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Custom Top

ptidwell

ptidwell

Commercial User
Jun 13, 2005
1,294
177
Los Angeles
Disclosures
Owner LoPHAT Cabinets & Amplification
#1
Forgive my ignorance about this.
Can I put a custom top finish on my bass such as a Burl.
My bass was shot with nitrocelleous and there is ware after a year especially on the pickups. Pat Wilkins can refinish the pickups with poly and match. But I was thinking about refinishing the whole bass with a burl top. Is it possible an affordable or am I wasting my time and money trying to have a beautiful finish along with great playability.

F-Bass-BN5.jpg
 
#2
A lot of things are possible, but it would not be a simple task, and it'd have a price tag to it, too.
The following steps would be necessary:
stripping
sanding
planing off the top
precision-cutting a maple top
gluing the pieces together
refinishing the bass
making new p-up covers.

I think your bass looks great as it is. The 1/4" maple top would not add much to the tone, and even less to the wear-resistance.
If you want to have less wear, be more careful with it and put a cloth over your belt buckle. Or maybe have someone refinish it with polyurethane, IMO/IME, it's more wear-resistant
 
#3
Hambone said:
For some basses, this is quite possible but your bass has some pretty advanced contours that would make it nearly impossible to do what you want. By the time you planed enough wood from the top so you can glue the face on and recover the original contours, you won't have much face left. I also imagine that you would have to literally remove half of the body thickness to make it work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd be pretty weary to try to put a exotic top on it as hambone stated, it'd be EXTREMELY hard and labor intensive, and if you're looking to have a luthier (other than perhaps, yourself) do it, it'd probably cost more than getting a new custom designed and made w/an exotic top on it... IMO the look and finish that is currently on it is incredible, actually that translucent blue with the wood grain, I'd have to say its one of the best looking basses I've seen in a while...
 
#4
Thanks for the replies. This is good information, I see another F Bass in my future which will probably have a Burl Maple top.
In the mean time I will have the pu refinished with poly.

thanks again,

Paul
 

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