De-flowering a Dano Longhorn.

[Maude]

For a while I had been thinking about trying a Danelectro Longhorn and then I managed to snag one on ebay for around the hundred quid mark (can't quite remember now). It was one of the 90's reissues with the round control knobs, that are supposed to be better than the later chicken head knob reissues, but who knows?
I was happy to refinish it if needed so wasn't too fussed about cosmetic condition which led me to buying this thing of beauty. The owner had badly painted it white and hand painted some roses on it, but mechanically it was solid so to speak.
Obviously I tried it out when it arrived and even with it's old strings, of which the E string was kinked, it sounded amazing, bright snappy and clanky to warm and mellow, I really liked it and they are unbelievably light.

Here it is,

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0147_zps569vsjyv.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0147_zps569vsjyv.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


Close up of the roses, which are actually very nicely painted but really don't belong on a bass,

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0148_zpsf8q0wpbg.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0148_zpsf8q0wpbg.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0146_zpsspaszd0y.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0146_zpsspaszd0y.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Edited December 29, 2016 by Maude

[Maude]

After a quick strip down it was put to one side whilst I decided on colour etc.
The side binding had been removed by the previous owner when they painted it and although are easy to get hold of, they have a tendency to lift off around the internal curves of the horns so I decided on a different plan.
I decided it would be a light mint green with silver metalflake binding and a thin black line separating the two. Natural wood neck and a body coloured head stock. Possibly silver metalflake the scratchplate but unsure yet.

That was a few months ago and yesterday I decided to crack on as I have some spare time over Christmas.

I sanded the body back to a mustard coloured coat that was under the naff white paint that it had been refinished in previously, as I've never seen what these basses are made of looks like I didn't want to sand too far and cause myself problems.
I've never really understood why other folks take off all the coatings right down too the bare wood. The colour, yes if you are worried about chipping it and the previous colour showing through, but the clear sealer under the colour (which is usually a pig to remove) just causes grief when trying to cover the woods grain with primer, just leave it on and save yourself a whole load of agro, anyway back to the Dano.
On to the neck, under the white the same mustard colour was found but under that was seafoam green, which made me think that the mustard could've been a primer/sealer used by the previous painter as it was that sort of colour. Then when the headstock was sanded the Danelectro logo appeared on top of the mustard coat so now I'm not sure, maybe it was seafoam green and then finished in mustard at the factory before sale as Fender used to do, or maybe the mustard was a refinish but there was no signs of a decal being on the green coat, which hadn't been removed so who knows?

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0294_zpswbzoy7y2.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0294_zpswbzoy7y2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


You can just see the layer of green in this picture,

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0293_zpsntjuzivp.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0293_zpsntjuzivp.jpg[/IMG][/URL]




[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0296_zpsg0fokz3v.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0296_zpsg0fokz3v.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0297_zpsoifuoczl.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0297_zpsoifuoczl.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Edited December 29, 2016 by Maude

[Maude]

A quick prime and the body is ready to go. Using a general aerosol primer is helpful as usually they have a high solvent content which means if any of the previous paint is going to react badly it will do it now rather than further down the line.
No adverse reactions from the previous paint when primed means it'll be good to go, yay


These pictures show how I screw a wooden baton into the neck pocket to use as a handle when spraying, it is so much easier to hold like a giant lollipop and turn the bass to fit your natural spraying position rather than hang the bass up and try to manoeuvre your body and spray can/gun around the bass. Also if you do happen to get the beginnings of a run then you can turn the bass around/over to make the paint flow the other way to minimise the run.


[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0298_zpssc5hyu11.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0298_zpssc5hyu11.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0299_zpsxtyyie9j.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0299_zpsxtyyie9j.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Edited December 29, 2016 by Maude

[Maude]

I forgot to say that I sanded it all down using a cheapy Black and Decker Mouse sander with 180 grit, then 320 and finished by hand with 500.
As long as you have enough experience using Sanders and are disciplined enough not to dig the edge in to speed things up then a flat enough finish is achievable without using a block. The primer will be wet flatted using a block now though so will show up any discrepancies.

[Maude]

Taking the neck down to bare wood has revealed the inevitable scarf joint which unfortunately made of two very differently grained woods. The neck is very plain while the headstock has quite a bit of grain.
I wanted to leave the neck a nice pale natural wood which I think will look nice and clean with the mint green and silver colour scheme but it might need to be painted.
This picture does make it look worse than in the flesh (wood).
The neck, if left natural, will be lacquered rather than oiled or waxed as I find oiled or waxed can become sticky and dirty over time.
[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0301_zpsf00en94g.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0301_zpsf00en94g.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


I haven't worried about taking all the finish off the front of the headstock as it will be painted mint green.

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0302_zpsr2wrzo9g.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0302_zpsr2wrzo9g.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[Maude]

That's it for yesterdays activity.
Hopefully I'll get some more done today but first I have to go and buy something I saw a while ago that will, fingers crossed, help me cut quite a corner.
Details to be revealed after testing

[Andyjr1515]

Watching with interest, Maude

It certainly looks better already without those...er...indidividualistic roses...

[scojack]

2nd time in before i got the tag line...... getting old
great project Maude

[Maude]

Got some paint on on Thursday but the very cold weather was causing problems with it fully curing. The paint was plenty hard enough to handle but you could leave a fingerprint in it if you pressed hard enough.

This doesn't quite show the true colour due to failing light but it's the mint green used on the new shape Fiat 500.

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0307_zpspawqbijx.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0307_zpspawqbijx.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/DSC_0306_zpslhe1rrxr.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/DSC_0306_zpslhe1rrxr.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


The paint really needed a good dose of heat to fully cure it and luckily with the body being quite small on these I managed to suspend it in the kitchen oven and give it half an hour at 70 degrees, "What's that smell?" enquires Mrs
Maude, "Nothing Dear"

The paint is now nice and hard and ready for the binding and good lacquering.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Maude

[Maude]

My little plan to cut a corner looks like it should work.
I wanted to metalflake where the original binding tape would be on Danelectros but as a couple of recent attempts by folks on here have shown, doing it at home is not easy. I am using proper sprayguns to do this bass but the nozzle I have fitted isn't big enough for using metalflake so I tried my plan.
I remembered seeing that Duck tape do their tape with different finishes, one of which being a silver glitter.
Not knowing what the glitter finish is I feared that the solvent in the lacquer would melt the tape or dissolve the silver colour on the sparkle.
I stuck a piece of tape to some cardboard and gave it a couple of coats of lacquer and although it did wrinkle up slightly the sparkle effect stayed fast.
The wrinkling was, I think, due to the cardboard absorbing the lacquer and once applied over a painted guitar I reckon will stay flat.

The roll of tape is hard to photograph but here you go.


[URL=http://s157.photobucket.com/user/Maudebass/media/_20170101_192719_zpsougdp70s.jpg.html][IMG]http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/Maudebass/_20170101_192719_zpsougdp70s.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[BrunoBass]

Did it work?

[Maude]

Holy thread revival Batman!! 

Well this has been a while. I can't even make up an excuse as to why this went on the backburner, but it's back. 

I'll update some pictures as the old ones all went in the photobucket fiasco. 

 

 

Right that's that caught up with. Now to some progress. As I'm painting my Kay tomorrow (maybe) I though I'd get this one and my Hohner prepped ready to do at the same time. I flatted the mint green ready to apply the glitter tape (remember that?), I hade to trim it down to size which was easier said than done. I decided that 1 inch masking tape would be the perfect width for the side tape so I stuck a length of masking tape to the glitter tape to give me a guide to cut along, fairly simple but when I peeled the masking tape of it took the sparkle with it and just left clear tape, hmm. Freehand it is then. I stuck the sparkle tape on and then put a thinner black tape line either side of it, rather than the traditional Danelectro cream textured tape. I think I'll be needing a white Tux and frilly shirt to play this bass. 

When I painted the headstock all that time ago I managed to drop it and get dirt all over the face of it, I have some of the mint green left at home but I really don't think it's going to be usable and mixing some more at work is out of the question at the moment, so tomorrows decision is to try and redo it green with what I've got or use the tape and do the face of the headstock silver glitter, the neck was going to be left natural. 

The three ready to paint tomorrow, this Longhorn, my terrible Kay and a Hohner Arbor Series fretless, both ply bodies. 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Maude

[Maude]

On 19/03/2017 at 22:51, BrunoBass said:

Did it work?

Yes 😆

[Maude]

Got this lacquered today, along with the other two, but as I'm doing them at home in the garden the inevitable local fly colony decided to come and see what I was up to. I picked out what I could but I'll see what they're like once dry. They're currently hanging in my shed drying and acting as spider traps no doubt. 

It might all be pointless because when I went to get the neck from my special wardrobe of wonders it wasn't there, and I can't remember where I put it. I'll have a hunt tomorrow. 

[SpondonBassed]

On 02/04/2020 at 20:58, Maude said:

Got this lacquered today, along with the other two, but as I'm doing them at home in the garden the inevitable local fly colony decided to come and see what I was up to. I picked out what I could but I'll see what they're like once dry. They're currently hanging in my shed drying and acting as spider traps no doubt. 

It might all be pointless because when I went to get the neck from my special wardrobe of wonders it wasn't there, and I can't remember where I put it. I'll have a hunt tomorrow. 

Lacquered and knackered all in one short post.  Aw.  You'll have put it somewhere safe (from yourself).

[Maude]

I've found it now, in a safe place as you say, just a different safe place than I thought. Note to self, cut down on number of safe places. 🙂

 

[SpondonBassed]

Great news.  Now all you have to do is to style it out and say you wanted folk to think the bass was made from a huge Garibaldi biscuit.

[Maude]

Found, sanded, colour coated, decal'd and lacquered. It's hanging up drying now, no flies and hopefully still spiderless by morning. 

The body is dry and I'm ignoring the bit where I had to pick a fly out of the lacquer and it fell to bits, it's not that noticeable and I've got no more lacquer at home now. 

It's flatted and ready for a polish and I've had to make a polisher today as all my stuff is at work, and I won't be there for a while. 

[Maude]

I've just ordered some acrylic sheet to make a new scratchplate for this as the original one has yellowed really badly, and just looks bad against the freshness of mint green paint and silver sparkles. I've ordered clear, as per original and some mirrored and will probably make two and see which I like best.

Now if it's a clear one then this next bit won't matter but if I go with mirrored then the original shape of the scratchplate seems wrong to me. If I just flip it upside down then it suits the shape of the bass better I think, but doesn't cover the screw holes. I didn't consider a change of colour beforehand so didn't fill the holes or anything. I could slightly reshape it to utilise the existing holes but am I overthinking this and should just go with the original design? 

The first picture is how it should be and the second flipped upside down. 

[Andyjr1515]

I like that mint green!  Very cool...

[SpondonBassed]

12 hours ago, Maude said:

Now if it's a clear one then this next bit won't matter but if I go with mirrored then the original shape of the scratchplate seems wrong to me. If I just flip it upside down then it suits the shape of the bass better I think, but doesn't cover the screw holes. I didn't consider a change of colour beforehand so didn't fill the holes or anything. I could slightly reshape it to utilise the existing holes but am I overthinking this and should just go with the original design? 

I agree with you.

The second image looks more purposeful somehow.  I reckon it would do more to protect the finish coat than the in first image.

I suppose it depends on whether you do more plucking at the bridge or near the neck.  If you aren't needing to keep faithful to the original that is.

Edited April 7, 2020 by SpondonBassed

[Maude]

I'm going to add this link here as it started as a new bass day thread, however it's sort of evolved into a restoration thread but doesn't really warrant it's own thread, and it's also appeared in a photo above. 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Just posted on the other thread, @Maude. What a fantastic paint job on the Kay!!!!

[Maude]

Here's the body polished, it will get a ceramic coating and another buff before being rebuilt to help keep the fingerprints and dust at bay. Onto the neck in a mo. 

The sparkle is really strong and bright but I just can't capture it in a photo, it needs to be moving to really sparkle. 

 

[Pea Turgh]

Not reallly been a fan of these... until now!  Looks great!