Official Luthiers Forum!

This is my latest 4 string - another night or two to cut the nut and set it up, and it'll be out the door.

The top is a bursted zebrawood, that I tried to match the two-tone coco fretboard with. I think it will finish up beautifully. I will post final pictures when it is totally done...but some teasers:

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

Killer work Stephen!

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Love it, Stephen! The burst and fretboard combo is Masterful.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

That's truly one of the nicest (if not the nicest) basses I've ever seen! The finish is . . . wow . . .

Great job Stephen....very nice bass.

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Brad
Avon, OH

I completely agree! This is a phenomenal bass

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Dan

Thanks so much.

I finally feel like I am making improvements on my finishes, and was even more so inspired after spending a little more time with Joe White at the Chicago gathering.
The finish is a 2-part catalyzed automotove clear polyurethane. My biggest point of advice is this: spray less, but more coats, and use good materials to finish it up. I finally bought Mirka gold sanding discs, and it really makes a difference. Make sure your sanding area is clean of all gritty dust, to ensure you are not trapping some particulate between the paper and the body - making worse scratches than you are taking out...

THANK!
Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

What a tasteful bass! Nice work.

Are those caps or inductors? It looks like they are setup to humcancel.

Thanks Sheldon!

Actually, those caps are just hooked up in parallel. I work for an acoustic transducer company - mainly for anti-submarine warfare as opposed to music, but...We bought like $2000 of components (1960's - 1980's). Those caps were expensive at the time, and were of a manufacturer that no longer produces, and of a substance that is not common so I wanted to hear what they sounded like. However, they were a little light on their capacitance, so I doubled them up. And they are huge and that just looks cool

The electronics are the quietest I have ever built - and the guitar is set up to play the single coils in parallel or series with a push/pull switch on the master volume. Good shielding, good filtering. Still need to figure out why it is sooo quiet, although I was happy.

Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

That is my idea of a burst. Very nicely done. What brand of cat-urethane are you using?

Barry,

I ended up settling on an "off brand" finish - as opposed to DuPont or some of the other big guys. This was a decision based on clarity, depth of finish, and ease of use.

It is
AutoBody Master
Professional Prodcution Clear
#9001 - production clear
#9002 - fast catalyst

Thanks so much,
Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com