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Westone Thunder 3 Fretless Fingerboard Refinish - Help!


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At the final stages, I think.

I used micro-mesh pads to get rid of the scratches left on the pickup covers by a previous owner who had removed the Westone 'W' logo with some pretty coarse stuff. You can still see the deep scratches on this shot:




After a bit of elbow grease and progressing down to finer and finer micro-mesh pads, they have pretty much disappeared.




The headstock is almost ready for its final coat of varnish...when it's dry, I will wet sand with 1000 grit wet and dry and then apply 'operating theatre standards' to make sure no dust buggies land on the final coat...

Here it is with its (hopefully) penultimate coat:




No doubt to the immense frustration of Chris, it will then need to sit for a week while the headstock varnish really dries hard before I can reassemble it, set it up and return it to him. It should be with you next weekend as promised, Chris :)

Thanks for looking and for your encouraging comments, folks
Andy

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You're a very highly-skilled craftsman Andy.
As an only onwer of a T1 (bought it new in '83) - seeing you bring Chris's instrument back to status warmed the cockles!
Thanks for showing us your sklills.

(be nice if Chris posted up a full pic when it comes home) :)

Al

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That has been a great job you've done there Andy.

As for the old Concord. I was working on a house in March when the owner unearthed it
in the loft to ask " what'd you think ? ". 2 A strings, broken nut held in with Blue Tac, Frets ripped
out and never filled, tone pot missing, wiring soldered with Blue Tac and of course the Art
work. Told him " No Much !" so he gave me it.

Had to sand the paintwork out as I'd no stripper and the Stanely knife carving had to go, 5 hours
with the sand paper did the trick. Replaced the nut,frets,bridge,strap loks and tuners then gave
it a few coats of wax.

Thought was to have a clear scratchplate so scanned the back and tried to match the grain


Not too successful but idea was to print out just enough to cover control cavity and hope the Perspex distorted things
to hide the contrast. But that's as far as I've got. the nut needs re-cut and the neck tweaked, action way too high.

Then again I might sand again and spray it Yellow with white plate like in the Westone catalogue from 82.


Thanks for asking Andy

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[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1400935625' post='2458315']
That has been a great job you've done there Andy.

As for the old Concord. I was working on a house in March when the owner unearthed it
in the loft to ask " what'd you think ? ". 2 A strings, broken nut held in with Blue Tac, Frets ripped
out and never filled, tone pot missing, wiring soldered with Blue Tac and of course the Art
work. Told him " No Much !" so he gave me it.

Had to sand the paintwork out as I'd no stripper and the Stanely knife carving had to go, 5 hours
with the sand paper did the trick. Replaced the nut,frets,bridge,strap loks and tuners then gave
it a few coats of wax.

Thought was to have a clear scratchplate so scanned the back and tried to match the grain


Not too successful but idea was to print out just enough to cover control cavity and hope the Perspex distorted things
to hide the contrast. But that's as far as I've got. the nut needs re-cut and the neck tweaked, action way too high.

Then again I might sand again and spray it Yellow with white plate like in the Westone catalogue from 82.


Thanks for asking Andy
[/quote]

Clever idea ref the photo image! You could also veneer it - this is my Squier VM Jaguar Bass...because I reshaped the fingerguard, there's all sorts of voids under the veneer:

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[quote name='Chris Sharman' timestamp='1400970236' post='2458789']
Andy,

That looks fantastic.

On a day when I am suffering from seeing my beloved Derby County lose at Wembley, seeing my Westone in this state truly gladdens my heart.

Feel free to take all the time to need, I am sure it will be worth the wait.

C.
[/quote]

Hi, Chris - yes, a bummer ref Derby...

Final coat of the headstock is a good one so no worries - it'll be done on time.

It's a lovely looking bass. It's also one of the heaviest guitars of any sort I've ever worked on!!!

Andy

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Never considered a veneer, it definitely needs something.
As it is there's not enough contrast atween body an neck.

Spraying would be quickest and cheapest way to go. I've
never even plugged it in, the pup might be dead, can't see
it though built good basses did Westone.

Let ye ken what path I take.

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Update: Andy has been round this morning and delivered the Westie back to me and I have to say I couldn't be more pleased with the results. It plays now how it always should have. The ifguring in the rosewood on the fretboard looks amazing and the action and intonation are spot on.

Andy himself is not too happy with the finish on the headstock but I am more than happy with the work he has done. He has kindly offered that if I want it re-done to let him know but that is not going to be necessary I assure you.

I can wholeheartedly recommend his work to anyone. I am now going to get him to price up a bit of work on my Jazz (set up etc) and will happily use his services for this and if that's not a ringing endorsement then nothing is.

I would post up some pics but I understand Andy has taken some and they would be much better than mine so I shall leave him to have the last word on that front.

Thanks again Andy.

Edited by Chris Sharman
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Interesting, I can feel my wallet starting to squirm. This thread illustrates two points. If you do someone a favour, kindness may rebound - loaves, fishes and a multitude and all that. If you're good, people will want you to do stuff. I suspect you will soon have a little business going there Andy.

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Thanks for the kind words, folks, and thanks for the endorsement, Chris.

Here are some shots of the finished article...lovely looking bass and sounds great with Chris's skills applied to playing it!

This was the main job - getting rid of the furrows in the fretboard that were causing buzzing and dampening of the sound. It's a really nice piece of rosewood - looks fabulous and now sounds great too:




The scratches on the pickups are gone too. It really is a very well made bass and must have looked cracking when it was new. Looks pretty cool with the occasional road dint!:




This is the headstock. As Chris says, it looks OK head-on but with the full light reflected on it, I'm not entirely happy with it. I think my varnish is maybe getting a little tired. When Chris has a short spell not using it (although based on the big grin he had when he was playing it, that might be some time!), I'll just give it a final couple of coats of some fresh stuff and get it to how I would like it. Mind you, we are all agreed that, compared with how it was when he bought it, it is a great improvement :)

Before:


...and after:



As usual - thanks for looking :)

Andy

Edited by Andyjr1515
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