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Anyone have a bass refinished recently? Who did the work?

#41
May I hijack this thread to ask for something related?

I may want a refinish done on a more modern bass, solid color, modern poly/gloss finish (ie not nitro), and I'm in the Northeast.

Any strong recs for someone closer to the northeast/east coast for this type of work?

sorry to hijack, figured it's worth a shot. Thanks!
 
#42
FSGrind said:
Has anyone had this service done for them recently?
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SGB Guitars Custom Shop in Florida. From the white road worn Dirnt model P bass to this...

133038709_10157275311522723_2737903373498946946_n.jpg 132780204_10157275306807723_5300666998774200187_n.jpg
 
#45
8xlaxx said:
Putting a plug in for Marty Bell. He did a solid color on my bass, was a total pro, courteous, great communicator, and finished the project in 3.5 weeks as promised. Approx $470.
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I hired Marty to refinish a Warmoth P Bass in a blue sparkle and just got it back yesterday. I was so excited to get it that I put it together last night already. It turned out beautiful! His turnaround was less than 4 weeks and that was in the middle of the holidays. That's pretty impressive considering how much he is in demand. I am trying to replicate the old 80s Steve Harris P Bass (not necessarily the old royal blue sparkle Fender signature model which is not exactly like his). Mine is definitely more sparkly than Harris' actual P Bass or the signature were, but it's close enough for me. Marty is a little pricey, but the quality, professionalism, and customer service can't be beat.
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#46
socknroll1 said:
May I hijack this thread to ask for something related?

I may want a refinish done on a more modern bass, solid color, modern poly/gloss finish (ie not nitro), and I'm in the Northeast.

Any strong recs for someone closer to the northeast/east coast for this type of work?

sorry to hijack, figured it's worth a shot. Thanks!
Click to expand...

See post #40. I posted some info that may help you.
 
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#47
deesonic said:
I hired Marty to refinish a Warmoth P Bass in a blue sparkle and just got it back yesterday. I was so excited to get it that I put it together last night already. It turned out beautiful! His turnaround was less than 4 weeks and that was in the middle of the holidays. That's pretty impressive considering how much he is in demand. I am trying to replicate the old 80s Steve Harris P Bass (not necessarily the old royal blue sparkle Fender signature model which is not exactly like his). Mine is definitely more sparkly than Harris' actual P Bass or the signature were, but it's close enough for me. Marty is a little pricey, but the quality, professionalism, and customer service can't be beat. View attachment 5312281
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That's a beauty!
 
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#49
Bonafide said:
I have a bass body coming back from Pat this week. As far as I know, he (himself) doesn't do the work. It's hired help. Correspondance can be slow.
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He does have employees doing the work. Between running a guitar refinishing business and Low End Basses and Wilkins Guitars, I can see that. Pat never took more than 24 hours to respond to me. I got my bass back 1 day longer than promised...over the holidays.
 
#50
I'm doing one at the moment as we speak. I didn't like the hi-gloss finish. Once I've scraped all the gunk off it'll be sanded & wetted 3 times then final sand. I'll be using 3 coats of Osmo Polyx to protect it.
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#51
Guiseppe said:
He does have employees doing the work. Between running a guitar refinishing business and Low End Basses and Wilkins Guitars, I can see that. Pat never took more than 24 hours to respond to me. I got my bass back 1 day longer than promised...over the holidays.
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Congrats, man; I hope you are digging it. New life!

His primary business is painting instruments. Wilkins Basses is not a viable business but a passion/hobby project at best (That is from Pat himself). And (WLE), as a partnership, is minimal.

I like Pat! At one point, his reputation and standards were stellar. I think now it is less predictable. I got my Sadowsky (body) back a few days ago (right at the scheduled time). It looks great (the visible parts). Aged Pelham blue Sadowsky! I am excited about it, though the excitement was diminished with the masking issues that shouldn't be present for the $550 I paid for the paint. My factory-shielded control cavity was 'mostly' painted over; it looks like a miss. Masking tape was permanently 'polyestered' to parts of it. I had to chip away at enough of it to access my battery compartment, which was covered. It should be consistent, even if it is the control cavity. The neck pocket has such deep poly overspray due to poor masking that it requires slow razor blade work under the magnifyer to prevent chipping. Sadowsky fits his necks with little tolerance.

All control cavity holes were painted inside the hole with thick poly, the preamp cannot be installed without significant boaring. This isn't a small amount of expected overspray cleaning. It is thick polyester as thick as parts of the finish. None of the pots fits. There was a genuine risk of cracking, chipping, or marring the finish, and the work was slow.

I am managing it myself as I have the experience, but it is costing time and skilled labor before assembly starts. If you have an issue like this and it's not something you can manage yourself or you have to pay someone to manage it, I can see how that would upset people. That is legit and frustrating and I can't blame folks for their frustrations here on TB. Pat is 70; he doesn't want to deal with unhappy clients; who does? I can't say he ever saw my bass in person; maybe that has something to do with it, maybe not.

20240112_174519-1.jpg
 
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#53
Bonafide said:
Congrats, man; I hope you are digging it. New life!

His primary business is painting instruments. Wilkins Basses is not a viable business but a passion/hobby project at best (That is from Pat himself). And (WLE), as a partnership, is minimal.

I like Pat! At one point, his reputation and standards were stellar. I think now it is less predictable. I got my Sadowsky (body) back a few days ago (right at the scheduled time). It looks great (the visible parts). Aged Pelham blue Sadowsky! I am excited about it, though the excitement was diminished with the masking issues that shouldn't be present for the $550 I paid for the paint. My factory-shielded control cavity was 'mostly' painted over; it looks like a miss. Masking tape was permanently 'polyestered' to parts of it. I had to chip away at enough of it to access my battery compartment, which was covered. It should be consistent, even if it is the control cavity. The neck pocket has such deep poly overspray due to poor masking that it requires slow razor blade work under the magnifyer to prevent chipping. Sadowsky fits his necks with little tolerance.

All control cavity holes were painted inside the hole with thick poly, the preamp cannot be installed without significant boaring. This isn't a small amount of expected overspray cleaning. It is thick polyester as thick as parts of the finish. None of the pots fits. There was a genuine risk of cracking, chipping, or marring the finish, and the work was slow.

I am managing it myself as I have the experience, but it is costing time and skilled labor before assembly starts. If you have an issue like this and it's not something you can manage yourself or you have to pay someone to manage it, I can see how that would upset people. That is legit and frustrating and I can't blame folks for their frustrations here on TB. Pat is 70; he doesn't want to deal with unhappy clients; who does? I can't say he ever saw my bass in person; maybe that has something to do with it, maybe not.

View attachment 5317804
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The job I recently had done by an auto body shop was better than this. For $550, it's inexcusable.
 
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#54
friskinator said:
The job I recently had done by an auto body shop was better than this. For $550, it's inexcusable.
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We agree on that. I sent Pat an email. I am the first customer in 40 years who has been unhappy with this. Turns out it was my fault. I did not request the entire cavity be painted or covered. :D No kidding.

Not the reply I expected, but you do with what you've got.
 
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#56
Bonafide said:
We agree on that. I sent Pat an email. I am the first customer in 40 years who has been unhappy with this. Turns out it was my fault. I did not request the entire cavity be painted or covered. :D No kidding.

Not the reply I expected, but you do with what you've got.
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The most frustrating part to me is that when things were so clearly his fault (not documenting the job request, keeping track of the instrument, damaging the finish) it was always someone else that was to blame. He told me it was impossible for a damaged finish to make it out of his shop yet....here we were and it was clearly not damage that would have happened in shipping.
 
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#57
Johnny Alien said:
The most frustrating part to me is that when things were so clearly his fault (not documenting the job request, keeping track of the instrument, damaging the finish) it was always someone else that was to blame. He told me it was impossible for a damaged finish to make it out of his shop yet....here we were and it was clearly not damage that would have happened in shipping.
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I understand. There is more to this than what I posted, but it makes little matter. Contributing to the experiences here of Pat's work of late. As others have posted, I would have to say look elsewhere... Primarily because if something happens you are on your own. $550 a pop.

For me, functionally, it's nothing. I would be 100% cool if Pat just said, "Hey, sorry, we missed that." Instead, I got "you failed to specify cavity cosmetics," so you get what we give you. That's that.
 
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#60
Guiseppe said:
The problem with auto body places is that most top-end ones are booked solid for a couple years out.
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Can help if you talk to them and have it sprayed the same finish they are doing on one of those jobs.

Regardless, it's not what I'd do with a pre CBS bass like OP has. A lot of times people say a refin won't add any value over a stripped 'hippie' refin but I've seen good period correct refins add value in practice. To me, one that's been sprayed with a (very difficult to remove) modern finish is worth less than the 'hippie refin' as it's then more work to get back close to original.
 
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