rattlecan

Here's my Changing-of-the-Grill tale, with many pics (so you can just scroll quickly without having to read my chatter)... I always felt my Bergantino HT332 chrome grill was too “flashy” for my liking (like my playing, I’m more known for substance than show). So when I commented on a recent...

This project is a rebuild of the body of my second build (hence “build #2.5”.) Although I had used the design of #1 for #2, I made the body smaller due to the smaller (30") scale length. That was a mistake with regards to ergonomics. It was time to fix this. I hoped to come up with new design...

I bought a "bass" from someone in eBay about ten years ago. I knew it was someone's uncompleted project. The bass started life as a 1977 Ibanez Silver Series P copy. Someone has stripped the finish and stained it. They had also hogged out the neck pocket to accept a larger neck. It didn't...

Howdy folks! It's been a while. Ok, so I have a plan on my mind...sort of a late summer project. I'm buying a Squier jaguar bass V, stripping the finish or at least knock the first layer of paint, and doing my first...wait for it...metal flake diy finish. A big project. As I'm going through...

Inlays are from a P51 decal set. Pinup girl on the 1st fret is hard to see. Note the white invasion stripes act as inlays on frets 5,7,9 and 15,17,19.

All done up and ready to go. Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders, Gotoh bridge, vintage-style knobs...juicy.

Carefully chosen strap and everything.

The lower side 'dots' and 'inlays.'

Side dots came from the same P51 decal set as the 'inlays'.

Pinup girl is easier to see

Oops. Laid her on a string a few days after painting, then on an odd part of the case a couple weeks after finishing. Surprised the latter did that. Note the pinup girl neck plate. Ebay.

What's a WWII aircraft without a pinup girl?

The pickups aren't in but I wanted to see what she'd more or less look like. The bullet hole was a band-aid. The body was upside-down on the painting box, and adhered to it. It pulled off some finish, so I painted a bullet-hole to cover up the uneven finish.

This is a roll of duct tape wrapped around the pickguard.

Painting is pretty much done

I cut off the section of the pick guard that goes on the right side of the neck since I cut the body away there.

Back of the neck.

Painter's tape over the freshly scraped (to remove paint) frets. I applied a layer of gloss lacquer, added the 'inlay' decals, and then sprayed them again.

The invasion stripes and blue that was there before pulled off. I was so mad. I hand-painted the non-silver parts. The rivets were done with a pencil eraser in black paint. I realized that rolling the outer edges would give a better rivet, hence the change. I later painted a silver inside...

Metallic silver paint, semi-gloss white and black, and hand-painted midsection with Testor's silver to fix overspray. I believe these stripes pulled off.

Silver added

Just primer, black, and white (silver to come)

It's ready to paint.

Hand filing and sanding the cutaway.

Smoothed out with hand sanding.

I used the drill to speed up the cutaway process

Sanded body and first cut on the horn.

Cheap chinese dime pots. The knobs broke when I turned them.

The broken knob. Cheap pots wouldn't turn.

Cheap electronics.

$50 for all this. Owner wasn't sure what brand anything was, he guessed maybe Eden necks. I wanted a fun project, and a lefty bass (I'm a righty) was a perfect idea. I had no plans to keep the body shape or pickups the same. All the parts were garbage except the bridge (saved for another...