Tarting up one of my basses.

lasermonkey

A number of years ago the Mrs and I popped into the local Crack Converters on the way to the dentist. Hanging on the wall was a very sorry looking Squier Precision Special. There was a sign on it saying "electrics don't work- £29." For that money, I thought it was worth a punt.

 There were some issues. The scratchplate had been painted matt black. Badly. The electrics didn't work, but I find that using superglue and blu-tak instead of solder, because you've let the pots become loose, then twisted them through more than 360º, resulting in all the wires breaking off, not such a good idea. I discovered that they'd used superglue after applying some solder and the fumes hit me. Ugh. Oh, and someone has burnt a smiley face on the back using a cigarette. Classy!

I bought a new scratchplate, a set of strings, new pots and some chrome knobs, as the originals had long gone. The wiring diagram was easily found and was an easy job. The scratchplate needed some fettling to get to fit, but it didn't claim to be for a Squier. After the strings were fitted, it was clear that the truss rod needed some adjustment. I had never tweaked a truss rod before, but the internet gave me plenty of advice.

So, after another thirty quid, I had arrived at this:


It looked ok from the front, played well enough and sounded quite decent. It stayed like this for a few years, but I always thought I could do better, plus the metallic black wasn't really doing it for me. Earlier this year I decided that I'd give it another go, so I stripped the whole thing down. 

As for the new colour, I settled on purple metalflake. What can I say? I like sparkly things! I ordered some base black and a can of purple flake from Specialist Paints. The body was sanded and any dings were filled and sanded flat. I quickly discovered that wet sanding wasn't a good idea, as cracks started to appear around the screw holes! Once it had dried out, the cracks were filled and the lesson learnt. I also routed (well, drilled and chiselled, as I don't have a router!) a space for a PP3 battery holder, as I had decided to fit a DIY Musicman Stingray 2-band eq preamp internally. The hardware was removed from the headstock, as I wanted that in the same colour as the body.

After masking (I used 3mm 3M masking film and Frog tape) I applied the black base coat to the headstock first. It seemed to have a decent amount of pigment and gave good coverage. Happy with the results so far, I hung the body from the shed roof and blasted away.

Next came the metalflake. I have never used the stuff before, so had no idea what to expect. The first test sprays on paper looked very much like I had been sold clear lacquer by mistake! A couple more squirts showed some sparkly flecks, though it really didn't look anything like enough. I went ahead and sprayed the headstock anyway, and after a few passes, a definite purple sparkliness was appearing. Once I had given it a few coats, it looked like this:



It looks much more subtle in the picture than in the flesh. Get it in strong light and it's anything but subtle!

As I was happy with that, I sprayed the body. I ended up using pretty much the whole can.

I tidied up the chamfer around the headstock and once I was happy that the paint had cured, I had to think about the gloss lacquer. Originally I was going to use a nitro lacquer, but I haven't used nitro before. I understand that if you use nitro over acrylic, you have to leave the acrylic to fully outgas. That would put me at the end of September/beginning of October and probably well into the damp weather. As I already had plenty of poly clear knocking about anyway, I tried it on the headstock. A few coats resulted in this:

indoors with flash:


and outdoors in sunlight:



I'm going to order a replacement decal before I add any more gloss coats to the headstock. It will the Squier Precision logo, but in gold, so as to stand out from the background. In low light, the purple is quite  dark. I've found a place to get the decals done, but I'm up for recommendations.

I'll be gloss-coating the body tomorrow. It's had plenty of time to cure.

So far I'm pretty chuffed with how it's going and I'm eager to get another cheap but decent guitar to turn into a sparkly thing. I might forego the black base coat and try a similar colour to the flake, as the black is a little more imposing that I expected.

More pics as stuff happens!

BigMonka

That's a really funky colour, and it looks like you done a really nice job of the spraying too. Looking forward to seeing the body done too.

P.S. I gave you a "wow" as it looks great, but I also wanted to give you a lol as that's the first time I've read your signature and it made me literally lol  )

gusman2x

That looks absolutely wicked. Gotta love a purple flake.

lasermonkey

I managed to get a few coats of gloss sprayed onto the body today. It's amazing just how much better it looks. A few small particles landed on the surface, so I'm going to have to let it dry before dealing with those. The body is suspended from the ceiling from a chain (that sentence seemed so wrong!) and has a fan trained on it, which I hope will speed things up a bit. There's still some flake texture to the surface, so I think I'll need to lay down a few more gloss coats before I go at it with the wet'n'dry (without water!)
 Unfortunately the place that I was going to get the decal made is booked up until the end of the month, so I'm just going to have to wait.

Deadman

Flipping eck. Awesome job!

Winny_Pooh

That looks great! What colour guard? You could get a white guard with white pup covers and white J bass knobs.

lasermonkey

I think I'm going to keep the white pearloid scratchplate. I haven't really given the pickup covers any thought, to be honest. I suppose I'll have to now! :-)
I'm still undecided about the knobs. My first thought was to get a set of four chrome Precision knobs, but I haven't made my mind up yet. The original control set was neck pickup volume, bridge pickup volume and master tone. Because I'm adding the preamp and it seems a bit daft to have three volume knobs, I'm going to go with volume, pickup blend, treble and bass. I think that makes more sense.

lasermonkey

With the weather cooperating more than I could have hoped, I sprayed some more lacquer today. each coat seems to make the metalflake "pop" more, whilst also becoming more level. Leaving it to hang outside helped it dry nicely.
It's getting there.

lasermonkey

Having left the lacquer to cure for a couple of weeks, I tried flatting an inconspicuous area with some 2000 grit wet'n'dry and all was well. I have started flatting the rear of the guitar in earnest now. Out of curiosity, I concentrated on the tummy cutaway and once that was nice and level, hit it with some rubbing compound.
I have a feeling this is going to look stunning when it's finished!

lasermonkey

Lots of flatting and polishing has taken place on the body, but there's still some faint, circular scratches visible. Maybe I need some finer polishing compound? I may well try some Micromesh instead.

 The decal for the headstock arrived. I had to wait for a while, as the guy who made the decal was booked solid until the end of September. I wanted a replacement Squier decal, but in gold, so as to show up on the darker background. Rob at Guitardecals did a good job with the decal. The metallic gold is nice and opaque, plus the decal settled down nicely, with no unpleasant surprises. I even have a spare.....


I'll spray the sealing lacquer coats soon and once that's dry, I can flat and polish.