I came across a picture of what was a firemist silver bass... then a Jaguar... then another bass.. then a tele.. My search bar was quickly filling up with 'firemist silver ______'. You know that special feeling you get when you see something and you gotta have it no matter if you have to give up your kidney? I had that.
I'm actually a bassist first, and a guitarist second - I had a fretless Jazz bass I picked up for 300 bucks 4 or 5 years ago because it was cheap and I needed a fretless. I just never bonded with the olympic white. I knew it would be getting the refinish treatment.
So, I began to search around who could do a refinish. I was very worried I would find someone and get it back and it would look like Ice Blue Metallic. Curtis Novak's got a code for Firemist Silver but it looked like IBM to me. Other refin guys I talked to had no pictures of their FMS, so I ruled them out. I had seemingly given up because I didn't want to gamble and get her back and it look like IBM.
Eventually, of all places, I found someone here who had done a refinish in FMS. Yup, right here - our friend Jazzprod. Check out his website: http://www.deepseatguitars.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So, the bass started out it's life looking like this. This was right before I sent it off to Daniel/Jazzprod:
Looked okay, nothing special. Soon she was off to Jazzprod for the refinish. Jazzprod sent me pictures along the way, we talked the whole time about the process, coloring, the weather, etc. A couple of months later she arrived. It was stunning. I was in awe when I opened the box. Maybe it was the paint but I got an exhilarating high off of just unearthing her from the box. Here are the outside pictures of her after she was fully assembled:
Here she is resting on the couch with my favorite strap which happens to match her very well:
Inspiration:
Final product:
Looks stunningly similar! The Firemist Silver turned out perfect. There are subtle hints of blue, green, and silver. It changes colors depending on light and angle. Everyone who sees it asks me about the color and gives it compliments.
Daniel/Jazzprod really knocked it out of the park. He also stained the back of the neck, which came out perfect. I just realized I don't have any pictures of the back of the neck in my phone from outside, but it looks very nice - Especially compared to the rather pale neck it had before.
I changed out the knobs for witch hats, put white pickup covers on there, (I know - I'm the only one who thinks those changes look cool, apparently! ) I put some Curtis Novak Jazz Bass pickups in there with some extra lows for added oomph, upgraded the tone capacitor, added a neck shim + a slight nut shim, and added a periodically correct 1965 Fender decal to the matching headstock. She plays like butter. It went from being my relegated instrument that rarely got played to my most prized possession.
Thanks to Daniel/Jazzprod for the hard work and for being a cool guy - he also just finished up doing basically everything for me on a Fender XII build - future thanks for that! He actually finished this Jazz bass for me awhile ago I just hadn't had the time to upload it. Thanks again Daniel, and to the great forum and collection of people here that made this happen and put up with some nooby questions I probably asked.
Black pickup covers look good sometimes, but I think they're too generic honestly.
