Guitar
Here is a refinish of a vintage instrument, but not to a "vintage" color - rather, the owner wanted to replicate the look he had seen on Dodge's own "reissue" of the Superbee muscle car - a color that Chrysler labeled "Detonator Yellow". To really capture the look, the owner also wanted to add a set of Mustang Bass style "competition stripes" in gloss black. Below is the car that inspired this paint job.
The body had a very poorly done black refinish - which is why the owner didn't feel obligated to do a "correct" vintage color - the body had already been through a lot over the years.
Thankfully though, the black finish came off easily with some furniture stripper - with only the edges still having some bits of finish.
After some more sanding - the body got a coat of vinyl sealer and then several coats of white nitrocellulose primer. The primer revealed, as it often does, that the body was fairly rough still - since in some areas the 70s era sealer coat had been stripped off and in others it hadn't. Another round of sanding and priming followed before the body was ready for painting.
For the color coat - I decided to simply use Stewart-MacDonald's yellow pigment paste in a clear lacquer base to create my own bright yellow. The paste was a really brilliant color - and I had test sprayed a square for the client when he initially brought the bass over, and he liked it. However, to get a really solid color, a lot of pigment was required - I probably ended up using about 1/3rd of the tube on this one guitar body. You definitely want to use this over a white primed body, as this will improve the coverage greatly.
But as you can see - the color is great !! Next up - the stripes !!
- 1976 Fender Precision Bass: Refinish To Lake Placid Blue - A Classic 60s Color!
This is a fairly straight forward refinish of a stripped Fender Precision bass body in one of Fender's classic 1960s custom colors, Lake Placid Blue. As with all of the Fender custom colors of the 60s, Lake Placid Blue was originally a car color for...
- Completed 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass: Detonator Yellow With Competition Stripes!
This is a follow-up on a post on a Musicmaster bass that a client wanted me to do in the style of an early 70's Dodge Superbee - in a bright yellow with black racing stripes. The original post can be found here. The client did order some black racing...
- Radical Ibanez Roadstar Bassmod, In Daphne Blue
Here's a project I just started a few days ago - for a client from the local "Bassment" forum. This started out as an Ibanez Roadstar 2 Bass - presumably from the 80s. As you can see from a picture of the bass before any mods, it was a fairly conventional...
- 1971 Fender Precision Bass Refinish In Sonic Blue !!!
Another Fender Precision Bass project - an older maple board P-bass that has been through some changes, namely, the body has the classic added Jazz bass pickup at the bridge route, plus a route to sink a BadAss 1 bridge into the top and of course, a route...
- Squier Strat Quickie Paint Job
A customer acquired Squier of indeterminate vintage, for free I believe, and decided they wanted to "spiff" it up without spending a lot. Since the Squier had the typical poly urethane/polyester bowling ball finish and it was a heavy plywood body, we...
Guitar
1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass: DETONATOR YELLOW with competition stripes!
Here is a refinish of a vintage instrument, but not to a "vintage" color - rather, the owner wanted to replicate the look he had seen on Dodge's own "reissue" of the Superbee muscle car - a color that Chrysler labeled "Detonator Yellow". To really capture the look, the owner also wanted to add a set of Mustang Bass style "competition stripes" in gloss black. Below is the car that inspired this paint job.
The body had a very poorly done black refinish - which is why the owner didn't feel obligated to do a "correct" vintage color - the body had already been through a lot over the years.
Thankfully though, the black finish came off easily with some furniture stripper - with only the edges still having some bits of finish.
After some more sanding - the body got a coat of vinyl sealer and then several coats of white nitrocellulose primer. The primer revealed, as it often does, that the body was fairly rough still - since in some areas the 70s era sealer coat had been stripped off and in others it hadn't. Another round of sanding and priming followed before the body was ready for painting.
For the color coat - I decided to simply use Stewart-MacDonald's yellow pigment paste in a clear lacquer base to create my own bright yellow. The paste was a really brilliant color - and I had test sprayed a square for the client when he initially brought the bass over, and he liked it. However, to get a really solid color, a lot of pigment was required - I probably ended up using about 1/3rd of the tube on this one guitar body. You definitely want to use this over a white primed body, as this will improve the coverage greatly.
But as you can see - the color is great !! Next up - the stripes !!
- 1976 Fender Precision Bass: Refinish To Lake Placid Blue - A Classic 60s Color!
This is a fairly straight forward refinish of a stripped Fender Precision bass body in one of Fender's classic 1960s custom colors, Lake Placid Blue. As with all of the Fender custom colors of the 60s, Lake Placid Blue was originally a car color for...
- Completed 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass: Detonator Yellow With Competition Stripes!
This is a follow-up on a post on a Musicmaster bass that a client wanted me to do in the style of an early 70's Dodge Superbee - in a bright yellow with black racing stripes. The original post can be found here. The client did order some black racing...
- Radical Ibanez Roadstar Bassmod, In Daphne Blue
Here's a project I just started a few days ago - for a client from the local "Bassment" forum. This started out as an Ibanez Roadstar 2 Bass - presumably from the 80s. As you can see from a picture of the bass before any mods, it was a fairly conventional...
- 1971 Fender Precision Bass Refinish In Sonic Blue !!!
Another Fender Precision Bass project - an older maple board P-bass that has been through some changes, namely, the body has the classic added Jazz bass pickup at the bridge route, plus a route to sink a BadAss 1 bridge into the top and of course, a route...
- Squier Strat Quickie Paint Job
A customer acquired Squier of indeterminate vintage, for free I believe, and decided they wanted to "spiff" it up without spending a lot. Since the Squier had the typical poly urethane/polyester bowling ball finish and it was a heavy plywood body, we...