Before & After - Your resurrection project

[Ric5]

SX stingray … purchased new 15 years ago +/-

these were made for a short time, before Ernie Ball shut them down. The price was good. First the neck was s curved so I replaced it with a 5 string SX jazz neck. It had 1 fret less so I have to move the bridge. The preamp was defective so it go replaced twice, first with a Seymour Duncan and then with a 4 band Audere. Then I replaced the pickup because it lacked personality and I put in a Wilkenson. The before pic is actually another one like mine. I never took a before pic.

So what is still original?

the body, bridge, pickguard, the tuners, and the control plate.

I also added a different string tree and straploks

 

[TerribleTim68]

So my projects tend to be a bit different, but I offer for your enjoyment -
Before:

(yes, that's literally all I started with)

After:

 

[TerribleTim68]

And then there was -

Before:

After:

 

[TerribleTim68]

And then there was -

Before:

After:

 

[TerribleTim68]

And then there was -

Before:

After:

 

[Rambazamba]

Mine, which is still in progress, is a Career CB4 I found for free: NBD - Free Bass!

Before:
View attachment 3853214

Current:
View attachment 3853215

Watch out! A giant snail is about to attack!!

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Watch out! A giant snail is about to attack!!

That's our cat's buddy.

Captions courtesy @Winslow

 

[Cut the middle]

'66 Thunderbird II converted to a guitar then smashed in a parking lot, rebuilt by me.View attachment 3852755 View attachment 3852766

Whoah!

 

[FantasticFour]

So my projects tend to be a bit different

I'm not a huge fan of the instruments themselves but the finishes are gorgeous!!
Now I can't help but imagine all kinds of totally crazy orange-and-purple psychedelic fender basses

 

[JIO]

luce g&l l-1000

• LUCE
• Feb 19, 2016

Looked all night (unsuccessfully) for the "before" photos. The previous owner wanted to capture the Ebony- Hog vibe by staining the alder body brown and painting THE ENTIRE NECK BLACK. Obviously the OMG mode wasn't enough, so an active preamp of questionable heritage was installed.
I stripped and sanded everything, refinished the neck with tinted lacquer, and shipped the body off to Marty Bell for a sparkle job (always wanted one). Brought the electronics back to stock configuration - and this ol' B00 bass lives again.

Marty is the man for sparkle finishes (and any finish for that matter!) Thanks for trying to find you "before" pic - I appreciate the intent!

 

[JIO]

Thanks much for this thread. I really enjoy the work of craftsmen.

Thanks! There's something really fulfilling bring a bass like that back to life.

 

[JIO]

We need to hear these suckers in action! Clips man, clips!

Partly due to being 'sheltered-in-place', I am in the process of learning how to do this here at home with my new Focusrite, but I do have this recorded example of my Coral Deluxe Bass - enjoy!

 

[Pilgrim]

Mine is a Lotus bass that I found in a pawn shop with three strings, covered with runny black spray paint. I bought it to use it as a defretting and refinishing test project.

I have no "before" pix. I defretted the neck, refinished the body in 7 coats of acrylic lacquer with silver metallic undercoat. The lacquer was sprayed with an auto detail gun and the burst was applied with an airbrush, neither of which I had ever used before.

I changed out the pickups and found a nice Guild bridge. All the hardware is now black except the output jack. The pots for the pickups are stack knobs so I have both tone and volume control over each pickup. The strings are tapewounds.

 

[JIO]

before and after
85 ibanez roadstar ii bass purchased for 25 bucks off Craigslist. body was sanded with no smoother than 60 grit sandpaper (or possibly a metal garden rake) and painted with red house paint. bridge and pickguard were also painted with house paint, but creme. noticed under the pickguard a tiny bit of the original black gloss so i stripped and refinished with waterbased poly spiked with black dye. polished all the chrome best i could (had to replace the bridge). tried to make the neck looking as uniform as possible (whoever played this played only on the e string and never cut their nails, worn through the finish on the fretboard and half moon thumb nail marks on the back of the neck. gross

View attachment 3853216

cleaned up the pickups and slapped on new covers, new electronics and then started playing it while i waited for it to sell on reverb.... but there was something about a simple passive pbass that just worked for me. my oft-modded active blacktop pbass became too fidgety (and like twice the weight) so when that sold i decided to keep the ibanez. goes along well with my other 85 ibanez (purple rb850)

It's nice when you can undo bad DIY into a nice playable and cool looking axe!

 

[JIO]

Mine is a Lotus bass that I found in a pawn shop with three strings, covered with runny black spray paint. I bought it to use it as a defretting and refinishing test project.

I have no "before" pix. I defretted the neck, refinished the body in 7 coats of acrylic lacquer with silver metallic undercoat. The lacquer was sprayed with an auto detail gun and the burst was applied with an airbrush, neither of which I had ever used before.

I changed out the pickups and found a nice Guild bridge. All the hardware is now black except the output jack. The pots for the pickups are stack knobs so I have both tone and volume control over each pickup. The strings are tapewounds.



View attachment 3854059 View attachment 3854060 View attachment 3854061 View attachment 3854062

That's a cool aspect of resurrecting - you try something new and learn from it.

 

[JIO]

Not a bass, but 1954 Kay model 130 cello. There's a thread on here for the repairs.View attachment 3853403

Well done!

 

[Gyver]

Partly due to being 'sheltered-in-place', I am in the process of learning how to do this here at home with my new Focusrite, but I do have this recorded example of my Coral Deluxe Bass - enjoy!

Nice rendition!

 

[JIO]

This one is a work in progress, so my post is a bit of a tease. When the project is finished, I intend to create a thread featuring more photos, along with a description of what we did.

I bought this bass, which had been heavily gigged, in mid April with the intention of replacing the tuners, changing out the pickups, and using it as my main gigging fiver. When it arrived, it had so many problems, I decided to fix everything, lighten it up and make it a bit of a fantasy resurrection project. Electronics are delayed because of Covid-19. The finish should be applied beginning this coming weekend. All in all, I'm hoping for completion in 4 - 6 weeks. Stay tuned for more on the Chrysalis Project.

Here is a before and after progress photo that will give a hint about what's happening....

View attachment 3853406

Andrew Drake is doing the heavy lifting for me, but we've collaborated on the design ideas and new specs. Watch for more in a few weeks.

Enjoy.

Koog

Very nice project - Andrew Drake is a well-respected luthier! He allowed me to do a redefinition of one of his builds (body only) for a client of mine - I wouldn't have touched it if I didn't get his approval first. I trimmed it into a different profile and did a decorative distressed finish that harmonized with his natural multi-lam (and chambered) construction.

Before:

After:

 

[JIO]

It looks and feels like Alder, and its too heavy for basswood, don't really know what it is, definitely not ash either, pretty much closed grain. FOUR piece construction, this one was never gonna make it to the clear finish pile. The wood may be soft, but that Fullerplast primer (or whatever it is) was friggin' bulletproof. My son got a little .... overzealous... taking off the paint with a heat gun, hence the burn marks. Had to do a little bondo work too, where he kinda sanded off some contours. The paint came right off, but we ended up sanding most of the primer off. The overall build quality and hardware for 90's era MIM (at least this one) was pretty crappy. I've seen current production Squier basses that were MUCH better quality. Hopefully things have improved given the upcharge from Squier to MIM.
View attachment 3853436

It looks like what my Coral was made of, which is poplar.

 

[JIO]

the two pics rule kind of sucked the life out of this thread.
Sometimes there's a lot more to the story.

I don't mine a bit of background reference - my sole intent was to avoid 20 pics and a chapter on its history. My initial post was meant to illustrate a workable and concise format, including adding a link for more on each. That's what an independent build thread is for and anyone can post one.