One enjoyable evening closer to a finished bass: I’ve sanded the fingerboard up to 600 grit. And much to my surprise (still), but the quality sandpaper made this a breeze, really. 600 grit isn’t that high for a fingerboard, but I like the look and feel of real wood while still having a nice smooth surface rather than a plastic-ish shiny ‘wood print’ fingerboard.

The finished fingerboard, ready for fretting:

As you can see the fingerboard shows some mild reflections (look right below the jar):

I am really pleased with the result. The Macassar really stands out and the combination with the white binding and pearl dots makes it stand out even more. Now lets hope I don’t screw up while fretting or shaping the neck, and we should have a very nice bass neck in the end!