Stingray 5 Refinish and Modernisation

[carlsim]

So after a successful strip and refinish using Tru-oil of an Xotic a while back, I recently acquired a very reasonably priced Stingray 5 from @wordsetcetera for the pure reason that the finish was in a bit of a sorry state. It would appear that someone had gone over its original trans red finish with a solid red rattle can finish (which wasn’t perfect but not too bad) and then lacquered it. Unfortunately, due to some rigorous polishing the lacquer was peeling off and it had started to look a bit sorry for its self.

I took a punt for this reason with an original intention to do another tru-oil refinish and job done. But, I started thinking about colours and asked the BC community about ideas of colours and what they think looks good with a stingray. There were some excellent ideas and some of the colours from The new special series are amazing. However, after stripping the guitar I have decided that a natural finish is going to be the way to go. It was originally a trans red finish so I had an idea that grain would be nice, but now it’s back to the Wood. I think it’s definitely going to be a natural finish. I’m quite lucky that I live quite near a talented luthier and he’s going to do a high gloss nitro finish for me. We did discuss the idea of a dirty stain, which involves staining the wood and then sanding back to make a slightly darker look especially on the grain and I think this could be quite cool. I have been painting stripping and sanding over the last few weeks (fitting this in between other jobs) and it’s now ready to go off to be finished.

I wanted to give it a more modern look as well and I think the black hardware on the new special series look really good. A natural finish stingray with a maple neck, looks great with a black scratch plane and I think this would be aided with black tuners, a black bridge and black knobs.

My biggest issue is where to source these! Schaller make some black tuners which would fit nicely and a slightly lighter than the originals. But Ernie Ball don’t allow you to buy replacement bridges in different colours. I can get original music man tuners but they don’t supply and send to the UK. I do have family in America who could buy them for me and post them but I reckon it will be close to 200 quid. 

My question is this - can I have a chrome bridge changed to black? I don’t think powder coating would work as apparently it’s quite a thick coating. I did look into anodising but apparently the biggest problem is getting the chrome off. Anybody tried anything like this? Does anybody have a stingray five Black bridge they’d want to swap for a chrome one? Doubtful, I know but always worth an ask! I do think the black hardware would improve the look no end so I will definitely be doing this. Other than that is a non-original music man bridge but I don’t know which one would fit and I don’t want to drill extra holes. 

Feel free to weigh in on the colour options as well - I’m not 100% on the natural finish if someone has some other ideas but the grain looks great. I’d rather not cover it!

Will post updates when the refinish process starts…

 

Carl.

[carlsim]

Original paint work - you can certainly see the duff job of the original rattle can job….

 

 

[carlsim]

Sanded back to the wood - that sealer coat was a b**** to sand through - I was instructed to do the sides by hand to avoid taking too much wood away. That took hours!

[carlsim]

The guy doing the refinish will be doing further finish sanding so that’s my bit done for now and time to pass it across.

 

[SpondonBassed]

The grain looks interesting enough.  What are your thoughts having revealed it?

[AndyTravis]

I’d make that natural, great grainy ash.

maybe an “aged” tint - but not that awful orange stuff.

[AndyTravis]

2 hours ago, carlsim said:

The guy doing the refinish will be doing further finish sanding so that’s my bit done for now and time to pass it across.

 

Looks like you did a great job