Refinishing advice

[TRBboy]

Hi folks! Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but let me know if not. 

I have recently acquired a very tidy Yamaha BBN5 as a project bass that I want to refinish, and was hoping for a bit of advice from those moor experienced in these sort of things.....

1) should I strip the old finish off completely, back to the wood, and then coat with sanding sealer before painting, or just abrade the existing finish and paying over the top? Existing finish is a kind of brown stain, doesn't look too thick. 
2) I want a matte or satin finish over the colour (which is a metallic car paint): should I be looking at polyurethane, nitrocellulose or something else? 
3) not sure if I need a base coat under the main colour, but I guess it would be better. 

Thanks for your help! 😊👍

[Al Krow]

@Grangur is your man!

[Cuzzie]

Take the finish off and go back to the original wood.

Progressively sand from 100 Grit through to 400 grit as a minimum to make it even.

Now it depends whether you want grain showing in you finish, if not you can use a grain filler, sand.

Primer bass coat, sand it.

Colour if choice (you can get spray cans of guitar finishes so you don’t need a gun)

Sand between finishes till you get a good colour

Sealant of choice.

Thats if you want a solid type colour - if you want any grain showing, it will be a different process

[Cuzzie]

Also may be worth the mods moving this to the repair or build section - and of course we need pics!