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SHOW YOUR DISTRESSED FINISHES!

#4,661
JIO said:
Nitrocellulose lacquer ambers with age, mostly due to exposer to UV rays or heat, or both. 10yrs will certainly do it and when you add yellow to blue - you get green. (or in your basses case - blue-green)

Found this on line - early '60s lefty. Nearly teal now - originally LPB.
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Hypothetically will a UV flashlight yellow a modern nitro LPB finish quickly, like found on the AO 60’s P bass?
 
#4,662
My Lado Medallion
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#4,664
JIO said:
Nitrocellulose lacquer ambers with age, mostly due to exposer to UV rays or heat, or both. 10yrs will certainly do it and when you add yellow to blue - you get green. (or in your basses case - blue-green)

Found this on line - early '60s lefty. Nearly teal now - originally LPB.
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Hey, I've seen some meh-green LPB ones for sale that claimed that had happened -- I thought they were blowin' smoke. I stand corrected.

But no, mine's still blue. Beautiful, beautiful blue... Musta been no UV in them Wisconsin bars after sunset. ;->
 
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#4,665
Lucky Chuck said:
Hey, I've seen some meh-green LPB ones for sale that claimed that had happened -- I thought they were blowin' smoke. I stand corrected.

But no, mine's still blue. Beautiful, beautiful blue... Musta been no UV in them Wisconsin bars after sunset. ;->
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Well, there's another source of amber-ing; nicotine. I've seen (and smelled~) some yellow Olympic White finishes that spent years in bars. The majority is surface related and can be cleaned off, but it will inevedibly stain the finish. Like with mildew, sunlight helps get rid of the oder. I had a case like that and left it out in the sun for days with light spraying of Lysol before the smell finally went away.

This '65 P is LPB - the place to find the original shade/hue is in the neck pocket and under the pg. Lower pic is a fresh LPB finish as a visual comparison. Personally I like the time amber-ing as it 'warms' up the colour and as in this example varies over the surfaces from more blue to more green. I also like the checking that happens as nitro shrinks over time as it gives the finish character, as does player wear. It's pretty much why I started this thread. :)
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#4,667
And a different LPB P - the other place to find the un-amber'd original colour it would be under the ashtray if it wasn't taken off as many were.

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Here's an example of even amber-ing on a '67 LPB Coronado creating a very lovely teal colour.

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'64 LPB Jaguar -

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one more -
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#4,669
Lucky Chuck said:
Man, I wish I could afford to buy that P and have a matched set. But I can't afford to keep mine even.

I don't think the color has yellowed much if at all.

More of the LPB '62 J:
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Love it - yes, maybe not as much as others but I bet if you looked under the pg you'd see a more dramatic difference. (not inferring I want you to do that :)) You can see it in the hs decal how the clear yellowed. If you put your bass next to a new LPB finish you'd see the difference more graphically.

I owned a '63 T-bird II that was stollen, and have owned a '64 since '78. Wouldn't part with it for any amount of money.

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#4,671
Lucky Chuck said:
That's what I said until I had it appraised (for insurance.) Now, I'm afraid to take it out of the case, in case someone Bad sees it. At this point, I'd rather find a '64 AVRI in LPB that plays well that I could take to a gig. Someday. Assuming...
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It's bizarre isn't it? In a time long ago and far away, the whole hyper inflated "investment value" of guitars/basses wan't something anyone, or at least any working player concerned themselves with. My '64 had a price that I could afford only because I had insurance money from my stollen '63 (bought for $150 in '74). It was my only bass and I wanted more dynamics out of it so I routed and installed the bridge pu & extra pot in '86. Doing that "devalued" it but for me it made it a much better sounding bass. As I didn't own it as an "investment" and still don't - I'm glad it is devalued because maybe it would be tempting as the current "value" for a '64II w/o a repaired hs is north of $10K. ($300 more than 10 times what it cost me in '78)

I still play my T-bird live and frankly when I do no-one really makes note of it. But damn, does it sound great in the live mix - nothing comes close.

a few years ago -
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#4,679
Kitsapbass said:
No need. I smoked for years but quit a long time ago. Still, get more colds and they hit my lungs worse.
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Good on you that you quit. :thumbsup: My good friends mom was a career waitress and long-time smoker. For her B-day a few years back he paid for a hypnotist to break her smoking habit and it worked! She's so much healthier/happier now.
 
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