Customizing the look of my bass.

[Bulletr0k]

I've become comfortable enough with my bass, that I wanna customize it's look. First thing I would like to do is take off the pickguard and spraypaint my bass' name on it. But there's a problem, the knobs for tone/volume are in the way, and I don't know how to (safely) remove them. Is there a way to remove them so I can remove the pickguard? And I assume that I would have to unscrew the pickups as well, which I don't think is troublesome, but I've never unscrewed anything off my bass.

My bass is a Johnson JP800.

[UtterChurl]

Hi, that looks like a Precision copy. If it is, and what you want to do is just paint the pickguard, then the knobs and jack won't give you any problems removing it temporarily.

All you have to do is unscrew all the wood screws that outline the pickguard, and the knobs/jack will come up with the guard. You'll probably have to loosen or remove the strings too. Be careful as you're lifting up the guard because there's a grounding wire that comes out of the body (from the bridge) and connects to the electronics somehow. Very likely connected to something attached to the pickguard so don't yank it, is all.

The pickup halves are screwed directly into the body and won't come up with the guard.

hope that helps!!

tim . . .