More coats

I put my fifth coat of tung oil on the bass this morning. I'd post pictures, but it looks a lot like the last one I posted. I noticed a couple of spots that should have been addressed prior to finishing - amazing how that wet oil gloss brings out the flaws! The final finish will be matte, down the road I'll have to sand it down and address these spots (there's that promise!).

The spalted maple was pretty smooth when I finished sanding - spalted maple will never be completely smooth. Boy does it absorb oil! Different parts of the wood absorb oil at different rates too, which means its not very smooth any more. I expected this as it happens every time I've used spalted, but its always surprising. The good news is that if its absorbing this much oil, it will act as a stabilizer for the wood.

I figure three coats today, maybe 2 or 3 tomorrow. I'll buff the final coat with 0000 steel wool and let it dry over night. It still looks like Friday will be bass building day. I have to get to the hardware store and get some screws for the control cavity and truss rod covers and get some springs for the pickups (the springs push the pickups up against the screws).

I need to figure out how that second screw on the back pickup is going to work - the wiring channel wiped out the spot where the screw would have gone. I can either glue in a piece of wood or maybe a small piece of right angled metal. I'll have to look at it further. That's something I probably should have worked out before starting finishing - that's the kind of time consuming thing that will drive me nuts as I put things together - I'll have to wait for glue to dry - a true test of my patience.