Hey folks - starting up a new thread here to replace my original post "Burgundy Mist vintage P-bass build project". I couldn't find a way to change the original post's title and it was attracting too much interest around the Burgundy Mist color. Unfortunately, I'm not using Burgundy Mist now b/c I was unable to find an acceptable color match. Going instead with Sonic Blue with a yellowed clear coat to "age" it to the vintage color halfway between Sonic and Surf Green.
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Build project: hybrid 60's/50's vintage P-Bass
- Thread starter tonebrulee
- Start date
Ordered the alder body below from Warmoth - nice and light (4lbs. 8oz.). FYI - got a great deal with their ongoing 20% off sale on in-stock bodies.
Planning this project to vintage specs as far as possible. Body finish will be nitro from Re-Ranch with a matching headstock. Base coats will be yellow-dye/vinyl sealer/white primer (see this post for a nice writeup on vintage refin steps).
Planning this project to vintage specs as far as possible. Body finish will be nitro from Re-Ranch with a matching headstock. Base coats will be yellow-dye/vinyl sealer/white primer (see this post for a nice writeup on vintage refin steps).
Got my neck from Musikraft. Went with a Tele (i.e. pre-1957) style headstock - always liked that look from Billy Talbot of Crazy Horse. Besides that - rosewood board, clay dots, 12" radius, chunky profile, vintage frets, rolled edges.
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Very cool Invalid Link Removed that lets you configure a couple of different Fender "offset" guitars with different finishes, hardware, etc. I used it to create the images below to get a sense of color schemes for my P-Bass build. The first one is the classic Burgundy Mist Metallic scheme I was hoping to build. Unfortunately, the ReRanch BMM is considerably darker and loses the over color vibe for me. The other three are all Sonic Blue, the last two including a "yellowed" top coat which shifts the color a little toward green. All 4 pics have a mint green pick guard. I'll be doing one of the last two - haven't decided whether or not to do the matching headstock. I would have done the headstock for sure in BMM, but not sure with the Sonic.
Have all the parts and materials so starting on the prep and painting.
The body routes were a little rough, but a few minutes with sandpaper wrapped around a dowl took care of that.
Here you can see the body after applying the dye yellow undercoat and a coat of sanding sealer. The yellow dye coat is vintage-correct as practiced by Fender early on for all bodies where the wood grain was nice enough that it could potentially become a sunburst finish. Yellow dye would become the interior color for the sunburst. In cases where the sunburst spray was flubbed, they would just spray over it with an opaque color, which is why you sometimes find a sunburst finish beneath another color on vintage instruments.
The neck from Musikraft is very nice, but the headstock profile is a little off from what is seen on vintage necks. I'm going to do some filing/sanding to correct that and below you can see the pencil shading where wood needs to come off.
The body routes were a little rough, but a few minutes with sandpaper wrapped around a dowl took care of that.
Here you can see the body after applying the dye yellow undercoat and a coat of sanding sealer. The yellow dye coat is vintage-correct as practiced by Fender early on for all bodies where the wood grain was nice enough that it could potentially become a sunburst finish. Yellow dye would become the interior color for the sunburst. In cases where the sunburst spray was flubbed, they would just spray over it with an opaque color, which is why you sometimes find a sunburst finish beneath another color on vintage instruments.
The neck from Musikraft is very nice, but the headstock profile is a little off from what is seen on vintage necks. I'm going to do some filing/sanding to correct that and below you can see the pencil shading where wood needs to come off.
I can't wait to see how this bass turns out. LOTS of pics, please. (Otherwise, it doesn't exist 
)
)
Here are a few example pics from 'round the interwebs showing a few variants on aged sonic blue.
This first picture of the Strat is the color scheme I'm going after:
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This first picture of the Strat is the color scheme I'm going after:
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Just received a custom decal based on an idea I had for a non-Fender P-Bass decal:
I didn't really want to put a proper Fender decal on a custom axe that isn't a Fender, but also didn't want to lose that classic graphic element that the Fender headstock decal provides. My thought was that "Precision, ELECTRIC BASS" fits well b/c it is a fair description of the instrument and maintains the graphic design, all w/out stomping on Fender as a brand. Really happy with the result.
I didn't really want to put a proper Fender decal on a custom axe that isn't a Fender, but also didn't want to lose that classic graphic element that the Fender headstock decal provides. My thought was that "Precision, ELECTRIC BASS" fits well b/c it is a fair description of the instrument and maintains the graphic design, all w/out stomping on Fender as a brand. Really happy with the result.
Just received a custom decal based on an idea I had for a non-Fender P-Bass decal:
I didn't really want to put a proper Fender decal on a custom axe that isn't a Fender, but also didn't want to lose that classic graphic element that the Fender headstock decal provides. My thought was that "Precision, ELECTRIC BASS" fits well b/c it is a fair description of the instrument and maintains the graphic design, all w/out stomping on Fender as a brand. Really happy with the result.
Very smart
Hey - so I had time over the summer to move this build project along. It's nearly done now, but I took pics along the way so I'll post the evolution here over the next few days.
Here we are slowly building up the primer coat. I used ReRanch primer - great stuff, built up very nicely and their spray nozzles put out a very fine, controllable mist - definitely possible to do a high quality finish.
very light first coat:
2nd coat:
3rd, final primer coat:
At this point I dry sanded lightly all around with 220 grit, then carefully wet sanded with 400 grit. I found that working with very small pieces of sandpaper - like 1 inch square - and rinsing frequently worked well to get the many curved/contoured surfaces smooth. Probably spent a good 2 hours total, woring slowly to avoid sand-throughs.
Here we are slowly building up the primer coat. I used ReRanch primer - great stuff, built up very nicely and their spray nozzles put out a very fine, controllable mist - definitely possible to do a high quality finish.
very light first coat:
2nd coat:
3rd, final primer coat:
At this point I dry sanded lightly all around with 220 grit, then carefully wet sanded with 400 grit. I found that working with very small pieces of sandpaper - like 1 inch square - and rinsing frequently worked well to get the many curved/contoured surfaces smooth. Probably spent a good 2 hours total, woring slowly to avoid sand-throughs.
Sure, worked with Simon at Invalid Link Removed. Very nice guy - easy to work with and does really nice work.
