Jazz Bass For Band "Railway"

Jazz Style (1) Bass Guitar Built For Schenectady New York Band "Railway"

A Jazz Style (1) Bass Guitar was to be built for the Schenectady New York area country/rock band called "Railway". This bass was is outfitted with J-Retro active electronics, Aero Instruments (2) jazz style pick-ups manufactured to ThunderHouse Instruments specifications and an unusually rare experimental bass vibrato/tremolo unit in the tailpiece. Pickguard, with "Railway's" logo, was custom made for ThunderHouse Instruments by Terrapin Custom Pickguards.

Body was Rock Maple as was the neck. Neck laminations were of the exotic species 'Bubinga' and was outfitted with an Ebony fingerboard. Green Abalone was used for inlay material. Finish was an environmentally friendly water based Lacquer by Crystalac. Medium-High 18% Nickel-Sliver fretwire (Width=0.095", Crown= 0.045", Tang= 0.073") was used as was a brass nut with no Zero Fret. Scale length was a standard 34".
Schaller Security Straplocks and Tuning Heads were used. D'Addario Long Scale EXL-160 Medium Round Wound Bass Strings were to complete the project.

Because of my illness, the project remains 90% completed, however as I am unable to access my shop in my current state, it remains a "work in progress" until a further date.

(1) "Jazz Style" refers to the Fender Jazz Bass, a registered trademark of Fender Guitars.

(2) Aero Instruments owned by Larry J. Pollack was located in Oceanside California when I visited their shop. They have since moved their operations to Hilo Hawaii.

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Maple or Ash is generally used for Jazz or Precision style basses for it's traditional sound and sustain.
Here the selected piece is sent through a planer to reduce its thickness to that desired.









The blank stock of maple is now verified for thickness with the calipers shown. This body is made by joining two widths of the maple together (taking into consideration the orientation of the grain). Wood is cut to length. Top horn is longer than the lower therefore the the blanks joined need not be equal in length. Cuts can be made on a table saw or chop saw.







Here the two pieces of maple are prepared for gluing. The sawn edges can be run through a jointer to ensure that they are perfectly flat and square. This gives the tightest and strongest seam almost inviable to the eye.








Here the two blanks are glued together and clamped. Carpenter's glue or two part Epoxy glue can be used. Wooden biscuits or dowels can be used to give extra strength to the body joint.








To get the shape of the body you can enlarge a photocopy (center) from a magazine photo if you cannot get an instrument body to trace. (some distortion may occur but is usually negligible) The photocopy can then be traced onto a piece of cardboard or fiberboard (masonite) to make a permanent template (left) if more than one guitar is anticipated. An already prepared body is seen on the right.




Asymetrical maple blank has outline drawn onto it using the previously prepared template.

It is probably advisable to route out all body cavities (neck pocket, pick-ups, electronics bay, etc.) at this stage. Because the body is not yet cut to shape, there is much more surface area to support the router for a clean and accurate cut. Can be done afterwards if necessary. Less precision is required if a pick-guard covers the pick-up cavities as it will hide errors.



Maple Blank is seen here with the cavities routed out.
The routing is made using a fiberboard template of the shape cut out of it. A straight cut router bit with an upper bearing was used. The bearing follows the pattern as the router bit is incrementally plunged into the wood. Repeated shallow cuts going deeper on each pass gives the cleanest result and put the least stress on the router's motor.










This bass guitar has a unique vibrato tail piece therefore there is a cavity on the reverse to accommodate the assembly. Seen here is double sided sticky tape used to securely hold the template to the wood. Clamps can also be used but make sure they are positioned firmly however, make sure their position does not interfere with the router.











Here it is shown how the (unrouted) body would be cut out on a band saw. Ripping fence on left was removed for the freehand procedure.










Routed body being cut out on band saw. Allow enough wood outside of the pencil line to allow for sanding.












After bandsawing the body, sand the edges smooth to provide the best surface on which a router bearing can ride. This smooth surface will allow the round-over bit on the router to make a fine cut in removing the sharp edge of the sides. This initial round-over will then be further refined using whatever tools are available. I have used everything from wood rasps & files, planes, spoke shaves, carbide grinders and sanding discs on an electric hand drill.

Here the sanding is performed by a sanding drum on a drill press. I also use a stationary oscillating sander but diligent hand sanding can also accomplish the job.





View of body ready to be contoured with a 1/2" round-over bit. Take in consideration as to how the grain runs but generally try to cut with the router in the direction of the spin of the router bit. That is, in order to reduce splintering and tear out of the wood grain, the router bit should rotate into the wood in order to get a smooth cut. This usually would mean running the router clockwise around the project.




Here a right-angle grinder with a carbide cutting head is used to cut more radical contours into the body surface. This tool is simply more aggressive and can reduce the time spent on this procedure. Again, other more readily available tools can be used to accomplish the same results.








Contoured and sealed body is ready for paint application. Filling of pores is not necessary on maple or ash as the grain is quite fine and a smooth clean surface prepared by sanding is quite sufficient. I tend to start with about 80 grit paper and work through 100, 120, 180 & 240 grits. Finer grits are not necessary and probably unadvised at this actually polishes the wood and becomes too smooth. If too smooth the wood provides no surface for which the paint to "bite" into and hold. The sealed wood should be scuffed up slightly with fine (240) grit paper and then cleaned by wiping down with a slightly damp cloth, blown clean with compressed air, or wiped with a 'tack cloth'. Make sure the surface is clean and dry before painting and if using a tack cloth, make sure it is compatible with the finish being applied. (ie. water or solvent based)


An inexpensive HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) spray painting unit is shown. Various finishes can be used from automotive paints to clear, tinted or opaque specialty lacquers formulated specifically for wooden instruments. The traditional finish of choice has been Nitrocellulose lacquer, however it is very volatile and now no longer easily available to the general public. Much more environmentally friendly water borne finishes are now available which are comparable to the glossy finish of nitrocellulose.



Shown is the body sprayed with primer. An ebony neck is shown laid on top of the neck blank. The ruler indicates the 34" scale length of the Jazz type bass.
This verifies the correct position of the tailpiece.










Tinted primer coat sprayed onto body.















Several coats of the final pigmented coat was followed by protective coloured clearcoats. (When cutting and drilling body contours, add sufficient size to allow for the layers of finish - otherwise parts will not fit into their positions.) Set the painted instrument aside for several days to weeks to allow for the finish to cure and "gas out". Solvent based finishes should be left until the volitile substances have left the body. The body should have very little odour when ready. At this time the finish can be "rubbed out" which is polishing it with subsequently finer compounds such as tripoli, pumice and rottenstone. This procedure removes any imperfections such as dust particles which may have settled on the instrument and produces a superior glossy shine to the surface.

Original artwork was obtained from the band "Railway" and forwarded to Terrapin Custom Pickguards of Eugene Oregon who did a fantastic job embedding the logo into the pickguard material.

Construction of the Bass Guitar Neck

Wood resawn for laminates in the construction of the Bass Guitar Neck. Here Bubinga (African Rosewood) is shown.
Usually Rock Maple is used as the structural wood because of it's strong and stable characteristics. Contrasting exotic woods are often used as laminates such as mahogany or rosewood, purpleheart or bloodwood.











Mahogany being resawn on Bandsaw to obtain laminate strips for neck construction. Lamination adds strength against string tension, reduces the chances of warping and adds aesthetics to the finished neck. Grain orientation can be both quarter sawn or flat sawn, however I prefer using quarter sawn wood as I believe this grain orientation is stronger and projects the sound better.










Rock Maple neck with Bubinga wood laminates shown ready for assembly. After resawing to thickness the pieces were run through the planer to ensure flatness. After planing they are rough sanded, leaving enough surface to allow the glue to "bite".
I prefer to use West System Epoxy Glue on the neck assembly because I feel it provides superior strength, the glue line sands down nicely and is barely visible and it adheres well to exotic wood species, especially oily woods.









Here the neck laminates are glued and clamped. The two part epoxy system can be seen in the background.
















Glued up Neck blank is run through the planer to "clean it up", making it square and removing glue seepage.

In order to add extra stiffness to the neck, carbon fiber rods are inserted. This prevents flexing due to the tensioned strings on the assembled bass. In order to insert the rods, channels are routed into the upper surface of the neck equidistant from the edges and to the depth of the rod. Rods are epoxied into the slots.
A 1/4" straight cut router bit is employed using a router table. The fence is adjusted equidistant from the edge of the neck to where the channel is desired.
An additional channel is cut in the exact center of the neck to accommodate the Truss Rod which is an adjustable metal rod allowing back or reverse tension to be applied to the neck to compensate for the strings tension.

The wood is plunged onto the router bit then pushed from the starting point to the end point marked by pencil on the wood and by tape on the router table.

As illustrated, routed channels are shown with the carbon fiber rod at the side ready for insertion.

Truss rod channel has yet to be cut.

Alternately the channels can be cut by carefully placed repetitive cuts on a table saw, carefully chiseled out by hand, or omitted completely.

As Stated; Carbon fiber rods inserted into routed slots.












Truss Rod (wrapped in tape) inserted into center routed slot. End of Truss Rod protrudes from, or has access from the end of the finished neck. A screwdriver or allan wrench adjusts the degree of back tension.








Epoxy is again used to glue in the carbon fiber rods. Wax paper is placed on top of the glued rods and then a scrap piece of wood is placed on top sandwiching the wax paper in between. This clamps the rods in place while the glue sets and flattens the glue squeeze out reducing cleanup.

The truss rod is not glued in as it must be free to expand and flex. A double expansion truss rod was used in this build.

Wings are glued and clamped onto the neck to provide material for the headstock. This should be done after routing for obvious reasons.

A photo that is rather difficult to understand. This photo is the top of a table saw. In order to cut the slots in the fingerboard, the ebony blank having been prepared is attached by double sided tape to an aluminum template having slots cut at predetermined intervals corresponding to a 34" scale. This assembly is placed against a fence attached to the T-fence of the table saw which has been fitted with a 0.023" thick fret cutting blade adjusted to the height corresponding to the depth of the fret tang to be used. The fingerboard is pushed through the blade at a right angle cutting the slot, then advanced to the next predetermined fret position by means of a pin in the fence corresponding to a slot in the aluminum template. Cut, advance and repeat until all fret slots are cut. The number of frets can vary.

(confused? I am!)

Alternatively, the slots can be cut by hand using a handsaw of the same kerf size (thickness) and some very accurate measurements. The fret positions for any scale can be determined mathematically however for ease and those mathematically challenged a Fret Spacing Calculator can be used.

The layout of the neck is checked against the positioning of the fretboard (fingerboard) to ensure proper placement of the nut (the do-hicky the strings go over at the head) and the rear bridge or tailpiece. Edge to edge it must be 34" for that scale and the 12th fret must lie exactly at the midpoint. Failing that, the guitar will always be out of tune. These measurements are crucial!

Here the excess wood is trimmed away by band saw or by using a hand saw. Improvise!
















Head stock contours sanded on an oscillating spindle sander. Alternatively a sanding drum in a drill press can be substituted or even careful sanding by hand or a belt sander can accomplish the task.

A router with a 1/2" round over bit can be used to trim off wood rounding the back of the neck. This reduces the amount of manual work that has to be done by hand using spoke shaves, rasps and sanding.

Again, note the rotation of the router bit and move cutting into the wood as you advance to reduce tear out.





A variety of rasps, spoke shaves and finger planes which can be employed to contour the neck making it not only pleasable to play but even custom shaped to the musicians hand.

Using a light box, my logo of THI (ThunderHouse Instruments) can be transcribed onto the inlay material. This material can be whatever the imagination can dream up from precious metals and stones, to man made materials such as corian or plastics. Wood veneers can be inlaid as marquetry. Traditionally materials from shells have been used such as the myriad of colours found in 'Mother of Pearl (MOP) and Abalone.

For added glitter a channel was routed alone the edge of the headstock into which green abalone shell strip was inlaid. Curved abalone strips (laser cut) can be broken by hand, edges filed and placed end to end to obtain whatever radius is required.

Note that the carbon fiber rods and truss rod channel are clearly visible in this photo.




Too delicate to clamp, the glued abalone strip is taped to the channel while it dries.










The fingerboard (fretboard) can be left unbound where the edge is just relieved (rounded over) for a pleasant feel. Alternatively it can be bound by a contrasting wood species or plastic. This is purely for aesthetic reasons. The contrast of colours is often appealing and the ends of the metal frets are hidden behind the binding.

Here the plastic binding is glued to the fingerboard with acetone based plastic glue and clamped securely.
When dry it can be contoured using a finely set small plane, scraped with a metal cabinet scraper, and polished up to it's original shine with 3M Micromesh abrasives.

Fret markers can be inlayed at the appropriate intervals along the fingerboard. Traditionally they have been shell dots or blocks. Now days with CNC computers, intricate designs and patterns can be cut in both the fretboard and the inlay material to match exactly.

I have chosen to use green abalone shell dots in this project. They are 6mm in diameter and therefore a forstner bit (think of a flat bottomed drill bit) is used to make shallow holes for the dots. The shell dots are glued in with epoxy mixed with coloured pigment chosen to match the wood tone and left slightly above the surface of the fingerboard. When dried the fingerboard and dots are sanded flush to the radius of the fingerboard itself.

The bound fingerboard has dots inlayed and requires some additional sanding to bring them out. The fingerboard is sanded with progressively finer sandpapers from about 320 to 400 to 600 grit papers.
Frets are bent, cut and inserted after the fingerboard is glued to the neck itself. Again, placement is crucial!
Frets are leveled to make sure they are all at the same height. They are then crowned to restore the curved surface and rounded as they approach the edge of the neck for ease of playing. Finally the frets can be polished with papers and/or 0000 grade steel wool. Fretboard oil can be applied to preserve the wood.

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Again, this project has remained unfinished due to my illness. I hope to get back to my shop sometime in the future and complete this bass in order to be able to present it to the band.

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Jazz-Precision Hybrid Bass

Jazz-Precision Hybrid Style Bass Guitar Build

Included here are additional photos from yet another Jazz Style Bass Guitar (1) build for a different client. The modification here is in the pickup configuration. The upper or neck pickup will be a split Precision bass type pickup while the lower or bridge pickup will be the single in-line Jazz pickup.

Between these photos and instructions and those posted in the 'Railway' Jazz Bass Guitar build, one can get a fairly good idea of the processes in the construction of this type of Bass Guitar.

Principles here can generally be applied to any solid body Bass Guitar build and only modifications and adjustments must be made for variations in hardware, number of strings etc.

* * *

Canadian Maple was selected as Maple or Ash are the traditional woods used by Fender in the construction of Jazz & Precision Style Bass Guitars. Here the wood is sent through a planer in order to remove surface scuff marks and defects as well as to bring it down to near the thickness of the finished body. Additional wood is removed by sanding but then again built up by the layers of finish.

The wood planed (above) is cut to size and glued together taking into consideration the end grain orientation. One piece wood (unjoined bodies) can be found but this sized planks come at a premium price and may be subject to greater warping. The sides of the wooden planks having been make perfectly flat by passing them through a jointer. Sides can just be glued and clamped or dowels and biscuits can be used to reinforce the joint. Usually the upper and lower horns of a guitar will differ in length and wood can be conserved by cutting the two sides to be joined to different lengths.

Here loose hardware intended for the finished Bass Guitar are piled on top of a fiberboard (masonite) template previously made for such projects.

The Fiberboard template placed on top of the Maple Body Blank onto which the pattern will be traced.

Traced Pattern of Jazz Bass on Maple Blank

Traced pattern on blank is sawn out on a band saw. The cut is made outside the lines then carefully sanded to the exact dimension, Here the body is sawn out prior to routing out the hardware cavities and electronics bays. Although this method can yield excellent results, it may be preferable to route out the body cavities prior to cutting as the extra wood serves as a "table" on which the router bass plate can ride with greater stability.

The Cut out Body

The Cut out body with wood removed shown

Here the body is sanded with a dedicated surface drum sander. This can be easily accomplished by hand using anything from a block and loose sandpaper to a variety of portable hand sanders.

The edges are sanded on an oscillating spindle sander making them square to the faces. Again, this can be accomplished by the same hand sanders listed above. A piece of sandpaper wrapped around various diameter items, broom handle, tin can etc., can reach the inside of various curves.

An initial relief is given to the square edges with a roundover bit. A 1/2" roundover router bit is usually sufficient to accomplish this. This just makes work faster. Hand tools such as rasps, files, planes and spoke shaves can accomplish the same. Be cautious when working around the area where the neck pocket will be placed.

The Body as above but with the edges routed to a 1/2" relief.

Note the grain orientation on the joined pieces. Grain orientation is important asethtically if the body is not painted but just stain and clear-coated. Grain orientation is very important for structural integrity as it will minimize warping and make any expansionion or contraction equal.

Here templates of jigs of pick-ups are placed onto the bass body indicating their placement. The straight edge template router bit's upper bearing follows the outline guiding the router & cutter in cutting out the pick-up's cavity. Here there is a home made template lying flat on the body. It was made by tracing the pick-up onto some scrap wallboard and cutting out with drills, jig saw, utility knives or files. Use whatever works. Smooth with sandpaper as an accurate jig will give the tightest and most professional looking cut. This is important if there is no pickguard used. A pickguard will hide errors. Standing perpendicular to the body on top of the wooden template is a plexiglas template. Both accomplish the same result.

More severe contours can be cut into the body using a variety of tools such as an angle grinder with a carbide wheel, micro razor rasps and traditional wooden rasps. Again, planes, spoke shaves and electric hand drills with sanding discs can also accomplish the job. Use what is at hand.

As above but the lighting better illuminating the roughly cut relief made with the carbide angle grinder.

A variety of sanders are shown in the background starting with (left to right) a three headed contour sander, a variable oscillating rotary sander, a 1/4 sandpaper sheet palm sander, a hand drill with a disc sander attachement and finally a portable belt sander. A pleasant afternoon sanding the body by hand will also yield great results. Sand with (not against) the grain pattern and work with progressively finer grits from 80 if necessary, then 100. 120, 180 and 220. Any finer grits will polish the wood and make it too smooth for the primer to take. A damp cloth can be used to wipe down the body between sandpaper grits to remove the dust and also to slightly raise the grain. The next finer grit of sandpaper will shear off the raised grain and the final result will be smoother than with just straight sanding. Make sure the wood is perfectly dry especially if the finish will be an oil or spirit based finish as opposed to a water based finish.

Checking the pickguard & chrome electronics bay cover against the rough body.
Two Forstner bits lie on the left side of the photo.

Forstner Bits (think of large flat bottomed drills) lie on top of body. Forster bit diameters are chosen depending on diameter of of the cavity you wish to cut. The idea is this: In order to cut out a cavity in hardwood, much of the preliminary work can be done by drilling out the wood. The drill press is ideal for this as it is fast and stops can be set for accurate depths. One the majority of the wood is removed, the remainder can be removed with a straight cut template bit on a router. The drill press does the majority of the work and the router cleans up what the forstner bits have left behind. This places less stress as well as wear and tear on both the router motor & bearings as well as the bit.

This photo illustrates the sequential holes having been drilled into the body creating the electronics bay cavity.

The same operation from a distance.

Here the same operation is repeated on the pickup cavity.

A fiberboard (masonite) template for the cavity desired is attached to the body with double sided sticky tape. The router equipped with a straight template bit can now follow the template and "square up" the hole left by the forstner bits.
This larger square cavity is hidden by the pickguard and therefore is easier and quicker to cut than the bridge pickup cavity which is the exact shape of the pickup itself. This also allows a choice of pickup styles to be placed in this location without modification. An in-line Jazz pickup or a split Precision bass pickup can be installed as desired or requested.

The square cavity for the pick-up is shown after cleaning out with the straight edge router template bit which can be seen in the router on the upper right.

Pick-up & tailpiece router templates are shown to see how things are coming together. On the right a template can be seen on a scrap piece of wood used to test a cut.

Completed body showing the neck pocket, two pick-up cavities and electronics bay.

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Construction of the Bass Guitar Neck

Maple stock on table saw which will be used in building the Bass Guitar neck.

Maple wooden blanks after they have been planed, ripped and cut to size.

Neck stock on band saw equipped with a 5/8" blade with (?) TPI (2) and fence used to re-saw the maple to the thickness required for neck construction. As the maple is the primary structural wood used in the neck this will be the thickest component while other contrasting woods are primarily used for aesthetic purposes and can be thinner. The wood here is lying flat on the saw table but will be fed through standing perpendicular to the table.

Here are the various laminate components ready for assembly. On the outside is the thicker rock maple which is the major component of the neck. Inside of the maple are two thinner sections of a contrasting wood (species eludes me at this time) and the center strip is again maple. The thickness and arrangement is determined by the aesthetics the builder is looking to achieve as long as the strength and width of the neck is taken into consideration. There is an ongoing debate as to whether flat sawn or quarter sawn wood is superior in strength and sound.

Components for the neck are sent through the stationary drum sander to ensure a flat surface for gluing. A true surface produces a barely visible glue line resulting in a more pleasing looking neck. The same procedure can be accomplished by hand sanding or light even strokes with a palm or random orbit sander.

Neck components as above with maple head stock wood included.

My preference for gluing the neck is to use a professional grade 2 part epoxy. West System makes an excellent product and has a choice of set-up times. On the left is a container of West System 404 filler which can be added to the mixed glue to increase strength and fill gaps. Epoxy and fillers can be tinted to match woods.

Neck components have been coated with the epoxy glue and clamped together. Again, grain orientation should be considered and should be symmetrical.

Neck components were sent through the planer once the glue had dried and cured. Slots for neck components (carbon fiber rods and truss rod) were routed after assembly. Routing of the channels for components (carbon fiber rods & truss rod) is most easily done before the head stock extensions are added as this way the stock can slide along the router table fence. Alternatively the routing can be done after the head stock is added by using a free hand router with a fence attached to the router base plate. Depends on the tools you have on hand and your personal preference.

Another shot of the assembled neck with headstock. Scribe marks indicate the final outline of the neck and headstock.

Layout of the headstock for bandsawing.

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A Few Paint Steps

Body has been sanded with the various grades of sandpaper, dampened with water between sandings to raise the grain for the subsequent sandings. Wood was allowed to dry and was blown clean with compressed air to remove particles from any pores and grain lines. An appropriate Tack Cloth (3)(water or solvent based) to remove particles. Wood was sealed using a vinyl sealer coat. Usually fine grained woods such as maple and ash don't have to be filled to level grain lines but from the painted body in this photo it appears obvious that this should have been done during an early sanding stage. It is harder to go back and do the repair.

Grain lines stand out even more in this particular light.
These previous two bodies have been routed for two Jazz style in-line Pickups

The body can be painted with tinted primer and then with several coats of the finish lacquer. Here a conventional compressed air suction feed air gun is used for the purpose. I find a gravity feed gun gives me better results and an HVLP(4) spray system is superior to all.

In this photo and the two that follow the body differs as the upper pickup being hidden by the pickguard will not be visable. For this reason the accurate pickup shape is not bothered with at the neck location but only cut into the body at the visible bridge location.

Trying to match the colour to one previously owned by the client I turned to the local automotive store and found exactly what I was looking for right off of the shelf. Several surface clearcoats can be applied after the opaque coloured lacquer has dried. Scuff up the paint and lacquer and wipe away dust with the tack cloth between coats giving each subsequent coat some "tooth" to grab onto. When the final clearcoat has been shot (sprayed), set it aside to cure and "gas out". If you can smell the solvent used in the finish, it is not ready yet. When cured the finish can be "rubbed out".

The reason behind rubbing out a finish is that when first sprayed the finish will probably have minor imperfections, dust particles may have settled and been embedded and the finish might look too artificially shiny and plastic. Rubbing out cuts the surface with very fine abrasives. This removes the imperfections and dust particles, levels the surface and brings up a brilliant gloss. Although it sounds counter intuitive, you scratch a surface to make it shinier. Different builders use different methods and products to achieve this step. Some have used fine steel wool to rub out the surface. 000 (3-OH) to 0000 (4-OH) steel wool can be used however I do not feel it provides a fine enough finish. Some use paper backed sand papers going up from 600 grit progressing up to 2000 grit or MicroMesh (5) abrasive pads of increasingly finer grits. I prefer a combination of ultra-fine sandpapers with a final rub out using powdered abrasives added to a lubricant (water with a touch of Murphy's Oil Soap or alternatively Paraffin Oil). Common powdered abrasives of finer grits are Tripoli, Pumice and Rottenstone and can be applied with a piece of felt cloth.

The theory behind rubbing out a finish is that progressively finer abrasives produce progressively finer scratches in the clearcoat finish. Each microscopic scratch added acts like a facet in a diamond and reflects light. As the scratches have been applied in all directions, light is reflected off in all directions giving the finish a superior shine or gloss. Final sheen and protection can be achieved using fine wood wax or automotive finishes. Caution!!! Do not use products which contain silicone as it make any touch up or refinishing very difficult.

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(1) Jazz Bass and Precision Bass are registered names of the Fender Guitar Company.
(2) TPI or Teeth Per Inch. Band saw blades are measured with Teeth Per Inch where the more TPI gives a finer but less aggressive cut and conversely less TPI cuts more quickly but is not as smooth. Other considerations on a choosing a band saw blade are 'rake' , 'off-set' and width of blade.
(3) Tack Cloth - is a cloth saturated with a substance that makes them sticky or tacky. They can be solvent/oil based or water based materials and the type of cloth should be compatible with the finish you are using. ie. using a solvent/oil based cloth on a project finished with water based lacquer will be counterproductive. The oily residue will reject the water finish as oil and water don't mix. Solvent/oil based tack cloths are the most common and found in most hardware or home improvement centers. Water based tack cloths are less commonly available - one brand name was 'Chix' cloths.
(4) HVLP - High Volume Low Pressure is a spray system which uses single to triple stage turbines instead of an air compressor to deliver a lower pressure to move the paint onto the surface being finished. The system is much quieter and delivers the paint with less overspray. Overspray is the paint which is wasted missing the targeted surface and as it is not sprayed into the air and wasted it is is more economical and environmentally friendly.
(5) MicroMesh is a 3M product of ultra-fine abrasives bonded to a cloth backing. They are so fine that they are used to polish out scratches from plexiglas visors and helecopter bubble windows.

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