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Spirit bass - finish damage ideas

Michael Vee

Michael Vee

Supporting Member
Feb 3, 2004
4,719
4,796
#1
I have a 2000 Steinberger Spirit that fell victim to a broken gig bag zipper. The bass fell through the zipper onto a concrete surface and badly chipped the finish in about a 3" area. See the picture below. It's quite the boo-boo!

I have priced getting the body stripped and repainted in a similar burst, and it's about $600. I don't know if I want to put that much into this bass, as I bought it new for around $275.

I am thinking about sanding the damaged area evenly to the wood, and possibly enlarging it along the edge toward the neck to make it look either more like forearm wear, or like the two layered finish look you see on some basses. Finishing by buffing it out so the wood smoothly transitions to paint, and maybe applying tung oil.

I talked with a local guitar repair place, but they don't want to do it for whatever reasons. I'm wondering if this is something I should attempt to do myself. Or should I just bite the bullet for the refin? Any thoughts, comments? -- MVee

IMG_20230125_061920_MP.jpg
 
#7
I've had a luither fix chips before and it was about $100. Since it was in the area where the burst was black he was able to match almost perfectly. BTW, I'd be skeptical about the others who gave you the refinish price, since they could have told you that a spot fix would work.

If you don't want to spend the $, then either leave it or sand it. I wouldn't bother trying to repaint the spot myself.
 
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#9
MYLOWFREQ said:
I'd just play it as is. All of my basses have scars and so do I.
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As do mine and I! The main reason I'd want to sand and buff the damage is to smooth it out for my forearm- that area is a bit too rough for comfort. I tend to play with my arm across to the strings and not straight down, so my arm is resting on the damaged area.

This isn't my main bass, by any means, and I play it infrequently. But I'd like it to be more comfortable and the damaged area not as, well, damaged looking.
 
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#13
If you really want to fix it reach out to a local auto body shop. Some of them are open to a little creative work outside the norm. You will have to do the disassembly yourself and probably strip it down to the wood so it's ready for them to do the work. They can probably do a good job for less than $600. I did it once and they painted the bass the same blue as our car that was getting some hail damage repaired.

The bass in my avatar was clear coated by an auto shop after my son airbrushed it. Not all shops are interested though.

Just a thought.
 
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#19
Hawk256 said:
Enlarge it and smooth it out for that relic look.
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If you're gonna go relic, you'll need a few more (they can be smaller) areas that show wear as well. One sanded area by itself looks like...one sanded area. I'm also not sure the paint on there will look good if you try a relic (poly often doesn't cooperate), but at this point, you might as well give that one area a shot.
 
#20
Michael Vee said:
I have a 2000 Steinberger Spirit that fell victim to a broken gig bag zipper. The bass fell through the zipper onto a concrete surface and badly chipped the finish in about a 3" area. See the picture below. It's quite the boo-boo!

I have priced getting the body stripped and repainted in a similar burst, and it's about $600. I don't know if I want to put that much into this bass, as I bought it new for around $275.

I am thinking about sanding the damaged area evenly to the wood, and possibly enlarging it along the edge toward the neck to make it look either more like forearm wear, or like the two layered finish look you see on some basses. Finishing by buffing it out so the wood smoothly transitions to paint, and maybe applying tung oil.

I talked with a local guitar repair place, but they don't want to do it for whatever reasons. I'm wondering if this is something I should attempt to do myself. Or should I just bite the bullet for the refin? Any thoughts, comments? -- MVee

View attachment 4955343
Click to expand...

People pay Good Money to make new basses look like they were abused by a rock star 30 years ago. I'd leave it as is and impress people with how much you play it. Just tell 'em you got mad at a drummer once and killed his kit with the bass.
 
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