Ugly paint bubbles...who's the best refinisher?

That G tuner thing bothers me although I'm not 100% convinced the paint bubble is culpable. FTR, I have the same thing going on with the clear coat on a 20 year old 5 string...it's stable & inconspicuous so I won't mess with it. Before you start spending premium $$ on a re-fin, try this:

*Swap out the tuner for another known component to see if it fits flush with the headstock.

*if it is indeed the paint which is causative, have somebody isolate and re-work only the contact area beneath the ferrule / washer.

Is this a US or import?

Afterthought: if overtightened, a tuner can crush or dimple the headstock surface in weird ways which may affect the surrounding finish.

Riis

 

Yeah refin work is super expensive these days. I don't know if anyone would do it for less than a couple hundred.... or even more. You could wind up with more in a refin than the bass is worth.

If I were you I would be looking into a repair, not a refin...... some way to seat the tuners without firing up the paint gun.

 

Same rules apply...just trying to get a handle on whether we're talkin' about real Gotohs (?).

Riis

 

The distortion I'm seeing is weird - kinda makes me thing the wood somehow warped, but the amount I'm seeing makes no sense - wood wouldn't bend like that. And I've never seen a paint job with that much movement - something is very amiss there. I suspect the seller was trying to pull one over on you - hate to say it, but to me that's what it looks like.

 

A second look at the pics - does that thing have a plastic covering on the front of the headstock? I wonder if it got overheated somehow, and the plastic sagged. It's just not like anything I've ever seen before.

 

Pat Wilkin (Wilkins guitars)

 

If it’s poly you might try a little heat then clamp it flat while it cools. Machine heads off of course

 

That’s weird, almost looks like a plastic “wrap” you can buy now to cover a whole body. I’ve seen similar distortion on poorly done body wrap jobs.

 

Not sure how close it is, but the poly finish on an MIM J bass is more like a vacuformed piece of lexan than a sprayed on finish. It's not even actually stuck to the body, it's more like the wood is encased. The sealer is not even smooth underneath and when it's warmed up just a bit it will peel off in big sheets.. You warm it up and it gets pliable enough I believe you could work out humps like that.

 

I don't believe that's a paint bubble, but delamination. I also believe that G tuner was installed after the delamination started. Regardless of whether I'm right or wrong, that bass is far from being in new condition.

I'd ask for a refund and send it back to the seller. That does not appear to be a simple grading mistaken by the seller, but more like fraudulent mistaken.

 

Yep, that's complete separation.
It looks like it might have been left in a hot automobile or something.

 

I like this idea. If you start messing with it you'll either have to do the whole thing or chance making it worse. I'd be tempted to leave it alone, but the heat idea is appealing.

It's not highly noticeable, and I would think that a bit of heat with the tuners out would let that paint settle into place. It may be a fine line between letting it move and burning it, though.

 

Try taking off the tuners to see if you can get a needle between the finish and the wood. If so you may be able to inject some glue between the finish and the wood. I have done this with very thin super glue. Tape off the top of the headstock to keep the glue from ruining the top of the headstock. If you can make a big enough opening between the wood and the finish you can drop fill using super glue and a tooth pick.