Restore Ibanez SR505 or sell it for cheap?

I've got a nice Korean Ibanez SR505 that plays great and sounds good (electronics could be better). The neck is wenge and pure butter...very easy to play. The low B is surprisingly tight for a 34" bolt on.

Aesthetically, it has some issues...it's got the classic dinged/scraped finish from slapping and popping. All the hardware works perfectly but is heavily oxidized/tarnished.

I've got it up for sale, but Ibanez made a TON of these basses and so there are a ton of them up for sale. I have a feeling I won't be able to sell without dropping the price way low.

So my question is...should I pump money into this bass and keep it for myself or just let it go for cheap? I can do the refinish myself by sanding off the finish and then using Warwick surface finisher. The wood underneath has a nice grain. Then I would need new tuners/knobs/bridge/electronics to bring it up to the bass it could/should be.

Thoughts?

 

It's the perfect bar gig bass...light, cheap, and easily replaceable.

And as you said, the finish comes off easily. Not sure if sanding or chemical is the way to go...

I really like what the wax does on my Warwick...and I have a lot of it.

I'm thinking putting Aguilar OBP-3 preamp in their with some real Bartolinis. We shall see...that might cost more than I paid for the bass new!

 

Yea this bass literally sounds like cardboard right now compared to my Warwick thumb

 

After going over it again today, I'd say it needs about $500 dollars worth of parts/work to bring it up to snuff with my other gear (Lakland 55-02 and Warwick custom shop Thumb). Soo $500 + $200 that it's likely worth and you do the math....that's $700 that could go to a better instrument.

I think I'm going to sell it...

 

Put new strings on the SR505 today before putting it up for sale, and now it sounds 100x better. I think I like it better than my Warwick thumb that I just pumped more money into with a new EMG setup...

So now I am tempted to keep the SR505 and try Bartolinis and a differnt pre in the 'Wick. GAH IT NEVER ENDS.

Hardware is going to poopie, though. I snapped off part of a tuner just winding a new string up...argh.

 

Yup.

Has your hardware disintegrated yet?