P Bass Refinish and Complete Build

[spacecowboy]

Very recently picked up some second hand bits and pieces for a bitsa P Bass build.

 

It started with this Squier body, but as I already have a sunburst P Bass in the stable I decided I was going to refinish it. 

 

 

 

A pro told me there was no need to strip back to bare timber and that knocking back the lacquer would be enough with primer / top coat and new lacquer. I used some filler on the dent on the back and roughed it all back. 

 

 

 

Building up the primer coats slowly and flattening back each coat before the next. 

 

 

Until I had a nice even primed surface! Worth the patience. 

 

 

The final colour was an off white / grey, RAL 9002 to be specific, I'd had creams, oly whites, arctic whites on basses previously and wanted a different look, if I could have got it in good time I did want Porsche Chalk Grey, but this was a lovely colour too, and looked ace on the guitar. Not so many process photos but slow build up and flattening off between coats. 

 

 

 

Went with a satin poly lacquer so it didn't feel so glossy and after a few days of hanging up in a hot area curing it was ready to take home and add some hardware! 

 

 

 

Hardware time! The build got the following goodies installed; 

 

• Squier CV60's Body
• Squier CV70's Maple Neck, black blocks and binding, came with stock tuners, nut, and string tree.
• Gotoh bridge (required me to buy a maple wood shim as it sits higher than a standard BBOT bridge. )
• Aguilar AG4P-60 pickups, my new go to pickups, they are AMAZING, 
• Kiogon loom
• Flat head tele knobs (which I haven't installed yet as I really like the pot shaft no knob look)
• New Squier neck plate and screws
• Red tortoise shell pickguard
• Comfort Strap 
• Ernie Ball lime green strap locks (I have the same strap + straplock combo on all my basses)
• Cavity shielding
• La Bella Flats (The only strings I use these days, again they're on all my basses)

 

 

Annnnd... she was done! Very satisfying putting it all together and it thankfully it sounds and plays just like a P Bass should! Gorgeous! 

[spacecowboy]

The build wasn't without issues though. 

 

The neck was a right sod, it hated the la bellas and the truss rod really struggled to counteract the tension, the truss rod was very tight so needed lubing and encouraging, completely loosening and then tightening up to get it happy to be moving again, I actually thought it could have been broken as I wasn't seeing any change at all, but after a day it began moving.

 

I had to set the neck with the truss rod cranked to put a bit of back bow in it and let it sit a night without strings on just to settle it down, once I got the relief on the neck perfect (well to where I want it... which is barely any movement between fret and string, I blame my Ken Smith for setting up that expectation) I then couldn't get the strings low enough to the board because of the Gotoh bridge being around 3mm thicker than the Fender / Squier BBOT bridges, so a shim was ordered, ended up using the 0.5 degree shim and then the action of the strings and neck relief where perfect...

 

but then a new problem, the pickup foam I had wasn't tall enough to raise the pickups to where I wanted them so new pickup foam ordered, bloody expensive, but worked a treat and now thankfully, everything is happy and the bass is ready to take to my next gig!

 

I don't think the Gotoh bridge adds enough to warrant all the issues it caused however! 

 

 

[PaulThePlug]

Nice facilities...

Often read about red/black/white over sunburst... Looks like you have the patience of a saint with all those light coats, knocking back and more importantly, waiting!

Bound 'n Blocks look great, but i just can't do tort.