...I think that there's purpleburst lurking under that refin
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:08 am
I've slowly been piecing together a Mustang Bass - it seems like prices have gone up a lot on these lately, but I'd managed to collect a few bits and pieces, and I had something with a Musicmaster Bass neck and a Squier Mustang Bass body working not too long ago.
I spotted an early-70's Bass on ebay that I bid on - I though it would go cheap because of a questionable repaint and weirdly-installed P-Bass pickup, but it ended up going for almost $800 when shipping was added in.
...then, naturally, it appeared on ebay again, only reduced to its component pieces. The Body didn't look too mutilated (I guess the P-Bass pickup was just kinda sitting in there?) Also, I was tempted by the bit of what looked like original green paint around the pickup rout. I figured that it would be fun to see if the original paint was under that orange-peeled layer of purple. If not, the price wasn't too awful for a slightly-molested Mustang body.
It arrived in the mail, and I did some wet-sanding in the stripe area - I figured that this would be the spot most likely to be wrecked by a refinisher who bothered to do surface prep.
Eureka! A stripe!
I used a random-orbital sander to get rid of the poly clearcoat and some of the purple - luckily, I could use the white and grey undercoats to see when I was getting close to the original finish. I had to be careful not to melt the poly - a clogged sanding disc would really heat up and make the finish reveal its plastic qualities!!
Next up, a lot of wet-sanding:
An issue I ran into was that the wet-sanding seemed to crack the paint in places, since the water would absorb into the wood and the swelling would crack the paint:
...so I dabbed some clear nail polish onto any exposed wood and screw holes. It seemed to help a little, though not as much as I would like. Maybe dripping some melted wax into the holes would work better?
...just about ready to buff it out! The finish exhibited all sorts of crazy wrinkles and places where the finish mooshed itself into bumps around the neck plate and bridge, but the sanding helped to even it out - thank heavens that the thick poly finish gave me plenty to work with!!
Here it is all together! Next step - find a decent white/mint/pearl pickguard. ...though the black guard might grow on me.
I'm amazed that someone would paint over a finish that was in such nice condition, and I feel like I've used up all of my "finding a nice original finish under a repaint" luck!
I spotted an early-70's Bass on ebay that I bid on - I though it would go cheap because of a questionable repaint and weirdly-installed P-Bass pickup, but it ended up going for almost $800 when shipping was added in.
...then, naturally, it appeared on ebay again, only reduced to its component pieces. The Body didn't look too mutilated (I guess the P-Bass pickup was just kinda sitting in there?) Also, I was tempted by the bit of what looked like original green paint around the pickup rout. I figured that it would be fun to see if the original paint was under that orange-peeled layer of purple. If not, the price wasn't too awful for a slightly-molested Mustang body.
It arrived in the mail, and I did some wet-sanding in the stripe area - I figured that this would be the spot most likely to be wrecked by a refinisher who bothered to do surface prep.
Eureka! A stripe!
I used a random-orbital sander to get rid of the poly clearcoat and some of the purple - luckily, I could use the white and grey undercoats to see when I was getting close to the original finish. I had to be careful not to melt the poly - a clogged sanding disc would really heat up and make the finish reveal its plastic qualities!!
Next up, a lot of wet-sanding:
An issue I ran into was that the wet-sanding seemed to crack the paint in places, since the water would absorb into the wood and the swelling would crack the paint:
...so I dabbed some clear nail polish onto any exposed wood and screw holes. It seemed to help a little, though not as much as I would like. Maybe dripping some melted wax into the holes would work better?
...just about ready to buff it out! The finish exhibited all sorts of crazy wrinkles and places where the finish mooshed itself into bumps around the neck plate and bridge, but the sanding helped to even it out - thank heavens that the thick poly finish gave me plenty to work with!!
Here it is all together! Next step - find a decent white/mint/pearl pickguard. ...though the black guard might grow on me.
I'm amazed that someone would paint over a finish that was in such nice condition, and I feel like I've used up all of my "finding a nice original finish under a repaint" luck!
Well played!
