vinorange

Now I said I'd add some pics in the sun and ironically it isn't sunny but I got the bass out today, had play and remembered to take some pics.

The bass will be for sale from one seller but multiple agencies offer it for sale. The advantage for you is that one of them will do a better deal, write the value down to save on customs fees and save you a packet of cash. I’ve imported a few from Japan including 2 Rickenbackers but the deal that stuck out was a USA deluxe FMT jazz which was for sale with 5 or 6 agencies at varying prices between £800 and £1500. Obviously I struck a deal at £800 and they wrote the value down to save import duty and were willing to help save money on shipping fees by shopping around. You’ll also probably find that the bass is in better condition than described as they tend to very (overly) genuine with their condition description.

When I read the ad I thought it said Useless fretless three string bass for sale. That's subliminal connection for you.

Meguiar's G17216EU Ultimate Compound Colour & Clarity Restorer 450ml for hand or machine polisher application https://amzn.eu/d/68tRxOS

It's actually called meguires ultimate compound. Used to be cut and polish. My apologies. It is a cut and polish in one and, as meguires say, it obsoletes normal cutting compound. Highly recommended.....

It is but there that's £15 for one sheet....... I got mine from here; https://www.carcolourservices.co.uk/product/kovax-tolecut-pink-sheet-70x114mm-p1500/ They come in a box of 70 sheets. Each sheet has 8 squares that tear off & fit on the little Kovax rubber sanding block. Handy to get one of those too but don't pay £15 per sheet! Oh yeah and the little squares adhere nicely to your finger tip for flatting around the contours.

I didn't do a progressive wet sand. I went on a bass maintenance course with Jon Shuker and he recommended using Kovax Tolecut 1500 paper - it's what he uses so good enough for me. It's about £45 for a packet of it but that will last a long time - probably 5 bass bodies. It leaves a very flat scratch free finish that is ready for cut and polish. Again Jon recommended Meguires cut and polish and I find the combination is brilliant. I used to do a lot of car body work and tolecut is a revelation compared to wet sanding. Give it a go on an area to be hidden or trial it on something else. It's transformational!

I did know that but being a bit of a perfectionist, I couldn't stand seeing the decal edges. It looks awful but doesn't now! It's a keeper anyway so is for my own satisfaction.

Oh yeah, all the rusty screws were replaced with Fender replacements, the earthing strip and all hardware was polished with Autoglym metal polish, the scratch plate polished and it had a fret level, crown and polish too...... The stack pot knobs do need a clean but that's for another day........

So 2 weeks later, remove the wood hanger, place on a towel and start using the Kovax Tolecut 1500 pink pads to gently flat the finish. Use a sanding block for the flat parts and be very careful with body contours and edges. Sand paper will cut though to the wood in no time and then it's back a step or two. The whole body needs to be flatted in the same way as the headstock using natural sunlight to check for low spots (shiny pin prick spots) or UV light. Even kitchen spotlights will show up any low spots. Eventually, after many hours of gently flatting of the finish, there will be no lo spots left and no shiny pin prick spots glaring back and taunting you and your aching elbow. Once 100% happy with the flatting then it's on to Meguires cut and polish again. Same process. Takes ages to get the scratch free flatting to a shine...... Then it's on to re-assembly. The most satisfying stage. I'll add some better pics outside when the sun shines again (could be a while) but you catch the drift. It now looks mint and I took the liberty of treating it to some genuine Fender ashtray covers. I think it looks lovely and it plays and sounds great too. What's not to like (hopefully nothing..........)

In the meantime the body had been painted using 3 cans of nitrocellulose olympic white from Northwest guitars. Amazing paint. The body had a lovely 3 x 2 bit of wood for hanging and to make sure the neck recess markings were preserved. The process is paint the edges and contours first and then paint the front and back in overlapping paint passes. Paint overlaps by around 1" per pass and magically being nitro, melts into the other pass. Don't worry about orange peel, Kovax is your friend (or enemy) later. The 3 cans gave me around 10 coats of nitro which is probably more than original finishes. Each coat needs around 15 mins to tack dry but all 10 coats have to be applied consecutively over around 3 hours. It is then left to dry for around 2 weeks somewhere warm and dry (make sure nobody is going to use your shower if you use your designer shower enclosure....,,...

Once satisfied it's time to go for it and lacquer the headstock face. Now it's time to remove the masking tape from the headstock edges. Check for any spill of white into the edges and remove with a sharp scalpel delicately scraped along the whole of the headstock edge. This removes any slight paint spill - which I did have - and also removes the inevitable slightly sharp edges. The decal application is tricky. I should have said that you need to carefully follow the instructions. Immerse in water for 30 seconds, apply and then work out any bubbles gently with a cloth. Do not move on to lacquering before 100% happy....Anyway, I was happy so applied a dust coat of lacquer to make sure the decal didn't melt. Then gently built up around 6 - 8 coats of lacquer. Again it was nitrocellulose clear gloss lacquer to be vintage correct (although I'm not sure the original had been flatted as the decal edges were visible). Applied with face flat (the guitar's not mine). Left to dry for 24 hours, then flatting time with Kovax Tolecut 1500. The flatting is done with bright light so that firstly the orange peel effect starts to disappear and so that the decal edges start to disappear. Eventually the edges do blend in. You may see tiny shiny reflections of light and this is any remaining low spots in the finish. That means you need to carry on gently flatting the finish. If feeling unconfident at this point, apply more lacquer but if sure that you have enough, just keep on going until the last pin prick light reflections have gone. Then polish with Meguiars cut and polish. One application cloth, one polishing cloth, one buffing cloth. Any intentional overspray on the edges can be flatted back using Tolecut again and the sides can now be polished too. Final pic is during re-assembly some days later but worth showing the final stage. If anything looks a bit too shiny at this point the gloss can be knocked back a little with the tolecut paper..

Once satisfied that the headstock edges had the correct colour and was dry enough, I set about the headstock face. The edges were masked using green frog tape. It's high tack but will not take off a recent finish when removed. The nut was masked (the bottom of the nut and fretboard) and the join between the rosewood board and the headstock face was carefully matched so the line would be authentic. No gap can be left here otherwise you'll see white / wood / rosewood and the whole thing has to be done again. Primer applied, left to dry, flatted with kovax tolecut and then 2 or 3 coats of nitro white applied. Left to dry and then, when satisfied, the decal was applied. Any finish dips will disappear once lacquered so no worries with little finish dips.......

With the headstock edges back to the wood, they were sanding sealed with nitro sanding sealer and I managed to find out that the neck colour is a special honey tint. Dartfords guitar do a really good match for the headstock / neck and as the gloss on the neck has already been knocked back using 0000 grade wire wool it looked like I could blend in the honey tint. Here's the lacquer; https://dartfords.com/products/dartfords-honey-nitrocellulose-guitar-neck-lacquer-230ml-tin?_pos=4&_psq=honey&_ss=e&_v=1.0 I set about refinishing the headstock edges and feathering in the finish with the existing finish. I left it to dry and then flatted the finish but this time with scratch free sanding paper by Kovax call Tolecut 1500 pink. It's a miracle product as the sanding is as it says, scratch free. No polishing at this point as it would react with the next stage.

So I took the bass to bits and took some extra photos for record. As I wasn't intending posting the update on here I didn't take photos of every step but a description hopefully will suffice; The body was stripped back to the nitro wood sealer. All paint was sanded back using 400 / 800 wet and dry. Any break through to the wood was sealed with nitrocellulose wood sealer, left to dry and flatted with 800 wet and dry ready for priming. Primer was Northwest Guitars nitrocellulose primer and is excellent. Only when you get a coat of primer on can you lay a critical eye over the body. Primer was flatted back and any areas requiring minor filling were filled with epoxy wood filler to avoid shrinkage. In this case the dings were tiny and hardly needed anything. The strap button holes had been enlarged over the years so needed some epoxy wood filler in to close up the holes a touch prior to cracking on. So body prepared, repairs done and to get it ready for top coat I finished off the priming with one can of nitro primer. Left to dry for 1 day and then flatted with 800 / 1200 wet and dry ready for top coats. The headstock was a challenge as the edges were tatty. They needed to be 100% square to take a headstock refinish otherwise the finish bleeds into the edge chips so I set about sanding back the face with 400 wet n dry and the edges similarly with a sanding block to get the edges to as near flat / 90 degrees as poss. The decal itself was from Rob at www.guitardecals.co.uk. To be sure I sent the pic below to make sure it was 100% reproduction.

Well, I've been persuaded to add pics of a renovation I carried out on a recently acquired 1992 Fender Jazz 62 reissue stacked knob rarity. So my jazz started out life looking a little worn - as is the way with a nitro finished 1992 bass that has been gigged a fair amount. The finish had matured to a cream finish and had extensive chips and finish wear. Luckily there weren't really any deep gouges although the finish had worn to the wood sealer on the back. The headstock decal outline was clearly visible and had started to look worn. Screws were rusted, earth strip to bridge corroded, pickup poles rusty. Pickup covers and pickguard All the hardware and electronics were original and worked fine so, apart from a polish, nothing required there. Pickup covers and pickguard original but, politely, a bit worn in. Headstock edges were generally dinged commensurate with age and engagement with adjacent drummers equipment!! With all the above I decided on a full body strip, prep, prime and refinish in period correct Olympic white nitrocellulose and a matching headstock face refinish.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166015954399?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=O8Bei9e1S9e&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=VukzHPmnRRC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Check the buy it now price!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295585581504?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=dbUrKS-OR-C&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=VukzHPmnRRC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY