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Looking for a stripper! Advice please!

Nah, not that kind of stripper.

Basically, I picked up a guitar body that looks pretty old, I have absolutely no idea what it is, in fact.

The seller toook this photo, unfortunately I didn't take a better photo before taking it apart-

Gem01.jpg


He says he thinks it's a 70s matsumoku-made guitar. Don't know anything else about it. More importantly, I'm thinking of either

A) Stripping the lacquer, then refinishing it back in the same style.

B) Stripping the lacquer, then doing a white sparkle (look for my purple sparkle bass thread, and I'm almost done with a red sparkle strat, so I'm quite confident of a white sparkle on this)

Either way, I'll need to strip the finish. The last time I did something like this, I just relied on a massive amount of elbow grease and sandpaper, but this time I don't exactly want to do that and I'm thinking of venturing in the direction of a stripping product. Here are some shots of the finish:

PC071129.jpg

PC071130.jpg

PC071131.jpg


I'm guessing it's a nitro based finish? I don't have much experience telling them apart. What should I try stripping it with? I don't have a power sander currently, and I think this will be my 2nd last project for quite a long while (at least until I move out of this apartment), so I don't intend to invest in one. So I guess I will have to work with a stripper?
 
Good point Tom. Any fumes in an enclosed environment is a bad thing. I have the luxury of a lab in my garage so I suppose that I have spoiled myself with good tools.

MeCl2 is not for the newbies. If you are not familiar with it then you should use the stuff at Home Depot.
 
Well, my vote is to keep that Gem as it is with no refinish. Its in really good shape for what it is and has tons of cool kitsch factor...


I agree keep the mojo.

I have a 66 jazz I got back in '83 the body had been refinished it used to be LPB but was refined in a dark green metallic. Too bad that was done but I can't go back now. I thought about paying somebody to refin it a correct color but I don't think i want to mess with it. Enjoy that as it is and play the hell out of her. :bassist:
 
I use aircraft stripper. If it is a poly finish, good luck! No stripper I have tried works on polyurethane. I haven't tried a heat gun before, although it sounds like a decent idea. If that doesn't work, then it's back to sand paper and elbow grease. I have tried catching one on fire before, it was fun and it was my guitar players strat. I would never do that to my own basses. It didn't work anyway.
 
Thanks for all the response! I knew making a title like this would generate hits >D

The fumes won't go over too well in my apartment. I've found a pretty much odourless lacquer to use (or maybe my nose just went dead after all the stench) and I do spraying outside in a field, but I don't think I'll be able to find somewhere to leave it overnight with a strong smelling chemical. That's why I didn't want to use citristrip at first. I'll be going on vacation overseas next week, thinking of bringing it as it is with me on the trip and playing around with it for a while to see how I like the feel first. Then I'll see how I feel about refinishing it when I come back. I'm starting to think the road worn look might be pretty nice, actually, I'm starting to dig this finish... dilemmas, dilemmas.

The back of the neck has a crack in the finish. I don't know if it'll affect playing seriously, and I'm a bit nervous about doing stripping on the back of the neck in case it changes the feel drastically and I don't like it.

On a side note, the switches are pretty vintage, too, they're just strips of metal sandwiched between cork, and when you flick the switch it bends to connect. I was really surprised when I opened it up.