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My custom Peavey rebuild

Punisher Bass

Punisher Bass

Dec 24, 2008
180
17
St Louis MO
#1
Since I recently picked up a second bass, I've decided to make some upgrades and custom touches to my old Peavey here. For 9 years of it's life it was left totally stock and it never let me down, but I was never totally happy with it. The g string was weak, the bridge was 7 shades of suck, and the factory finish was far from perfect and ugly. It does however have one incredibly thin and fast neck which I love.

In 07 I decided to do something about the ugly color and went from this

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to this

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I liked the new paint job, but it was not without it's flaws. The stripes are not as even as I wanted nor were they as smooth. I blame myself since I was in a rush to get it put back together so I could play it again. But now that it's #2 in my arsenal, I intend to fix all the problems.

On the previous paint job I simply scuffed up the factory finish and painted over that, this time I've gone through down to bare wood for a clean fresh start. The body has had to go through many rounds of sanding and wood filler to take care of flaws already in the wood and caused by my own stupidity. And I'm looking at more of the same till I get it all smoothed out.

The new paint job will be of the same design, only the stripes will be much crisper and less dodgy around the tight curves.

Other upgrades that are coming:

A set of EMG's PHZ's or maybe PJHZ's. I have a set of HZ's in my Schecter and I really like them. I'm not sure if I want to route the body out for the J pickup or not. I've even thought about a J at the bridge and one at the neck like the Urge bass. I'm not sure what direction I'm going in yet.
A Badass III bridge.
A Fender P bass bridge cover. I do not care much for Fender's, but I've always wanted a cover since I play with my hand resting on the bridge.
Totally replace/rewire the electronics.
Clean and polish or replace any screws or hardware.
Clean up and buff the frets.

Here's hoping all goes well.
 
#2
Update.

All of the major dings and dents in the body have been repaired. It looked smooth till I gave it a coat of primer, then I was able to see small dips in the surface. Since the automotive world is a hobby of mine, I know a few things about body work. I could either put on several coats of primer and then sand it down and hope it ends up level or I could use a light skim coat of filler.

I went with the latter since I wouldn't have to keep spraying on more and more primer and keep sanding it down to keep it level. Normal wood filler is far too thick and heavy so I simply thinned it out some with water (it's latex base filler) till it was the right consistency. Here's the back with a still wet skim coat.

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And the front after primer, sanding, skim coat, and more sanding with 150 grit.

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It needs further sanding with 220 and 400, but all the tiny dips are history. When the front and back are done I plan to recheck the sides for any missed dents and fill them is as needed.

And for comparison, here's what the body looked like originally.

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#7
Update.

The skim coats were sanded down and then 2 coats of gray primer were applied. I used a sanding block to knock down the bumps and hit it with another coat of primer which showed me any remaining nicks in the surface. They were filled, sanded down and given 3 more rounds of primer, which left me with this.

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While it looks great now, I only wish I had taken pictures while I was still stripping it, you would not believe how screwed up the surface was. Anyway, I then wet sanded with 400-600 grit to keep things smooth and remove a few stray bits of dust that landed on it. The top now has 3 coats of white primer and the sides and back will soon follow.

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I've also got a firmer plan of what direction I plan to go hardware and pickup wise.

Pickups - I've decided to stick with the P setup and not worry about adding a J. My only dilemma now is what kind. It's a toss up between the EMG HZ's and a set of DiMarzio DP127's. Anyone have an opinion on either or another suggestion?

I'm probably going through Carvin for the rest of the gear.

Bridge - I'm going with a Hipshot A in black.

Tuners - A set of their premium inlines in black. Still may or may not get them.

New 500k tone and volume control, new bass capacitor, and output jack. Along with the Fender bridge cover, I think I'd be set to move forward once the paint job is all done, unless I'm forgetting something?
 
#8
Congrats on the project so far, looking very good I must say! I only wish I could bear to do this to my Milestone III... mind you, I might need some skill along with that too...!

One quick question thoug: what do you plan to do about the pickguard, use the current/old one or get a new one? If the latter, where would you get one, mine's got a crack in it and I've been dying to find a stockist for them...

Once again, looking good!

Oli
 
#9
If you could find a pickup from a late eighties early nineties American Peavey Fury you would be very impressed. They were alnico V and had a great bassy precision tone. Any alnico V p pickup will be a dramatic improvement over the ceramic pickup from import peaveys. Try a '62 Fender precision or a Seymour Duncan. If you can find one on the internet, a Gotoh vintage precision pickup is a great bargain(About $30) with a true precision tone.
 
#10
the-bass-man said:
Congrats on the project so far, looking very good I must say! I only wish I could bear to do this to my Milestone III... mind you, I might need some skill along with that too...!

One quick question thoug: what do you plan to do about the pickguard, use the current/old one or get a new one? If the latter, where would you get one, mine's got a crack in it and I've been dying to find a stockist for them...

Once again, looking good!

Oli
Click to expand...

Thanks. What's holding you back from working on your III? Is it not wanting to mess with the magic, or is it not knowing exactly what to do? I've had no formal training in either guitar tech or resurfacing work. All I know is what I've read online and what I've watched on various car shows over the years.

I'm doing this with a much bigger budget than I was the first time (which was $20), but I'm using the exact same materials. The first time I used nothing more than Rustolium Painters Touch and a bit of sand paper, this time it's the same stuff only in much greater amount and variety. Instead of 5 cans of paint in total, I've got over a dozen. Instead of one sanding block and a batch of 1000 grit, I've got several blocks of different grits along with paper ranging from 150 to 2000. Just take your time and things should turn out ok.

I'm good on the body work, it's the rewiring where things will get a bit fuzzy for me and I'll have to look for some guidance.

As for the pickguard, I'm keeping the old one. At the very least I'll strip and repaint it as well, but I've kicked around the idea of a new one as well. From what I've heard you can't get a new one from Peavey or the aftermarket because of the odd shape.

One of the ideas I have for a new one would be to buy a thin sheet of aluminum, cut it to match the shape, scuff it up so it has that brushed look and then clear coat it so it won't oxidize.

If I had to repair mine like you do, here's what I'd do. I'd superglue the crack up, scuff the top side up a bit with around 300, give it a good coat of primer, then a coat or two of white, then spray some clear coat on and wet sand it. If you did it just right it would look damn near perfectly stock only with a brighter white.

bassmanrocke said:
If you could find a pickup from a late eighties early nineties American Peavey Fury you would be very impressed. They were alnico V and had a great bassy precision tone. Any alnico V p pickup will be a dramatic improvement over the ceramic pickup from import peaveys. Try a '62 Fender precision or a Seymour Duncan. If you can find one on the internet, a Gotoh vintage precision pickup is a great bargain(About $30) with a true precision tone.
Click to expand...

Used gear like that is a rare thing where I live, but I'll keep my eyes open. I'm not that crazy about Fender stuff in general and I've never heard Duncan's in action. What I'm going for a nice blusey/classic rock kind of tone.

Also, I wrote this in another thread, but I thought people would get a chuckle out of it so I'm reposting it.

Punisher Bass said:
I have two, Carmen and Jessica. Carmen is my first love, we've been together for years and she's always been there for me no matter how I mistreated her. She wouldn't stand out in the P crowd normally, it's when you sit down and really get to know her that you see how special she is. But things do change...

Jessica entered the picture about a month ago and totally upstaged poor old Carmen. Possessing natural abilities such as a neck thru body, active EQ, and 24 frets. She's sleek and sexy, filled out in all the right areas, and she's incredibly flexible as well.

I love them both dearly, but ever since Jessica was introduced, I've noticed a lot of jealously between them. Carmen thinks I only care about Jessica for her looks, and Jessica thinks I could never really love her like I love Carmen. As much as I hate to admit it, Jessica has indeed taken over as my #1.

So Carmen has decided she wants to get some uh... enchantments. She's currently going under the knife for major reconstructive and cosmetic surgery in an effort to regain my attention and fix some minor flaws she's had ever since we met. She also wants to show Jessica that even and old girl can hang with something half her age.
Click to expand...
 
#11
Update.

It was given 6 coats of white primer in total and left to dry for a day. One of the ongoing problems is that tiny little hairs and specs of dust keep landing in the paint while it's drying. This can't really be avoided unless I had a paint booth, but when all you have is a dirty garage it just comes with the territory. Anyway, because of the dust I need to wet sand after ever phase to clear the dust away.

So after this round of wet sanding I sprayed on 6 coats of white color, which is currently drying. When that is done I should, in theory anyway, be able to lay down the stripes and hit it with some black.

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The more I think about it, the more and more I like my idea for a brushed aluminum pickguard. I don't think it would mess with the tone since it's non magnetic, would it? I also have the option to change and tweak the shape of it if I make my own, which would delay application of the stripes. I've also decided to ditch the bridge cover idea.
 
#12
I was given an older peavy so i thought like you why not try somthing, I stripped it dwon to the wood though.

I also cut the horns down and madea custom wood pickguard I haven't go to work on it for a bit but I will post progress soon.

Looks great man
 
#13
kgrundy said:
I was given an older peavy so i thought like you why not try somthing, I stripped it dwon to the wood though.

I also cut the horns down and madea custom wood pickguard I haven't go to work on it for a bit but I will post progress soon.

Looks great man
Click to expand...

Thanks. As I said above, the first time I just went over the original finish, this time I went down to bare wood for a clean fresh start. You can see some of it under the filler. I plan to stop by Home Depot tonight to see if they have a sheet of aluminum small enough.
 
#16
I was going to go this route with a nasty P-clone I bought, but the body had a chip in it and when I tried to pry it off to re-glue it, a HUGE sickly uneven piece came off. (and it's on the front)

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see more!

[edit] do you guys think I could get away with cutting the top 3/4 of an inch off the paper weight, cutting a new top and glueing it on? The body is terrible plywood, anyway ...
 
#18
WRXbase said:
I was going to go this route with a nasty P-clone I bought, but the body had a chip in it and when I tried to pry it off to re-glue it, a HUGE sickly uneven piece came off. (and it's on the front)

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see more!

[edit] do you guys think I could get away with cutting the top 3/4 of an inch off the paper weight, cutting a new top and glueing it on? The body is terrible plywood, anyway ...
Click to expand...

Thanks. There were a few small chunks that got ripped out of the front and back while I was removing the original finish, but they were easy to repair. What gave me the most trouble were the very small dips and gouges. I'd do a round of repairs and think everything looked smooth, then I'd hit it with some paint and see just how uneven the surface was. Big PITA.

And I would not bother retopping a plywood body. I know damn well that between cost of supplies, new hardware, and the time spent working on everything far surpasses it's actual cash value. I'm doing it because I've got such a history with the instrument. Unless you share the same kind of bond with it, I think you'd just be wasting your time and money.
 
#19
Making the pickguard has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped. It's so easy to distort because of how thin it is, the snips are a bit hard to use, and I'm trying to figure out which tool on my dremel will give me a good clean cut. I might end up just chalking this one up as a learning experience and use the second half of the metal to see if I can get better results. I've also thought about buying a nibbler and using either thicker aluminum and/or switching to steel.

I just don't think this 1/16th is going to cut it, I need to stick with 1/8th which is how thick the original pickguard is.
 

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