OK, so the other day I was itching to do a Tele Bass, and in the past I had rebuilt, refinished, and modified a Squier VM Telecaster Bass that had turned out fantastic. So with that in mind, I trotted off to Bass Emporium....
The guys at Bass Emporium are about as good as it gets: Knowledgeable, fair, and just great guys...I can't say enough good things about them. Anyway, a little while later I emerged with this....
Link Removed
OK, I had my guinea pig ! There was only one problem: I hadn't decided what to do with it. So to occupy myself and "buy a bit of time to think", I disassembled the bass, posted a "Best Custom Color" poll (to help me decide on a paint job), and ordered new tuners, bridge, pots, etc..
While the poll was "gathering votes", I started prepping the body. The biggest mod was that I don't want to use the old "2 saddle, string thru the body" bridge... I want to use a vintage Fender style top loading threaded bridge. I also didn't want to have ferrules in the back of the bass just "sitting there", so I cut some dowels, filled the ferrule holes, and wood puttied them up ! After getting them level I shot a bunch of primer coats and then sanded it level.
The Poll - well, even though Sonic Blue was the color that got the most votes, people also seemed to like Fiesta Red, and I was itching to do something with that new can of Fiesta Red that I just got...so I decided on red. After the color coats were applied, the bass looked like this -
Nice...I dig it. But after I put the black pickguard up to it, I decided that wasn't the look I wanted...so I ordered a white pickguard. (Gotta love a girlfriend who buys me guitar parts for Valentines Day !). The black looked good, but I think the white will look better.
That's done. So, while lying awake last night I was thinking "The bass would look cool with really simple white pinstriping on the sides, kind of like "binding". The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. So this morning I went off to Autozone and bought a roll of 1/8" pinstripe tape. Keep in mind that I've NEVER pinstriped anything, but it seemed like it would be easy enough to do a simple set of "binding lines" around the edges of the body. Well, that went just fine, so I also decided to "trace stripe" the back of the body, following along the edge. That looked really cool, so to get a better visual idea, I set the black pickguard on the body... which prompted me to think "I should do a simple trace of the pickguard edge/body on the front as well. Turned out great ! Man, what a cool look.
However, it only "planted the seeds" of what was to come.
I thought "man, it would be cool to do a simple "pinstripe spade" on the back. The problem was how to do it and make it look good. I thought for a minute and the decided that I would fold a piece of paper in half, cut out the "half profile" of a spade, and then when I folded out the paper it would make a nice, symmetrical "spade"...much like kids do when making paper snowflakes. Then I would take the spade design, position in on the back of the bass, and then trace around it with the pinstripe tape. It worked like a charm.
But.....
It just seemed "too simple".
Off I went to the internet and looked at several "spade designs"...none of which would work since they didn't have a solid outline. However, they provided plenty of inspiration. So back to the tape I went, just laying out one part at a time, "designing" in my head.
Honestly, I'm incredibly happy with it. It isn't "perfect", but it looks pretty darn good. I'm shooting clear coat over the tape (it is super thin) this time, but the next time I do it I'll use the take as a "paint mask" and just do the pinstripes in paint. It has been a learning process, and I'm ecstatic in discovering that I'm pretty darn decent at pinstriping !
Here's the result -
The guys at Bass Emporium are about as good as it gets: Knowledgeable, fair, and just great guys...I can't say enough good things about them. Anyway, a little while later I emerged with this....
Link Removed
OK, I had my guinea pig ! There was only one problem: I hadn't decided what to do with it. So to occupy myself and "buy a bit of time to think", I disassembled the bass, posted a "Best Custom Color" poll (to help me decide on a paint job), and ordered new tuners, bridge, pots, etc..
While the poll was "gathering votes", I started prepping the body. The biggest mod was that I don't want to use the old "2 saddle, string thru the body" bridge... I want to use a vintage Fender style top loading threaded bridge. I also didn't want to have ferrules in the back of the bass just "sitting there", so I cut some dowels, filled the ferrule holes, and wood puttied them up ! After getting them level I shot a bunch of primer coats and then sanded it level.
The Poll - well, even though Sonic Blue was the color that got the most votes, people also seemed to like Fiesta Red, and I was itching to do something with that new can of Fiesta Red that I just got...so I decided on red. After the color coats were applied, the bass looked like this -
Nice...I dig it. But after I put the black pickguard up to it, I decided that wasn't the look I wanted...so I ordered a white pickguard. (Gotta love a girlfriend who buys me guitar parts for Valentines Day !). The black looked good, but I think the white will look better.
That's done. So, while lying awake last night I was thinking "The bass would look cool with really simple white pinstriping on the sides, kind of like "binding". The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. So this morning I went off to Autozone and bought a roll of 1/8" pinstripe tape. Keep in mind that I've NEVER pinstriped anything, but it seemed like it would be easy enough to do a simple set of "binding lines" around the edges of the body. Well, that went just fine, so I also decided to "trace stripe" the back of the body, following along the edge. That looked really cool, so to get a better visual idea, I set the black pickguard on the body... which prompted me to think "I should do a simple trace of the pickguard edge/body on the front as well. Turned out great ! Man, what a cool look.
However, it only "planted the seeds" of what was to come.
I thought "man, it would be cool to do a simple "pinstripe spade" on the back. The problem was how to do it and make it look good. I thought for a minute and the decided that I would fold a piece of paper in half, cut out the "half profile" of a spade, and then when I folded out the paper it would make a nice, symmetrical "spade"...much like kids do when making paper snowflakes. Then I would take the spade design, position in on the back of the bass, and then trace around it with the pinstripe tape. It worked like a charm.
But.....
It just seemed "too simple".
Off I went to the internet and looked at several "spade designs"...none of which would work since they didn't have a solid outline. However, they provided plenty of inspiration. So back to the tape I went, just laying out one part at a time, "designing" in my head.
Honestly, I'm incredibly happy with it. It isn't "perfect", but it looks pretty darn good. I'm shooting clear coat over the tape (it is super thin) this time, but the next time I do it I'll use the take as a "paint mask" and just do the pinstripes in paint. It has been a learning process, and I'm ecstatic in discovering that I'm pretty darn decent at pinstriping !
Here's the result -
