Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 (edited) I bought this rather sad Westbury Track 4 recently with the intention of restoring it. At the time, it wasn't clear of it was a one off factory special with asymmetric horns (it has a "Custom" truss Road covert after all), and had the German carve around it that had been rustically de-fretted.... .... turns out it had been butchered.... Oh well. Best fix it up anyway. So here goes..... Edited March 24, 2023 by Adey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 As the finish on Uncle Mats instruments are designed to resist atomic attack, I "had at it" with paint stripper. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 I quite liked the blue - what are you going to replace it with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 I'm curently planning to make it look original (ish) if I can, but I quite liked the Pelham Blue colour too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 (edited) More paint being stripped off Asymetric horn wasn't original after all and someone had dug a big gouge into the front of the body... Other than that, the old finish was in really good condition, if slightly roughed up for a key to the blue paint Edited March 24, 2023 by Adey 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 The gouge was a bit of a nuisance, but I have decided to try to re-fill it and disguise it so I can re-finish to look like the wood again. The paint stripper softens it up, so it had to be removed anyway. After a bit of sanding, re-filling, re-sanding and re-fillilling, it looked like this I found the best way to sand was to wrap wet and dry around a rectangular pencil rubber so it could bend around the contours of the carved body. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 After applications of dark brown stain with a brush to get a "mottled" finish a few more coats to go and then I'll flat it down and try and do a bit of fake graining before a spray application of more stain and then top coat. Watch this space..... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 26, 2023 Author Share Posted March 26, 2023 (edited) Because it was a wet day today and I thought that it wasn't the weather to go spraying nitro in, I decided to slap a few frets back in.... I had to use some CA glue to hold them in as the slots had been opened up a bit when cleaing out all the old filler from when it was originally defretted. Some still needs cleaing up in this photo. I tidied the fret ends up and then gave the fret board a good dose of lemon oil as it was extremely dry (you can see where my slightly greasy fingers from eating a cake made the fret board much darker initially at the first fret!) Levelling up the frets will have to wait a bit. After oiling it is a lot darker all over. My attempts at disguising the filler in the gouge on the front aren't going too badly so far.... Edited March 28, 2023 by Adey 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 On 26/03/2023 at 19:09, Adey said: My attempts at disguising the filler in the gouge on the front are going too badly so far.... I hope you meant aren't? Looking good. I only came across these basses in another post on here a week or so ago and now have gas for the first time in years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 28, 2023 Author Share Posted March 28, 2023 Good spot! Corrected now! 🙃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) I used to own the guitar equivalent, with a DiMarzio Super Distortion bridge pickup and a DiMarzio PAF neck pickup from stock. Greatest guitar I have ever played, and was my main for many years. Felt no less than amazing in my hands, just absolutely perfect, and sounded astonishing too. Unfortunately at some point I was stupid enough to sell it. One of the greatest seller remorse experiences I've ever had (up there together with the Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn Bass and Ampeg B-15S all tube 60W bass amp). Still regret it to this day. Edited March 29, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 It seems that the secret about how good the Westbury guitar range was has got out now and prices are going north quite quickly it seems. A nice Custom went for close to £1000 recently, and the Standards are also fetching good money. I've got a battered Custom, a slightly road worn DELUXE, a Track 2 and this Track 4 (OK, it's a Track 3.5 at the moment...). Find yourself another one yourself and have a blast! You won't regret it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) 42 minutes ago, Adey said: It seems that the secret about how good the Westbury guitar range was has got out now and prices are going north quite quickly it seems. A nice Custom went for close to £1000 recently, and the Standards are also fetching good money. I've got a battered Custom, a slightly road worn DELUXE, a Track 2 and this Track 4 (OK, it's a Track 3.5 at the moment...). Find yourself another one yourself and have a blast! You won't regret it. Well, this was Westbury Standard guitar, but same basic body and headtsock shape as the bass in the OP. Fairly rare to find on sale though. Edited March 29, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adey Posted April 2, 2023 Author Share Posted April 2, 2023 (edited) As it stayed a bit too wet and humid to think about doing any paint spraying in my garage, I decided to finish of the fret job and do the levelling. Fret board protected Levelling in progress after truss rod tweaked to get the board as flat as possible Levelling and polishing done. Unfortunately, when I took the tape off the fretboard, it pulled out part of one of the dot markers. One was already partly missing on 3rd fret. I have a matching marker now on the 5th fret. More shopping to do now I guess and another job to do... Edited April 2, 2023 by Adey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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