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Marcus Miller V restoration

andysvec

andysvec

Aug 15, 2004
1,104
1,044
was Guam, now Vegas!
www.instagram.com
#1
So I used to own a music store while living on Guam, one of my first Fender Dealer orders in 2007 I ordered a US Marcus Miller V in vintage white for myself. I hung it on the showroom for a while and a good friend wanted to buy it, so I sold it. I remember it looking like this:

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He ended up quitting bass and gave it to a friend, whom recently gave it back to me and said it was in bad shape. I received it today, wasn't expecting this but way worse than I imagined. I know the original buyer swore by lubing up his fingerboards with olive oil to practice, thus the fingerboard and neck discoloration.

I have disassembled it mostly today and did my first cleaning (with gloves and mask as he owned many cats). Just wanted to make a post to detail the restoration of it, not sure how to clean the fingerboard as I tried cleaning products already, I think I'm gonna have to have the neck refinished everywhere except the front of headstock. Also truss seems locked up, will get into that soon.

Any advice is greatly appreciated on any aspects of this project! Here's the original pics of how it arrived, will add my disassembly and first cleaning pics next:

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#5
Oh man! Cat hair and rancid olive oil. You prolly need a full hazmat suit and respirator. Good luck. If I was foolish enough to take this on I’d probably try Simple Green and, if needed, move up to whatever solvent wouldn’t hurt the finish like mineral spirits or lacquer thinner, assuming it’s a polyurethane finish, to get all that off. :vomit::rollno:
 
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#6
My gosh….

How could anyone look at an instrument and not see its condition deteriorating in front of their very eyes.

I was ready to fall on a stake because I forgot my beloved Lull being in my truck and letting it sit there for a couple of hours. I had gotten in from a gig and took in my music stand and iPad and was headed back to the truck when I got a phone call that distracted my attention. I was almost in bed when I remembered I hadn’t brought the bass and the small combo amp inside. I felt awful about that!….:D

No doubt, that bass will need a LOT of work and probably a few replacement parts. But it appears doable….
 
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#7
andysvec said:
So I used to own a music store while living on Guam, one of my first Fender Dealer orders in 2007 I ordered a US Marcus Miller V in vintage white for myself. I hung it on the showroom for a while and a good friend wanted to buy it, so I sold it. I remember it looking like this:

View attachment 4826346

He ended up quitting bass and gave it to a friend, whom recently gave it back to me and said it was in bad shape. I received it today, wasn't expecting this but way worse than I imagined. I know the original buyer swore by lubing up his fingerboards with olive oil to practice, thus the fingerboard and neck discoloration.

I have disassembled it mostly today and did my first cleaning (with gloves and mask as he owned many cats). Just wanted to make a post to detail the restoration of it, not sure how to clean the fingerboard as I tried cleaning products already, I think I'm gonna have to have the neck refinished everywhere except the front of headstock. Also truss seems locked up, will get into that soon.

Any advice is greatly appreciated on any aspects of this project! Here's the original pics of how it arrived, will add my disassembly and first cleaning pics next:

View attachment 4826348 View attachment 4826349 View attachment 4826350 View attachment 4826351 View attachment 4826352 View attachment 4826353 View attachment 4826354 View attachment 4826355 View attachment 4826356
Click to expand...

wow :atoz:
 
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#13
I've done a preliminary cleaning and disassembly will post pics soon, looks 100times better already. Body/electronics not so bad at all, the problem is the neck. These MM necks had a tinted clear coating all around on the back and fingerboard, the olive oil has gotten under the fingerboard clear coat and stained the board along with parts of the back. Plus now the clear coat is flaking off the front, and many of the lower frets have a lot fret wear. I talked with one luthier and said that to fix the neck correctly would be to pull all the frets and refin the board/back of neck/and a refret. So I'm considering that now since I have $0 into it so far (just shipping $), truss works fine now that I let some oil sit on it for a while. post pics soon!
 
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#14
andysvec said:
I've done a preliminary cleaning and disassembly will post pics soon, looks 100times better already. Body/electronics not so bad at all, the problem is the neck. These MM necks had a tinted clear coating all around on the back and fingerboard, the olive oil has gotten under the fingerboard clear coat and stained the board along with parts of the back. Plus now the clear coat is flaking off the front, and many of the lower frets have a lot fret wear. I talked with one luthier and said that to fix the neck correctly would be to pull all the frets and refin the board/back of neck/and a refret. So I'm considering that now since I have $0 into it so far (just shipping $), truss works fine now that I let some oil sit on it for a while. post pics soon!
Click to expand...
As others have suggested, it may be cheaper & easier at this point just to find a new neck for it. But kudos to you for tackling this!
 
#15
That’s probably doable. Pull the frets, hit the fretboard with a radius block and clean up what’s there then refret and refinish. My only caution if you do it yourself would be I don’t know how thick those position marker blocks are. Be careful of sanding through those.
 
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#16
andysvec said:
I've done a preliminary cleaning and disassembly will post pics soon, looks 100times better already. Body/electronics not so bad at all, the problem is the neck. These MM necks had a tinted clear coating all around on the back and fingerboard, the olive oil has gotten under the fingerboard clear coat and stained the board along with parts of the back. Plus now the clear coat is flaking off the front, and many of the lower frets have a lot fret wear. I talked with one luthier and said that to fix the neck correctly would be to pull all the frets and refin the board/back of neck/and a refret. So I'm considering that now since I have $0 into it so far (just shipping $), truss works fine now that I let some oil sit on it for a while. post pics soon!
Click to expand...

A refret is definitely going to be required. Personally, I'd rip them out, and get sanding, clean up of much of that as you can then hand off to luthier/tech for refret and finish.
 
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