidized that I was really afraid to do much more to it than I had already. It was clean, moderately glossy... so good enough. Once the bridge was glued back on, it was just a matter of drilling the pin holes back out. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the bridgeplate had a significant amount of wear from years of string ball-ends tugging into it, so while there was easy access with the bridge off, I plugged all six holes with a batch of my "wood fudge", an emulsion of slow-set epoxy and wood dust made into a pourable goo. Once it fills all those voids and cavities and hardens, you can drill back through it and the strings pull against a nice new, hard surface for years to come.

And we went with the firestripe pattern tortoise pickguard material. I already showed you all the template. It was a matter of tracing, cutting, beveling the edges, sticking it down, and peeling. Easy-peasy. I think it looks better than black.

I chose ebony bridge pins with abalone dots, simply because that's what the endpin was. But I put a new chrome strap button on the neck heel, to match the old Schaller M-6's that I spent a good afternoon soaking in naptha and toothbrushing to get them this shiny again. I plugged the six vacant screw holes in the back of the headstock where the original Grover Rotomatics had been mounted. It's the little things that bug me. I probably should have just run six little screws in there and called it good.

It really did not disappoint when I tuned it up and gave it a test run either. I've play a LOT of old guitars, and I won't forget this one. Very much its own thing. Very focused bass, very clear trebles and volume to spare. Played like a dream too, even with medium gauge strings. Somebody is going to snag a good one.

Very nice work! Hope you get some cooler temps to help move things along!
Reagrding your 'wood fudge' is it made from scratch each time or can you save it?

Quote from: Artgeckko on June 16, 2026, 09:35:54 PMVery nice work! Hope you get some cooler temps to help move things along!
Reagrding your 'wood fudge' is it made from scratch each time or can you save it?

I buy the Devcon brand, (they call it 2-Ton, 30-minute) in the dual syringe-like tubes, made so you squeeze out an equal amount of resin and hardener. It's also a smaller quantity so less expensive. (usually just need a very small amount of this stuff... the bigger bottles go bad and get thrown out before I use it) So I mix up only what amount is needed in a small batch on an empty guitar string pack, then mix in some fine sawdust from the belt sander or bandsaw. It looks a lot like fudge batter. Smells pretty awful. The slow set stuff allows it to flow better during the reaction time, and any air bubbles to rise out. Without the wood dust, it cures basically clear or a bit cloudy. If the mix is right, it cures very hard. Which is why I like the dual syringe packaging... it takes the approximation/guesswork out. See, there is a difference in viscosity between the resin and hardener... when you are trying to get two equal pools of stuff from bottles, one solution spreads out more. And again... the bigger bottles cost a lot more and go bad before I use them.

Good info! Does the color tend to be darker when dry? 
Btw, I tried to use some water based clear grain filler from Stew Mac. Claimed to be perfectly clear.  Well, not in this case. Thought it would save some time in late stage finishing, instead had to clean / sand it all out.  To check I kept cleaning with acetone to see where it still was hiding.  Maybe it's good for paint finish? Not for clear, unless I did something wrong (always possible)   

Quote from: Artgeckko on June 19, 2026, 08:28:14 AMGood info! Does the color tend to be darker when dry? 
Btw, I tried to use some water based clear grain filler from Stew Mac. Claimed to be perfectly clear.  Well, not in this case. Thought it would save some time in late stage finishing, instead had to clean / sand it all out.  To check I kept cleaning with acetone to see where it still was hiding.  Maybe it's good for paint finish? Not for clear, unless I did something wrong (always possible) 

Sometimes I actually save different kinds of wood dust for different applications. For instance, when I'm fitting a new bridge on an upright bass, that generates a nice pile of very pure, fine maple dust. Easy to sweep into a string pack and label for later use. Same idea when fitting a new ebony mandolin or archtop guitar bridge. The 220-grit adhesive-backed sandpaper generates a powder-y dust that is easy to collect. A good source of rosewood dust comes from planing bass fingerboards... I usually end up doing a few every year. It's not difficult to just grind or sand any type, but for the purpose of plugging a guitar bridgeplate, it really didn't matter. I simply spooned up whatever was on top. Fudge batter brown. 💩

*I've never used the Stew-Mac grain filler. I have used a water-based Behlen product, a loooong time ago.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on June 06, 2026, 12:48:49 PMAnything is better than a hole.

Don't tell Willie!

Peter

I stopped in the store yesterday to drop off and pick up this week's work... the S.L. Mossman had already sold. Jack grinned... told me it was gone in two days. That one sold itself, he said. I just handed it to a guy. 

I wasn't sure whether to post this one on the Misc. Thread or my Shop Thread. Since I haven't put anything up here in a while and since this particular client won't mind if I do, here a cool bass guitar I took in for setup last week.

It was just about as filthy/dirty as any in recent memory. Story I got was, the player who owned it switched to 5-string years ago and just stuck it in the case. Apparently stored in a moldy basement. I spent the better part of yesterday stripping the hardware off and cleaning it, scrubbing the fingerboard, and I resorted to naptha to get the body free of... I really can't say what all. Chocolate Yoo-Hoo maybe? It was sticky, brown, and fuzzy. Hard to say. You just can't be snooty or squeamish when you do what I do. 

It turned out there was a beautiful bass underneath all that. The 9v battery had leaked out and rotted the plastic access trapdoor, and all four mounting screws. I drilled them out, and made a maple battery box cover. Fortunately the connector was fine. I lined it with some adhesive-backed cork and installed a new battery. 

After some cleaning and new foam under the pickups, the electronics work perfectly. I think it's got a Volume/Pan, (the gold knobs) and a 3-band boost/cut eq section. (the black plastic ones) I'm not entirely sure what the ball-bat switch does, but it definitely does something to the output. Possibly a pickup phase? Maybe an active/passive switch? I dunno... I haven't even looked online to see. Come to think of it, Rudy himself is a Club Member here, maybe he could clue me in?

Anyway, it's a really nice bass, representative of Peavey USA. I've never seen one before in-person. Sounds fantastic! I very much enjoyed working on it. 

Here's a few pictures. Y'all please overlook my untidy shop. I've been busy this week.

Oh yeah, it's in the original hardshell case. And get a load of these strings. They're... uhhh... they ain't no good.

Hacker trick:
Old bass strings make for a VERY good muffler 'hanger' repair item.   Preferably with the ball end still attached, you make a bass string loop and secure your rattling pipe(s).
G & D strings do well for most standard applications, stout and easily tightened.
A & E are for off-road and heavier requirements.    

That sounds (and, from the old strings, looks) like my Regal Duolian.
When my friend handed it to me & said "Here, work on slide" it had been in storage for a number of years.  It took me 4 days to get rid of the gunk, mold, rodent droppings, nest of dead bugs, etc., from it & its case.
The strings looked almost like those (mine had more rust).
Enough to make me glad you didn't include "before" pix.......

Peter

Quote from: pauldo on Yesterday at 12:35:16 PMHacker trick:
Old bass strings make for a VERY good muffler 'hanger' repair item.... [snip]

Yes indeed. Did this with a spare E string once. 

Quote from: cozmik_cowboy on Yesterday at 04:21:26 PM[snip]...
Enough to make me glad you didn't include "before" pix.......

Peter

It was dee-sgusting. You can still see some pitting on the bridge. The tuning machines cleaned up nice. The finish did too. The fingerboard had a freakin' crust of scum caked on it. I softened it up with solvent and scraped with a little chip of maple veneer. Then I soaked it in lemon oil and scrubbed with a green scour pad. Then polished it more with 0000 steel wool. That was the hardest work. I didn't even realize that nut was brass when I started... it was tarnished black. 
-------- 
I forgot to mention in the first post, the bass is a USA Peavey Rudy Sarzo signature bass. They evidently have some following. Some of the Aria Rudy Sarzo signature basses had Alembic activators.