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To sticker or not to sticker?

A note about residue: I bought a bass that had stickers on it. I removed them, and cleaned it up real good. No residue to be found - but the problem was the black finish where the sticker was is all cloudy now. I tried to buff it out as best I could, but it won't go away. I think that's the biggest concern with stickers - uneven fade, and even a chemical reaction with the clear coat.

Oh thats odd. On mine it was the opposite. the finish under most of the stickers was shinier then the rest of the body -- nothing clouded.
 
I did it to one of my basses. My suggestion is to do one or two stickers, and make them something important, not just random crap stickers you found.

Here is my old Squier P. I used red duct tape for the stripe and the red hammer decal is from a skate shop in Portland.


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When I bought my Squier P/J from my friend there was a big White Pony era deftones sticker on the backside. Luckily it was avinyl sticker, so peeling of the letters took all of 2 minutes and left no residue. I left the pony on. It looks cool. I had a really cheap Johnson Bass that had a grip of stickers on it. I took them all off, sans a ghostbusters sticker on the pickguard, and recently sold it off. On another cheap bass I took the pickguard off and painted it myself with acrylic paint, though I left it in my trunk once and it warped pretty bad (the pickguard) and my crappy Ibanez bass has a partial Sonic Youth decal I can't bring myself to take off as well as a Radiohead and Carvin sticker.
 
NSFW!! age warning! Graphic nature warning!!!

I'm not going to link to it - but you can search for it on your own. There's a very popular online classifieds page with a music instruments section for the LA area. In that section there's this guy trying to sell a bass for the past month now that is covered in stickers of the xxx kind. It's actually extremely graphic - gotta say, it even offends me! I only mention it b/c it's an extreme example of stickers on a bass. (and now the guy can't find anyone to buy it, even for a decent price - it's literally and figuratively garbage!)
 
I was also thinking about putting a sticker on my bass. It doesn't have great value (an Ibanez GSR190J Bass) and i'm about to buy a new one, but it actually does mean a lot to me. That's why I don't want to damage the finish, so, I'm not quite sure yet what I'll do.

If you want to remove any residu from stickers, you might wanna try using ether. I heard it cleans pretty well. However, I don't know what kind of effect it'll have on the finish. I guess it won't really hurt, because it vaporizes pretty quick. I can't guarantee it's completely safe, cause I haven't tried it yet.
 
Many years ago, this bass was considered nothing special. It probably still isn't, but I challenge you to find another bass like it. I'm glad it still has the original finish - minus any stickers - as this one is pretty hard to find now.

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Generally I'm not a fan of stickers, which can turn a temporary infatuation into a permanent defacement.

However, I did put "clings" on one of my Reverend Rumblefish:

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But since they're clings, they come off with no residue. I'm more worried about them staying on than coming off. There's also a larger version of the G on the back, but I don't have a pic of it.

Personally I would never put an actual sticker on my bass since I don't want to do anything that's not reversible. But I think in the case of the "Dawgfish" above, the clings look pretty good. Then again, I'm a UGA fan, and it's football season! :bassist:

When I was 18, I put stickers on the original case of my 1981 Ric. I'm sorry I did that now.

Nice toy man!
 
If you decide to put some kind of graphics on it think about what you want and go to a car/truck graphics shop that makes vinyl signs and such and they may be able to print what you want. They actually can print a full color photograph on a single sheet of vinyl. My truck has my company logo bursting out through the door panel with an American flag background which looks like a photograph and has a clear protective coating on it and you could get a nice piece of art to add to your Axe.

But

I think a nice brown tort guard would look quite nice and personally don't go for stickers on my instuments...

Now my instrument case is a whole nother subject altogether.

Maybe that would be a cool thread to start, pics of peoples cases...........
 
I realize this is an old thread and the OP had decided to not sticker, but I never miss an opportunity to ramble.

TB had to institute a rule preventing people from slagging on Bongos. You can ignite a war in any thread by supporting/attacking playing with a pick. For everyone who thinks the pinnacle of bass is a P-Bass with flats, there's a guy with a 24 fret 9 string.

The point is, it's wood, some bits of metal, and if it's recent and inexpensive, more Polyurethane than was really needed. It's not collectible, you're not permanently ruining it as some have claimed, and though I know there are people who will disagree with me, it'll have zero affect on tone.

OP didn't mention what sort of band he was in, so it's valid to say that putting a "Bass Players do it Deeper" sticker next to the Cannibal Corpse logo and playing it in a jazz band at a senior citizen's center is probably a non-starter.

I'm not sure I'd want to tell Mike Watt or the crew from Sonic Youth that stickering guitars is somehow wrong. They make it work.

I've got a guitarist friend who is so particular he doesn't like bright colors,doesn't like mother of toilet seat style guards, and thinks naming guitars is silly. Of course, he recently redid an MIJ 62RI Strat with a black pickguard and two humbuckers. Between the two humbuckers he put a sticker of a Goat and calls it "Goatboy". It works perfectly in the goth style band he's in.

Do what you want, you're the only one who knows what works for you. Anyone who disagrees isn't you.