Fender P bass - refinish methods

[hbarcat]

Not distorting, but cracking and becoming apparent.

I've done that repair three times on my own instruments and never had a problem. But that doesn't mean you're not right about possible cracking. Three times is hardly a large enough sample to draw any conclusions. I suppose that I'd be more cautious if I lived in Florida or any other place with high humidity and large temperature variations. I'd probably use actual wood filler or even epoxy.

I should have included in my first post the fact that the automotive filler I use is formulated for flexible plastic like bumper covers and such. It's designed to resist cracking even when used on surfaces that aren't stable like steel.

I'm going to edit my first post to bring up the possibility of cracking.

 

[hbarcat]

I was wondering about using auto body filler aka bondo. Works on cars and they blend the paint in seamlessly. Would you use tye short strand fibreglass filler?

Seems weird but the "luthier" filled the pickup cavity as is. What I would expect is:
1. Route out a square hole.
2. Make a square slightly taller piece of wood to fit.
3. Sand it down flush.
4. Prime and refinish.
The wood could expand or shrink though. Pretty sure that's what I saw on a stew Mac video.

I agree that the proper fix is to route out the hole and completely fill it with an oversize wood plug and sand it flat.

So I just reread this thread and I don't see any indication of how the pickup hole was filled by the original repair guy. If he stuffed the entire cavity with a putty type filler then that would explain why it looks like it does. It shrank as it cured over several days.

 

[Marc-Olivier]

I've done that repair three times on my own instruments and never had a problem. But that doesn't mean you're not right about possible cracking. Three times is hardly a large enough sample to draw any conclusions. I suppose that I'd be more cautious if I lived in Florida or any other place with high humidity and large temperature variations. I'd probably use actual wood filler or even epoxy.

I should have included in my first post the fact that the automotive filler I use is formulated for flexible plastic like bumper covers and such. It's designed to resist cracking even when used on surfaces that aren't stable like steel.

I'm going to edit my first post to bring up the possibility of cracking.

The luthie rtold me that he fill the hole with wood and then epoxy to ensure that the variation of temperature would not affect the repaired section. He also told me that we see the old pick because he didn't sand the entire body but by sanding the entire body, he told me that it would be impossible the see the old pickup contour again...

 

[craigie]

I agree that the proper fix is to route out the hole and completely fill it with an oversize wood plug and sand it flat.

So I just reread this thread and I don't see any indication of how the pickup hole was filled by the original repair guy. If he stuffed the entire cavity with a putty type filler then that would explain why it looks like it does. It shrank as it cured over several days.

Agreed. I don't see how else you can fill a pickup cavity and keep the pickup shape. Really an amateur job.

 

[Turnaround]

The wood could expand or shrink though. Pretty sure that's what I saw on a stew Mac video.

The wood will expand and shrink with changes in relative humidity. And that's the trouble with automotive body filler - it doesn't expand and shrink. The wood block insert is a good idea if it the same kind of wood as the instrument. Then both will expand and contract at the same rate. But you are still likely to see telegraphing of the joint lines after a while.

 

[craigie]

The wood will expand and shrink with changes in relative humidity. And that's the trouble with automotive body filler - it doesn't expand and shrink. The wood block insert is a good idea if it the same kind of wood as the instrument. Then both will expand and contract at the same rate. But you are still likely to see telegraphing of the joint lines after a while.

Probably not much way around it.