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NBD - 1969 Fender Jazz! (Should I refinish?)

Shoud I refinish?

  • Total voters
    456
#141
imdkoz said:
I'm sure most of you saw this hit the classifieds mid June. Pretty much all original 69 Jazz with the finish sanded off. I was in the process of making a deal on this when the seller said another TB'er thought it was his old bass. Not going to get in the way of that, are we? But as luck would have it, it wasn't so I made a deal with the new owner and here we are. :)

I love everything about the bass, especially since it's a birth year bass and one I could actually afford. The only "issue" I have is when the finish was sanded off they rounded the horns, not crazy but enough to notice. It currently sits with what I would assume is an almost worn off nitro/bare wood condition. The question is should I refinish it? I like the way it looks, but something in the back of my mind says it should be.

Anyway. Big thanks to @smcgov and @sonicyogi for an easy buy! View attachment 3887909 View attachment 3887908 View attachment 3887910 View attachment 3887908 View attachment 3887909 View attachment 3887910
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I probably wouldn't re-finish it unless I knew 100% what the original finish was. At that point I'd have MJT do a light relic job with plenty of checking so it matches the neck.
 
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#142
If you take the neck off, remove the pick guard or whatever you may find traces of the original paint that will give you strong clues as to what the original color was.

Personally I would then have the thing professionally repainted using that color and period paint (presumably nitro cellulose).

Again personally I would not have the finish relic-ed, but you may decide on some light distressing to make it look like a well cared for original or get it fully relic-ed to make it look like it's spent 50 years touring.

OTOH you could just give the thing a very light sanding which really won't amount to much more than a good clean, keep it au naturel, oil it or varnish it.

All of the above are your choice and your choice alone.
 
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#143
My personal take on this is that you aren't maintaining anything original with regards to the finish. I have a roughly 1967 Gretsch 6120 (this was a year with the sealed, thinline, double-cutaway bodies). that, when I got it, had all of its original finish removed and dipped in some sort of HEAVY epoxy. All of the hardware was missing. No joke. It was just wood, frets, and inlay. My original plan was to do a faithful restoration. To remove the epoxy coat, unfortunately, we blew through the edges of the laminate so going with an original-ish transparent finish just wasn't going to fly. We couldn't even do a "burst" with a black edge because the dark edge would have been so wide it would have looked very strange. So... we said, "Screw it" and just I just made it mine. The blasphemy had already occurred and there was just no coming back from it. It took 6 years to complete. No joke. Everything from fire, to flood, to near financial ruin happened slowing the process down. In the end, I got an amazing guitar that I just never would have gotten if I had faithfully restored it. I am sure it would have been great, but this one is mine.

If it were me, I'd make it mine. Given the desireable nature of the bass and, if it sounds amazing, I might try to a a restore finish to a color from the time that I would have liked. :)
 
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#149
Do a nice refinish on it. Also, I would guess, although I may be wrong ,that your bass doesn't have the original tort guard. I would go for either Olympic white, black, Lake Placid blue, or candy apple red. For the latter three a white pickguard would look more authentic. For Olympic white a nice dark Spitfire guard would really make it pop. Don't go for see-through blonde as that would need an ash body to look good, and I wouldn't worry about matching the headstock; matching headstocks were very rare by 1969 and yours looks good as it is.
 
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#151
Thank you all for the kind words and great opinions! I think a refin is in the future but I'll do some research and reach out to some of the folks that were suggested here for the best course of action. The fact that the neck is in such great shape compared to the body was my deciding factor. Not sure when it will happen since I'll have to get the wife's approval after spending on this. Thanks again!
 
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#152
TheGreatSealof said:
Viewing your avatar from 2006, I appear to be quite a bit older than you. All things old do not need a makeover. Don't mess with it. It has had a life that should be celebrated.
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Fun With Dirt said:
My personal take on this is that you aren't maintaining anything original with regards to the finish. I have a roughly 1967 Gretsch 6120 (this was a year with the sealed, thinline, double-cutaway bodies). that, when I got it, had all of its original finish removed and dipped in some sort of HEAVY epoxy. All of the hardware was missing. No joke. It was just wood, frets, and inlay. My original plan was to do a faithful restoration. To remove the epoxy coat, unfortunately, we blew through the edges of the laminate so going with an original-ish transparent finish just wasn't going to fly. We couldn't even do a "burst" with a black edge because the dark edge would have been so wide it would have looked very strange. So... we said, "Screw it" and just I just made it mine. The blasphemy had already occurred and there was just no coming back from it. It took 6 years to complete. No joke. Everything from fire, to flood, to near financial ruin happened slowing the process down. In the end, I got an amazing guitar that I just never would have gotten if I had faithfully restored it. I am sure it would have been great, but this one is mine.

If it were me, I'd make it mine. Given the desireable nature of the bass and, if it sounds amazing, I might try to a a restore finish to a color from the time that I would have liked. :)
Click to expand...
a picture or 2 would be nice after that description
 
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#153
Marky83dam said:
a picture or 2 would be nice after that description
Click to expand...

FB_IMG_1593719493616.jpg


...and here it is in use. :)

 
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#159
Isn’t ocean turquoise a modern colour my competition burgundy 69 mustang that’s faded to an ocean turquoise, not That I’m an expert on vintage fender I’ve only seen Japanese or the new jaguar vintnera which I think is Mexican in Ocean Turquoise or faded lake placid blue
 

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