Quote:
Originally posted by Fluke
i've been thinking of painting/spraying the body and neck matte white, with the fretboard and bridge black. I know that it would look really awesome but what are your thoughts on this? |
Sorry that all you got was sarcasm as an answer, so far, with the exception of the "rockabillybass.com" answer.
It's just that what you're proposing is so ridiculous and harmful that most folks here probably can't believe you aren't trying to yank their collective chain.
Asking "Does it affect the tone much?" probably has all of these jokers laughing so much that they can't resist answers such as they gave.
I'll give you a straight, simple straight answer... "Yep".
Make that "Yep, and not in any good way".
Truly, you should visit
www.rockabillybass.com and ask those questions. Only a dyed-in-the-wool Rockabilly player would ever consider putting paint on a bass in any way, shape, or form, because of what it does to the sound of the bass.
With as much as they amplify their basses, and all of the bass guitar effects that some of them use, nearly all the "upright bass" characteristics are lost anyway, so a little automotive paint doesn't hurt much.
Even then, nobody paints the fingerboard (there is no "fretboard", it's a "fingerboard") or puts
any kind of finish whatsoever on the bridge.
If you want a black bridge, you can visit
www.urbbob.com and buy a carbon-fiber bridge, by Moses Graphite, for about $130.
No paint will stay on a fingerboard very long, not even epoxy paint.
If you're playing heavy slap-bass, "not very long" probably means about 3-4 weeks, unless it's thick enough to chip, which will reduce that into days instead of weeks.
If you don't have an ebony fingerboard, you can dye the wood. Even though ebony is a black wood, not all of it is all-black. It's sometimes dyed when that is the case.
www.stewmac.com sells fingerboard dye. I seem to recall someone commenting that it's nothing more than leather dye, such as you can get at any shoe store a lot cheaper.
If you have a dark brown fingerboard, it's probably rosewood. Dyeing it would be a shame, though it IS sometimes done.
Some manufacturers put a slick finish on the necks, especially on "student" basses. This generally gets sanded off very soon, and the neck just re-sealed with Danish oil or something that will leave a smooth, but non-slick finish.
Sweaty hands tend to stick on slick surfaces when you're trying to slide to another note. You certainly wouldn't want to paint the neck.
The Neck's appearance may not suit you specifically because it's been sanded, so it will play better.
Generally, I think acryllic auto paint is used on bass bodies, and I believe it's thinned quite a bit more than when it's used on cars. Or maybe acryllic is the kind of paint that's NEVER used... I can't remember for sure. Best to check it out for yourself on Rockabillybass.com.
I've seen a couple of painted basses on Ebay, both with gloss-white bodies.
You might want to visit
www.kingdoublebass.com. where they sell factory-painted basses, complete with flame jobs, etc.
