I know many 'heads have seen this bass on Roscoe ads, and from an ownership perspective, it's passed through the hands of Joe, yours truly, and perhaps one or more Roscoe heads, including my good friend, Tony, who originally ordered it. He's a great fellow who doesn't post here much these days.
Great, great bass, and long story short, it's back in the hands of my local store. It was nice to see the bass again, and here's hoping it lands in the hands of someone who will really dig it. Last week, when I saw it back on the wall, I noticed that there were some fairly nasty surface scratches on the top. Given the beauty of this top - and the overall no-option-list-item-unchecked specs (wenge wedge neck, that delicious top, Nord DC's, Aggie OBP-3, I could go on
) I wanted to take a stab at knocking down some of those scratches.
My automotive detailing days are pretty much behind me, but I still obsess a bit about a perfect finish...whether on my car or on a Roscoe. I suspected that a couple of the scratches would require disassembly and machine polishing to completely level the finish, but I figured it couldn't hurt to make an attempt by hand. It was very hard to capture pics, but here are some befores & afters that will hopefully help tell the story.
Before:
After:
Not the best pics for sure - it was getting busy in there, and I fought the lighting from beginning to end. Nonetheless, I corrected all of the light scratches, got the worst of the two nasty ones, and fine-polished most of the top (didn't remove knobs) to what I'd selfishly suggest would be Roscoe standards.
I think the bass is now ready for its new home.
If you're interested, here's the products & process:
Quick wipe w/ microfiber towel, misted with Poorboy's Spray & Wipe cleaner/quick detailer.
3M blue painter's tape to mask off edges of pickups & bridge.
Meguiar's M105 polish by hand w/ fingertip & microfiber towel. Three passes on nasty scratches, two passes in one other area (below the neck pickup), and one pass over numerous other light scratches.
Meguiar's M205 polish by hand w/ microfiber towel. One pass directly around the nasty scratches, and one more pass over the entire top (minus between the knobs and under the strings). The M105 actually finished quite nicely, but I wanted to "jewel" the clearcoat as much as possible to bring out the gloss and clarity.
Bottom line: I'd give myself a B+. I don't think there's much more I could've done by hand, although I could've tried a harsher compound on the nasty areas. I don't like working with those products by hand, however - they require speed and pressure to break down effectively, without which you risk micromarring and heavy hazing - and there was no real way for me to use one of my buffers, even with small foam pads. (That would entail removing the strings and knobs - at a minimum - and completely masking the pickups and bridge. Dust from machine polishing can get
everywhere.) Nonetheless, you have to look pretty darn hard to see the imperfections, and from any view except perhaps within 12-18" and with strong lighting, the bass looks as good as new.
Bottom line #2: stating the obvious, since we all know this. Roscoe's finishes are beyond reproach. Excellent hard clearcoat, applied with expertise, and buffed to a beautiful high gloss. As a detailer, you can't ask for anything more. Softer clearcoats can be easier to correct, but they're also much more prone to marring, and of course are much more easy to scratch and damage during normal bass player use.
IIRC Jerry, This one was one of my favorites tonally and it smokes visually as well.
