Bass Restoration Thread

[Danimal]

STEP #9 - Bleaching & Staining the neck

Ok, this thread has run a little off topic ... Time to get back to the project at hand. It's funny how this "Winter project" has carried on deep into the Summer. Oh well, hopefully I can have it done by NEXT Winter!

I put a few more coats of clear on the body. It is taking shape, but still has a long way to go before I get what I am after. So, nothing really worth taking a picture of yet. I am just continuing the process off clear-coating, steel wooling and repeating...

In the mean time, looking at this beautiful guitar body and glancing over at that nasty/moldy neck & fretboard was starting to bother me. So, I decided to work on the neck for a little while.

First, I took some Medium grit steel wool and tried to get the mold off of the fretboard. As I was doing this, I noticed that there was actually a pretty cool grain pattern going down the whole fretboard. So, as with my previous attempts to "bring out the grain", I decided to go for it and completely, strip, sand, bleach and stain the entire neck, headstock & fretboard. Then I am going to try to mask of the fretboard and only clear-coat the back of the neck and the headstock.

Here are a few new pictures. The top 2 are the neck & fretboard after sanding and bleaching (twice). The next 2 are after applying a light coat of stain and hitting it with Fine sandpaper to bring out the grain.

I will start the clear-coat for the headstock and back of the neck over the weekend, so I should have some more pictures next week.

 

[Danimal]

STEP #10 - Clear-coating the neck

I just realized that I forgot to post these pictures...

After I finished bleaching and staining the neck and fretboard, I really like the way it is turning out. I want to clearcoat the back of the neck and the headstock to give it a glossy appearance. However, I do not want to clearcoat the fretboard itself. I am afraid that it would make it feel weird or be slippery to play.

Originally, I planned to try to mask off the fretboard and clearcoat the rest. However, this proved to be much more difficult than it sounds. What I ended up doing was to apply the clearcoat to the headstock and back of the neck while trying to minimize the amount that got on the fretboard. Then while it was still wet, I wiped the fretboard down with a rag soaked in Mineral Spirits. This seemed to work pretty well.

I love the way the neck and headstock look now. It is probably my favorite part of the project so far. The grain just turned out so nice!

It will probably be a while until my next post as I have some other projects to do and will not have too much time to work on the bass. The next steps involve the repeated procedure of light sanding with steel wool and applying many many many more coats of clear. Then, I will be ready to for reassembly and to start working on the hardware and electronics. Stay tuned...

Here are a few pictures after two coats of clear:

 

[Novembers Paul]

I would make love every day to this beautifull piece of wood...

being this a "Dan's latest project" and having Paul from ND here...I have to ask this...sorry for being completely off topic...don't ban me
there have been roumers about you(Paul) replacing Peter Tägtgren as vocalist for bloodbath...any truth in that?

No truth to that at all. We talked, nothing more came of it.

 

[Novembers Paul]

The neck looks sweet! I can't wait to see this finished. I check this thread often! haha

 

[paradoxile]

Bass is all about the 5 and 6 string!

 

[Danimal]

Believe it or not, this project (and this thread) are not COMPLETELY Dead!

Since the last update (8 months ago!), a lot of things had come up that prevented me from doing anything with this bass.

First and foremost, I had a major flood in my basement last October. There was about 2 feet of water down there and EVERYTHING had to be gutted. All of the walls, carpeting, furniture, workbenches, etc... had to be ripped out and thrown away. This is where I was working on this project... Fortunately, the bass itself was up high and was not harmed. However, it was boxed up and indefinitely put in storage.... UNTIL NOW!!!!

So, basically I am picking up where I left off and am adding more coats or clear and buffing in between coats. Here are a few newer pics:

Hopefully, some day I might actually finish this thing....

 

[Meanspark]

HEY awesome thread...I dreamed to do that on my guitar, some other time maybe