Hey guys and gals,
So im an amateur musician, for a while my main bass was an sx ursa 1 from around 2008. Its a fender jazz copy. I recently upgraded to a fender jazz however (mex 2000 model) so i was just keeping the sx as a backup, but in reality i dont need a backup axe so im going to do a little build project but i wanted to consult this forum with some questions first. Id really appreciate it if i could get some help
so heres the deal;
-The bass is a sunburst finish with a decent amount of lacquer over it. The plan is to sand it down and give the body to a friend of mine who is a painter to do a custom paint job for me. The first two questions i have are, what is the best way so sand off the origional finish? I was planning on just hitting it with some rough sand paper (100?) on a sander then going back after by hand with something really fine to smooth it out before painting. is dry sanding a bad idea? is it even necessary? any alternatives?
secondly, when i have the bass down to the natural wood, what paint would you guys recommend me using? Im not going for a conventional finish, im actually letting my friend use my bass as a canvas basically. Obviously i dont want to use acrylic paints so any suggestions? the plan is to paint it and then spray a clear lacquer finish over it. Also id like to get rid of the pick guard so that my friend has more space to paint, but i dont want to leave my neck pickup exposed. any ideas? cut the neck side of the pickguard? does painting right onto the pickguard work well or will the paint just crack off if it doesnt have a good binder?
- Some less luthier more bassist directed questions. So i play in a punk band (there goes my credibility). Current rig is the fender jazz into a mxr m80 di that has an eq effect that i use as a clean boost thats on 80 percent of the time. seldom use distortion, im into a fat clean tone that punches and cuts. Kinda like a Matt Freeman from rancid feel. The point of the bass project is really to put in some active pickups in my sx that will give me some more drive than my fender, and also let me get some better distorted tones i like so im more inclined to use distortion. I would like to avoid having to hollow out more room in my bass if possible though. My plan was to get something maybe like an audere jz3 and then hooking up whatever active pickups i decide on to it. Would that work out?
Any knowledge you guys want to pass down to me would be greatly appreciated.
love for music, love for bass, love for the community
-Mike
So im an amateur musician, for a while my main bass was an sx ursa 1 from around 2008. Its a fender jazz copy. I recently upgraded to a fender jazz however (mex 2000 model) so i was just keeping the sx as a backup, but in reality i dont need a backup axe so im going to do a little build project but i wanted to consult this forum with some questions first. Id really appreciate it if i could get some help
so heres the deal;
-The bass is a sunburst finish with a decent amount of lacquer over it. The plan is to sand it down and give the body to a friend of mine who is a painter to do a custom paint job for me. The first two questions i have are, what is the best way so sand off the origional finish? I was planning on just hitting it with some rough sand paper (100?) on a sander then going back after by hand with something really fine to smooth it out before painting. is dry sanding a bad idea? is it even necessary? any alternatives?
secondly, when i have the bass down to the natural wood, what paint would you guys recommend me using? Im not going for a conventional finish, im actually letting my friend use my bass as a canvas basically. Obviously i dont want to use acrylic paints so any suggestions? the plan is to paint it and then spray a clear lacquer finish over it. Also id like to get rid of the pick guard so that my friend has more space to paint, but i dont want to leave my neck pickup exposed. any ideas? cut the neck side of the pickguard? does painting right onto the pickguard work well or will the paint just crack off if it doesnt have a good binder?
- Some less luthier more bassist directed questions. So i play in a punk band (there goes my credibility). Current rig is the fender jazz into a mxr m80 di that has an eq effect that i use as a clean boost thats on 80 percent of the time. seldom use distortion, im into a fat clean tone that punches and cuts. Kinda like a Matt Freeman from rancid feel. The point of the bass project is really to put in some active pickups in my sx that will give me some more drive than my fender, and also let me get some better distorted tones i like so im more inclined to use distortion. I would like to avoid having to hollow out more room in my bass if possible though. My plan was to get something maybe like an audere jz3 and then hooking up whatever active pickups i decide on to it. Would that work out?
Any knowledge you guys want to pass down to me would be greatly appreciated.
love for music, love for bass, love for the community
-Mike
