Guitar
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 stripes, loosely based on the Fender Mustang "Competition Stripes" of the late 60s and early 70s, but when they arrived they proved to be fairly thick vinyl stickers, as opposed to waterslide decals.
I decided to try to make waterslide decals myself, using some clear decal sheet material I had left over from another project.
I made the decals by first spraying a sheet of decal material with gloss black lacquer, in two very light coats to avoid dissolving the decal film. I then cut the decal material into strips of the appropriate width.
In hindsight, there are a few things I should have done differently: I should have clear coated the finish to make it a little more robust & I should have tried cutting the decal material into strips first and THEN sprayed on the layers of black lacquer.
As it was, the decals chipped and cracked in some areas as I applied them to the bass body - which I fixed by actually layering the very thin decals in areas that were damaged.
I applied the wider center strip first, using a decal setting solution (basically white vinegar) and letting it dry before I added the two thinner outside stripes.
The results looked ok - but as I said before, there were crack and chips visible - so I layered on small segments of the decal material. I knew I'd have to clear coat over the decals several times to protect the decals and to achieve a smooth surface.
Once the decals were set, I sprayed several coats of clear nitro over the front of the body - starting light as I was worried about dissolving the black lacquer on the decals, but then building up heavier coats. After letting the lacquer set, I finally was ready to wet sand and then compound and polish the front of the bass (again ! - since I had done this when I originally finished it in yellow!).
The bass's owner brought over the rest of the bass, and without even the use of a soldering iron, I was able to re-assemble the bass in the space of about 20 minutes. And it looked very sharp with the black guard and knobs - and a neck with a little bit of flame in the maple!
- 1968 Fender Jazz Bass: Sonic Blue Regret And Restoration
This project represents an unfortunately common scenario from the 1970s, where an instrument's owner decided that the "natural" look was preferable to the original factory custom color. Guess the attitude was that "wood was good" - during this...
- 1963 Fiesta Red Fender Precision Refinish Ala Bruce Thomas
Another fine vintage Fender bass has come my way - and the owner, inspired by my Fiesta Red refin of a 1964 P-bass, asked if I could do the same for his 1963, clay dot example, which had been refinished some years ago in a light metallic teal color,...
- 1966 Fender Jazzmaster: Aged Olympic White
< A fairly straightforward project here - a 1966 Fender Jazzmaster body that had been poorly refinished over the years and that the owner wanted to do in an aged Olympic White finish. The original Olympic White is a color thats seldom seen - its a bright...
- Peavey Predator Refinish To Fender 3-color Sunburst:completed!!
This post will hopefully guide the reader through the entire process for doing an accurate 1960s style Fender 3-color sunburst finish. A customer asked me if it was possible to refinish his cream white Peavey Predator in a classic Fender-style 3-color...
- G&l Asat Bass Refinish
Ok some of you may wince, because this bass had a very nicely done factory cherry sunburst finish when I started on it, but the owner simply didn't like it and wanted something brighter and louder and more ... ORANGE !!! This is a very cool bass -...
Guitar
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 stripes, loosely based on the Fender Mustang "Competition Stripes" of the late 60s and early 70s, but when they arrived they proved to be fairly thick vinyl stickers, as opposed to waterslide decals.
I decided to try to make waterslide decals myself, using some clear decal sheet material I had left over from another project.
I made the decals by first spraying a sheet of decal material with gloss black lacquer, in two very light coats to avoid dissolving the decal film. I then cut the decal material into strips of the appropriate width.
In hindsight, there are a few things I should have done differently: I should have clear coated the finish to make it a little more robust & I should have tried cutting the decal material into strips first and THEN sprayed on the layers of black lacquer.
As it was, the decals chipped and cracked in some areas as I applied them to the bass body - which I fixed by actually layering the very thin decals in areas that were damaged.
I applied the wider center strip first, using a decal setting solution (basically white vinegar) and letting it dry before I added the two thinner outside stripes.
The results looked ok - but as I said before, there were crack and chips visible - so I layered on small segments of the decal material. I knew I'd have to clear coat over the decals several times to protect the decals and to achieve a smooth surface.
Once the decals were set, I sprayed several coats of clear nitro over the front of the body - starting light as I was worried about dissolving the black lacquer on the decals, but then building up heavier coats. After letting the lacquer set, I finally was ready to wet sand and then compound and polish the front of the bass (again ! - since I had done this when I originally finished it in yellow!).
The bass's owner brought over the rest of the bass, and without even the use of a soldering iron, I was able to re-assemble the bass in the space of about 20 minutes. And it looked very sharp with the black guard and knobs - and a neck with a little bit of flame in the maple!
- 1968 Fender Jazz Bass: Sonic Blue Regret And Restoration
This project represents an unfortunately common scenario from the 1970s, where an instrument's owner decided that the "natural" look was preferable to the original factory custom color. Guess the attitude was that "wood was good" - during this...
- 1963 Fiesta Red Fender Precision Refinish Ala Bruce Thomas
Another fine vintage Fender bass has come my way - and the owner, inspired by my Fiesta Red refin of a 1964 P-bass, asked if I could do the same for his 1963, clay dot example, which had been refinished some years ago in a light metallic teal color,...
- 1966 Fender Jazzmaster: Aged Olympic White
< A fairly straightforward project here - a 1966 Fender Jazzmaster body that had been poorly refinished over the years and that the owner wanted to do in an aged Olympic White finish. The original Olympic White is a color thats seldom seen - its a bright...
- Peavey Predator Refinish To Fender 3-color Sunburst:completed!!
This post will hopefully guide the reader through the entire process for doing an accurate 1960s style Fender 3-color sunburst finish. A customer asked me if it was possible to refinish his cream white Peavey Predator in a classic Fender-style 3-color...
- G&l Asat Bass Refinish
Ok some of you may wince, because this bass had a very nicely done factory cherry sunburst finish when I started on it, but the owner simply didn't like it and wanted something brighter and louder and more ... ORANGE !!! This is a very cool bass -...