A slow refinish of an '89 Peavey Fury

I want to explore the world of refinishing and finally settled on a Peavey as a good subject for my efforts.

The Fury has a good rep on TB as a solid USA built precision bass and I wanted a bass that would be a keeper after I finished it.

I located one in a local pawnshop. They were asking $100, but I talked them down to $75. I wasn't sure I was making a good purchase. The neck had a LOT of dents, the body had a few chips in it, the neck would have easily substituted for a recurve bow. The saddles were topped out and were in straight line as though the bass had never been intonated.

I had read that a lot of the Fury's had had the neck screwed up by people setting the microtilt incorrectly, so there were issues with the bass that had me worried.



On the other hand, all the hardware was present and worked well. The headstock decals were complete and the electronics worked well. I'm not a fan of black basses, so a refinish would work for me.
Seemed like a good risk.

After I got it home I spent some time annoying the guys in the repair and setup forum, but they really came through for me. At first the bass had a lot of fret buzz when fretted at the 12th and above. Following the advice of the forum I glued down a few fret ends and then had a local tech level a few others for me.

I had borrowed a Peavey truss rod tool from the shop and confirmed that the truss rod worked beautifully. I suspect it had never been adjusted in 21 years. It was totally loose and worked very smoothly.


After I got that done (I put on Dean Markley Stainless Steels) and got it setup with a really low action, I decided that the bass really is a keeper. I have three other basses, all more expensive, and I find myself picking this one up first.

I've been playing it for a week with all the dents in the neck and I really like the neck. Thin and fast...I finally get what that means.

Last night, unable to sleep after the excitement of the Men's Long Form Skating Competition in Vancouver , I decided to start on the neck. Before I started work on the neck.

I drop filled the dents with Deft lacquer and let it dry. I wet sanded and then did second round of drop filling. I wet sanded again this a.m. before work. The neck is as close to perfect as I am likely to get it, so I'll add a coat of gloss Deft lacquer to the back of the neck tomorrow.

Here's where we hit the slow part. I want to play the bass at practice in the a.m. and then play it on Sunday. I'm just planning to wait to tear it apart until late in the day on Sunday.

The plan will be to do a tear down and strip the black paint. Bought a heat gun some months ago when I first started dreaming of doing this.

I'm leaning toward some form of orange finish, but more of a burnt orange. Perhaps metallic.

I haven't taken any photos of the neck after sanding. Hard to see much difference. I'll take more as I move through the process, perhaps add some videos too.

The project will take awhile. I teach video production and we are switching from one editing system to another right in the middle of the semester. I'll be a bit preoccupied. Will post when I can.

Hope not to disappoint! The first step will be a thorough cleaning. You can see some of the gunk it has accumulated around the tuner in that last picture.

Still not sure of the final color. I have two in natural finish already and one Lake Placid Blue. Don't want to go all "look at my flashy bass" color, but want a bit of life to it.

My daughter is a budding graphic artist and I may have her do a custom design on the pickguard. That won't happen until summer, if at all.

These things are no Pedulla, but you had a pretty decent bass to learn on!

Finally started the process. Just spent some time tearing it apart. Lots of pic, but daughter has my camera data transfer cable one state away. Should have it this weekend.

The plan: I want to keep the headstock stock. Everything on the bass it pretty grungy, so I took the tuners out and will be cleaning and polishing them.

Somewhere along the line someone wrapped black and white string around the barrels of the tuners. Anyone know if that was stock on the late '80's Fury?


The headstock decal is in pretty good shape and I don't want to disturb it, so just a cleaning and some lacquer drop-filling to fill a few very small dings is planned.

I originally planned to put gloss lacquer on the back of the neck, but my first attempt at it felt really grabby, so I have decided to go with a satin lacquer finish on the back and just refresh the gloss lacquer on the fingerboard where needed. I dropped filled all the dings on the back of the neck and sanded it down. Still have a few tiny indentations to work on, but really have enjoyed playing it since I did the earlier work.

The body has a few dings that appear to have dented more than the black finish, but nothing major. There are three chips through the black, but no apparent damage to the underlying wood.


Lots of finishing dust in the body cavities and the underside of the pickguard was really, really dirty.

The bridge has some corrosion starting at the upward bend at the back, but otherwise things are just really dirty.



About to start with the heat gun stripping method. Have decided to wait on the color selection until I get the body stripped. Toying with the idea of a translucent color if the graining is pretty. Thinking about dying it black, sanding down til just the grain is black and then a translucent color coat. Maybe a burst gray/black.

Solid color if the grain isn't good. Still toying with burnt copper.

Spent some time this afternoon with a heat gun an scrapper.

Have about 90% of the paint off now.

Looks like a two-piece body (ash, maybe?) with a decent grain. The front looks reasonably matched.

The back...one half is quite a bit darker than the other.

Might still be able to do a translucent finish, but will have a lot of sanding to do before I'll know for sure.

xaxxat,
I kept reading stories like yours on TB and decided to go find a cheap one. I agree with your assessment. Almost left it black (and I don't care for black basses--to many fingerprint issues for me) because I didn't want to have it out of my hands for as long as it is going to take to refinish it.


Well, back to the refinish story.

I discovered after I got the last 10% stripped why Peavey painted this one. The lower horn has a knot just above the deepest part of the cut that has a definite dark green color.
Looks like I'll be painting this one again. That'll be okay since it gives me an excuse to get a HVLP gun of some sort.

Playing with a bright copper to dark copper to maybe black burst. Might be better in my head than in reality. Sorta keeps the burnt orange idea in play.

Found a new paint product at Menards by Rust-Oleum called Metallic Accents. Water-based and sprayable. I asked whether it was lacquer compatible and was told the store just started stocking it the day before. The rep hadn't done any in-service training yet and they couldn't answer my questions about it.

Bought a small jar called "warm copper" and have been conducting some tests with it. The metallic is very subtle. It looks almost like mahogany unless the light catches it just right. Right angle brings out just a touch of sparkle.

Thinking the dark copper alone doesn't do it for me. Neither does the Bright Copper Penny, but together as a burst....hmmm.

The black burgundy also really caught my attention, but there is a blue just a bit lighter than Lake Placid Blue that might look good. Or Pearl White.

Fortunately I have a lot of sanding yet to do. Gives me time to think it over.

I just applied some clear lacquer to two coats of the paint on my test piece and I'll let it dry to see if it is going to be compatible.

Could you fill me in on what makes this one second generation? Always like to know what I can about my instruments.

I'll keep your offer re pickguard in mind. Promised another TB'er (JimmyBones) that I would make a tracing and send it to Pickguardian so they could reproduce it for him.

Think I am done with the sanding. At least down to 220 grit.



Think I'll spray a light primer coat and give it a quick sanding after it dries to ID any low spots.

Hope not to find any/many, but know I will.

Now, see? That just makes me more nervous

Several new pictures added to my posts above, as promised.

Think I've settled on Bright Copper to Warm Copper burst. Should be a subtle burst, but classy. I hope.

Recognize that none of the photo's really do the colors justice and that these samples are brushed not sprayed.

First up... Black Garnet. The paint does not go all the way to the end of the sample. Reminds me of a Burgundy Mist



Next a lousy picture of Bright Copper. I could do the whole bass in this.



This is a bad representation of what a Bright Copper to Warm Copper burst might look like. Less of an option than I previously thought.

Please feel free to post an opinion (if anyone is still reading.)

Lonnybass,
I did give thought to staining it, but was concerned about the knot in the lower horn, seen below


I do like the look you are advocating, as evidenced by the TBC I own


I'm not sure I've got the skills to pull off the wood pickguard. I could spend a lot of money on exotic wood trying to get it right.

But done right...it would be a beautiful bass. Hmmm...no hurry to get it done. The semester is about to get crazy and I really won't have a lot of time to work on it right now, so maybe the best option is to step back and think about it some more.

Off to research exotic woods!