Painted necks on basses- love them or hate them?

[EZJA]

Very interesting! The wear marks look almost identical. Even though I'm leaving mine as it is and let time remove the paint on it's own, from what mdogs mentioned and from other people who have stripped it, it doesn't sound like it's all too hard to remove the paint should you want to do so. There is a clear coat varnish in between the bare wood and the paint layer so as mdogs mentioned earlier 20 minutes to scrub it off with a magic eraser. I think it's possible to remove the paint from the back of the headstock and sides so it matches the neck.
Prior to this, painted necks didn't really bother me as I've never worn the finish off any of my other ones, but this wearing out is something I haven't seen before.

That's why I had to stop lurking and finally create an account here. The wear on mine was exactly like that not too long ago.
I've once seen one on the "for sale" forums -I think- that had the neck stripped like you say, leaving the top face of the headstock untouched, with a black 2 or 3ply pickguard and white pup cover that looked the best of all SUBs I've seen.
I think I'm not going to bother with the neck, only the body, maybe. It's actually pretty rad to have paint wear through like that not even being nitrocellulose

 

[Maxdusty]

That's why I had to stop lurking and finally create an account here. The wear on mine was exactly like that not too long ago.
I've once seen one on the "for sale" forums -I think- that had the neck stripped like you say, leaving the top face of the headstock untouched, with a black 2 or 3ply pickguard and white pup cover that looked the best of all SUBs I've seen.
I think I'm not going to bother with the neck, only the body, maybe. It's actually pretty rad to have paint wear through like that not even being nitrocellulose

There's some inexpensive pickguards out there that fit the US SUBs. I currently have a 3 ply black pickguard on mine (bought for $8) and it's certainly an improvement over the original metal one. I'm supposed to get a black pearl one coming in the mail sometime this week or maybe next, got it as a winning ebay bid for under $6. Regarding the white pup cover, I don't know where you can find one in white but have seen black replacement ones, perhaps it can be spray painted white.

 

[EZJA]

Oh yeah I had a Precision 5'er that needed a black 3ply pickguard and I managed to squeeze one for the MM out of the pickguard sheet. Only needs it's edges beveled but I've seen a lot of different PG colours combined with the Teal version like I have, and to me they never looked like a better combination than the stock one. And that's bad, so that's why I consider painting the body black or chocolate brown. With black or white pickguard, possibly make a zebra PU cover

 

[tminus10]

It’s definitely not worth the monetary value to have the neck refinished so just leave it.