Spector NS5 CRFM Restoration: The Firewood Five

**nervous** · #1 07-23-2011, 02:16 PM

Well, I have mulled this for a few weeks and since I made some decent and positive progress on this project today I thought it's about time to take my shot at a crazy fixer-upper. My hopes in posting is that it will make this a bit more fun for me and that I will gain important insight, tips and suggestions from those that choose to follow along.

Here's how we got here...

A few weeks ago I purchased a beautiful red 2001 Spector NS5 CRFM on eBay.

I had specifically asked about the action and playability and was told that it indeed had low action. I know this can be VERY subjective but I believe that most of us could come to some consensus on what that means and certainly believe that what I received could in no way be construed as 'low'. And, yes, that's at least 7/64ths the 12th fret! The relief measurement at the 5th (4/64ths) was where most basses I have had when measuring at the 12th!

However, I have setup every bass and guitar with relative success for a long time s I approached this no differently. A little tweaking and I'd be all set. Well, that was not to be. I'll admit that at some point in the process I should have stopped, taken a deep breath and sent the damned thing back from whence it came. However, my personality and temperament just does not succumb to logic sometimes and the 'one more little tweak' resulted in a broken truss rod which fatally wounded this little beast.

After conversations with the very fine folks at Spector it was just broken in such a manner that to repair it was probably well beyond the value of the instrument. No worries. I'll get that bi*ch out! And I did.

Now, I'll admit, in hindsight, big mistakes were made and there are things that I could have done differently but that's all well behind me. Full speed ahead with nothing to lose at this point. It either remains useless firewood or it gets resurrected into something beautiful and unique. I am hopeful for the latter because it's simply too nice to let go to the scrap heap this way.

So the 'unfinishing' has begun. I have effectively removed the remnants of the fretboard with the judicious application of heat (imagine that...) and appear to have a nice surface to apply a new fretboard to at some point. But let's not get too far ahead. I began the main finish removal with a heat gun and scraper to see how effective that was. It was.

The next thought was how to preserve the face of the headstock to keep things looking as 'factory fresh' as possible. I had found the the high level of heat required was uncontrollable in tighter spaces and I had already has a small area the took on a bit of char along the side of the neck where the wood got thin so mechanically removing it seemed like the best way. And it was. My trusty Makita finishing sander and some pretty gritty paper got me this result:

I was very pleased with today's progress and having passed a major step in knowing if it would look OK I am confident to keep moving forward with this.

I welcome any thoughts, tips and guidance as I continue with this over the next weeks (and quite possibly, months) I hope you find this project worthy and enjoy my trip.

Mr.Bassie720 · #2 07-23-2011, 02:42 PM

Wow! I wish you the best with this project. I think your attiude is right on. Live and learn. Make lemonade out of lemons. There are a lot of good folks on this thread with lots of experience. Trace, of course, just did a great restoration on a bolt on neck Spector. I am sure he has seen this and is ready to help.

jarrod cunningham · #3 07-23-2011, 02:58 PM

Watching .

**nervous** · #4 07-23-2011, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Bassie720

Wow! I wish you the best with this project. I think your attiude is right on. Live and learn. Make lemonade out of lemons. There are a lot of good folks on this thread with lots of experience. Trace, of course, just did a great restoration on a bolt on neck Spector. I am sure he has seen this and is ready to help.

Thanks for the positive thoughts. And yes, I saw Trace's work and honestly it's what inspired me to give this a shot (unfortunately, to his detriment because this would have otherwise have been headed his way...

)

RkdJehova · #5 07-23-2011, 03:34 PM

Definitely subbed to this one. Best of luck to you man!

Pilgrim · #6 07-23-2011, 05:10 PM

It's not clear to me why you undertook a refin when all you needed was a truss rod repair.

Slow day?

**nervous** · #7 07-23-2011, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

It's not clear to me why you undertook a refin when all you needed was a truss rod repair.

Slow day?

Fair question and no day is THAT slow. It's kind of a knee bone connected to the thigh bone scenario. When the truss rod snapped the threaded portion of the rod was not exposed enough to grab it to extract it from the neck. Lord knows I tried but the working space is so tight and you get pretty much one shot at anything you try and nothing after that. I spoke with a couple different sources that said the only way to now get the truss rod out was to remove the fretboard. In some cases this would be no big deal but on this neck through Spector that's essentially been dipped in plastic there's no way to do that without some major refinishing, Both along the sides of the neck and where the fretboard meets and contours into the body. Everything was connected to something more fussy and more costly. Once we start adding refinishing to things the cost of the job rockets to a point where the value of the bass is just not there to support the expense. And, unless I overlooked an obvious option that's what all the advice I was given amounted to. The other dirty little secret is that I found that the fretboard was already lifting at the nut and I was into some new damage whether I liked it or not and in my mild state of rage when I simultaneously ran out of both patience and options I did a little more damage to the neck finish than planned so, at that point, my path was set.

The first thought was to cut off it's wretched neck and route in a fresh neck pocket to accommodate a Rebop neck. But discussions there made me think that there might now be enough body material at the neck joint to support the neck and the precision required moved this to the back burner to revive if my current 'Plan A' fails.

But, if I can cleanly strip off all the old finish (which is looking good so far) I have a beautiful fresh platform for a new fretboard, be it fretted or fretless, and the option of a variety of stain colors and a nice oil finish on what is a very nicely figured wood body that had been all but buried under all that plastic casing. It could come out looking like new. At least that's the hope. I first need to clear this hurdle before thinking too far ahead though.

Hope this makes some sense and clears me as the loon that this project might make me look like.

**peledog** · #8 07-23-2011, 07:09 PM

Subbed

Pilgrim · #9 07-23-2011, 07:21 PM

Looking at the way that fretboard is "plasticized" into the body, I get your point. Hard to find a good place to stop once you get started.

**nervous** · #10 07-23-2011, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Looking at the way that fretboard is "plasticized" into the body, I get your point. Hard to find a good place to stop once you get started.

That is exactly right. Lord knows I thought long and hard on everything that got me this deep. Had I been able to extract the truss rod we wouldn't be having this fun. But that required some magic, tools or skills I don't yet possess nor could I find someone (within the limits of my searching patience) that did either. I might come out happier on the other end of this though. I really never liked that black/red burst at all anyway and I have always loved the oil finishes. Perhaps there's some evil subconscious at work here.

JimiLL · #11 07-23-2011, 07:33 PM

Subbed. I also find it humorous and ironic your name is "nervous"... i would be too

JimiLL · #12 07-23-2011, 07:33 PM

Also is that an all maple euro?? Nice figuring in the top

**nervous** · #13 07-23-2011, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimiLL

Subbed. I also find it humorous and ironic your name is "nervous"... i would be too

The irony is that I am really not all that nervous.

**nervous** · #14 07-23-2011, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimiLL

Also is that an all maple euro?? Nice figuring in the top

It is indeed. Flame maple wings. That's why I think it will look real nice cleaned up, stained (maybe black) and oiled.

Mikeyt1994 · #15 07-24-2011, 04:05 PM

That's going to be awesome

**nervous** · #16 07-24-2011, 05:23 PM

Well, today's efforts yielded mixed results. The goal was to cook off the remaining resin/plastic/foul coating and possibly as much redness down to the sealer coat to assess what we're dealing with.

The looooong application of slooowwwwww heat got here:

And some more work with the Makita and some 60 grit paper got us here:

Now, my plan up this point has been to stain and oil. But, I found a couple things that may not make that the best choice. Mainly this:

It would appear that during construction the neck had a couple serious dings in the wood and those crafty Czech's professionally filled them with some magic plastic goo to the point of unnoticability under the black paint that was hiding it. I see no way to practically remove this to the point where a stain will take and look right. There's a smaller spot elsewhere on the neck so that's two that will need to be re-hidden. Sigh...

The second thing I have noticed as I reach bare wood is there there are small gaps in lamination's where the wings join the neck. These are small but would require some sort of fill for either stain or paint.

The front side was an interesting to work on as well. We got from here:

To here:

The stain on the front side is a bit more stubborn that the backside. I think that the front actually IS stained while the color on the back is applied to the coats on top of the sealer. Removal of the color layer on the back was predictable and there's still a significant amount of sealer left to sand off to reach bare wood. There's also no appreciable flamey grain back there which is interesting. I actually thought as I worked the front side to bare wood that the flame might actually be a little bit of Trompe L'Oeil and that I would sand it all away. But alas, some remains:

The question raised though is whether is is enough to warrant the pursuit of stain and oil given the issue with the neck fill, the necessary seam filling and this small area that will reside under the fretboard that will require a bit of massaging to make look natural:

Yup, that's a burn I inflicted whilst leaning the finer art of heat-gunning. They get pretty hot you know... And then there's the small wood split that I have glued back to structural sufficiency that ran down from this burn site.

The flame didn't seem all that impressive after so not saving it might not be the worst thing after all.

It just seems today that things are lining up more and more against the stain and oil and more towards a quality repainting. Has there ever been an Olympic White Spector?

Hmm...I have always wanted a bass-boat sparkle bass.

**peledog** · #17 07-24-2011, 05:28 PM

'Maybe' going with a solid color?

**nervous** · #18 07-25-2011, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peledog

'Maybe' going with a solid color?

It is looking more likely that will be the case. The fun will then be what color. Perhaps a poll will be in order, eh?

E.J. T.N.T. · #19 08-03-2011, 09:45 AM

The conservative in me is screaming ''Criminal!!!'' but the mad scientist in me is stroking his beard and thinks: Solid white or purple, with satin finish neck, gold hardware and bound fingerboard(maple for the white one, rosewood for the purple one). Really curious how this will turn out. A really ballsy escapade. Subbed!

**nervous** · #20 08-03-2011, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E.J. T.N.T.

The conservative in me is screaming ''Criminal!!!'' but the mad scientist in me is stroking his beard and thinks: Solid white or purple, with satin finish neck, gold hardware and bound fingerboard(maple for the white one, rosewood for the purple one). Really curious how this will turn out. A really ballsy escapade. Subbed!

I can appreciate the mixed emotions but I am in deep now. For some reason Olympic White keeps coming back as a favorite. But, we'll see when that time comes. I still have to decide fretted or fretless as well. Leaning to the latter...