Paint cracks or body damage?

Erm... you've... got a bit of finish missing there...

Has the bass been clearcoated after losing the finish? It looks like there's crazed nitro over the "bare" wood areas.

If the cracks are stable (not quickly getting larger) and aren't causing any obvious issues, I would forget about them and consider them part of the character. It would be hard to repair something in an instrument that's so distressed without disturbing the distressed finish to the point that it would look like an obvious repair.

 

I'm no expert but usually only if the cracks runs to the edges of the body and are on both sides of the body is there something to worry about.


I have a 1953 P Bass and I have a crack that is in the glue joint and it runs to the top cut-out and also to the butt end of the body. But, the crack is thinner than hair line and for the 5 years that I've owned it, it's not changed at all. I'm not going to mess with it unless if I can see through the crack to the other side.

IMO, leave you J body as is. Enjoy it and respect it for how it is. It is beautiful in it's own kind of way.

IMHO.

 

It's lasted this long, probably not worth worrying about with regard to playability. That said, I'm really stumped by these. Fenders are made of wood, then dyed, then slathered in fullerplast, then finished. Nitro will shrink a lot over time. So it looks like the nitro has shrunk into the cracks but flaked off the surface, and hence the colour is seen along the length of the cracks. What puzzles me is how did the crack end up in the fullerplast? They almost look like scrapes that were done eons ago before all the checking and then everything has shrunk into them causing the appearance of cracks?

No idea but it does leave me confused. Which isn't saying much really.

 

It really is difficult to say for sure without having my eyeball about 3" from the bass in person, but I was also confused. I arrived at they were probably deep scratches in the finish and just look funny from the way they've aged.

 

I zoomed in on the end of one of them:



It almost looks like someone jabbed it with a sharp object (little crater at the end) and then dragged it across the surface to scratch a line out of the finish.

 

It almost looks like, at some point, someone lathered paint stripper all over it to get the finish off and what's on there is just the tough bits that wouldn't come off.
The the scratches could be from someone thinking it might come off easier if they scored it.

 

That sounds legit but if this is the original nitro finish, it will come off all on it's own if you give it a stern look!

 

Angry stoned SO went at BFs bass with a screwdriver in 1988?

 

Hummm - could make a more definitive call if it were in front of me, but my guess based on the pics is something to do with the finish history, not the wood integrity. It seems like if the wood was really dried-out causing cracks like that, (as in, how else would cracks like that form?) they wouldn't run across the grain. Severe temperature changes (really hot-really cold, like being stored in an attic) could cause cracks like that to occur, but not abuse. (being dropped etc) Just my 2cents for what it's worth. Only way to know is to strip it to wood there, but otherwise I dig the distressed look and I wouldn't worry about it. It's a thick piece of wood and it isn't going anywhere.

 

I was thinkin at first that at some point they tried to stop the cracks by drilling/doweling the end to keep them from running further? If they are cracks that is.

Not sure if that is even a thing to stop a crack in body but a couple places right at the end of the lines looked really unnaturally round to me...
Sorry no idea just my 2 cents.