Guitar
Just a few pictures of a pretty simple refinish I did for a client recently.
He had a late-60s Gretsch Corvette, which had suffered the usual corrosive pickguard disintegration that these guitars are prone to - and had also been stripped and refinished sometime in the past, though not very well.
He had stripped the guitar and had a custom white/black/white pickguard and truss-rod cover cut for it - and asked me to refinish the guitar in Daphne Blue. After looking at a few paint samples and completed guitars, he realized he actually wanted to lighter and greyer Sonic Blue.
We did discuss the non-originality of the refinish he wanted, but he was not excited by the prospect of a stock cherry red or black/red burst finish - and really wanted to duplicate the color scheme of a 60's Fender guitar.
In keeping with this aesthetic, we also decided to paint the face of the headstock a matching sonic blue, instead of black as would have been stock on a Corvette.
I started by sanding and then sealing the mahogany body and neck - and then applying many coats of sanding sealer, so that the grain of the wood would be completely sealed by the underlying clear coat. I used a dark grain-filler too - as would have been used on a cherry finish originally. By doing this - I allowed for future stripping of the guitar without white primer or Sonic Blue colorcoat getting into the open grained mahogany - just in case someone wants to restore it to it's original finish some day.
As you can see - this guitar was made of some nicely grained mahogany.
Applying the Sonic Blue finish over the clear finish was pretty easy, since the surface was well prepped. I only had to do two coats of Sonic Blue, followed by three clear gloss coats. After about two weeks of curing - I wet sanded and buffed out the body and returned it to the owner.
He re-assembled and installed the guitar hardware (the Grover's are not original - this guitar would have had Van Ghent tuners like a Hagstrom) - and then brought it by for me to install a repro Gretsch logo (which I had been waiting for).
- 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...
- 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...
- 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
Gretsch Corvette - Fender-style, Sonic Blue Refinish
Just a few pictures of a pretty simple refinish I did for a client recently.
He had a late-60s Gretsch Corvette, which had suffered the usual corrosive pickguard disintegration that these guitars are prone to - and had also been stripped and refinished sometime in the past, though not very well.
He had stripped the guitar and had a custom white/black/white pickguard and truss-rod cover cut for it - and asked me to refinish the guitar in Daphne Blue. After looking at a few paint samples and completed guitars, he realized he actually wanted to lighter and greyer Sonic Blue.
We did discuss the non-originality of the refinish he wanted, but he was not excited by the prospect of a stock cherry red or black/red burst finish - and really wanted to duplicate the color scheme of a 60's Fender guitar.
In keeping with this aesthetic, we also decided to paint the face of the headstock a matching sonic blue, instead of black as would have been stock on a Corvette.
I started by sanding and then sealing the mahogany body and neck - and then applying many coats of sanding sealer, so that the grain of the wood would be completely sealed by the underlying clear coat. I used a dark grain-filler too - as would have been used on a cherry finish originally. By doing this - I allowed for future stripping of the guitar without white primer or Sonic Blue colorcoat getting into the open grained mahogany - just in case someone wants to restore it to it's original finish some day.
As you can see - this guitar was made of some nicely grained mahogany.
Applying the Sonic Blue finish over the clear finish was pretty easy, since the surface was well prepped. I only had to do two coats of Sonic Blue, followed by three clear gloss coats. After about two weeks of curing - I wet sanded and buffed out the body and returned it to the owner.
He re-assembled and installed the guitar hardware (the Grover's are not original - this guitar would have had Van Ghent tuners like a Hagstrom) - and then brought it by for me to install a repro Gretsch logo (which I had been waiting for).
The gold lettering was a perfect little detail to top off a very pretty guitar !!
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...