Couple of Jack Casady questions!

[gearHed289]

But the entire finish had an orange peel wobbly surface.
Apparently car painters don't bother to sand properly nor polish it to a mirror like flat surface...

They'll do that on purpose on a concourse restoration. You'll actually lose points at a show for no orange peel on parts of the body. Not something you want on a guitar though! Years ago, a friend had a Warmoth body painted plum crazy purple by an auto finisher. Looked great, but very quickly developed major checking in the clear coat. Not sure if that had anything to do with who did the work.

[Alanko]

I spoke a bit with the guy who would do the work. It sounds like a familiar workflow: filler/primer, colour coat then 2K clear lacquer. I think he mentioned 'flattening', but he definitely mentioned buffing the finish if necessary.

The work may well cost more than £120; I have to take the bass along for the guy to evaluate. He has done non-car stuff before, including furniture and record decks.

Nobody got a black JC pickup? 

I'm looking at a vinyl dye product to turn my cream Casady pickup black. Apparently it gets down into the plastic, rather than sit on the surface. It might be nonsense....

[Basvarken]

Maybe you can wrap it with black shrink foil. Perhaps your car painter knows where to get this stuff. It is often used in the automotive industry these days.

[Pilgrim]

The downside is that auto body guys have no idea how to prep wood.  No grain filler, no pre-sanding with grit down to 2000, and probably not a clean enough painting environment.  Hope it turns out OK. If you're re-painting over existing finish, that gets rid of some potential problems.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

My homemade JPJ bass started out as an ESP looking like this:



and ended up looking like this:



An autobody shop did the paint job and honestly the back looks even better than the front. A small section ( half thumbnail-sized) of top coat on the front has chipped away, but I'm pretty sure it got hit with screwdriver installing the pickups. It cost $300 ten years ago.

[Highlander]

Very nice...

[Alanko]

The downside is that auto body guys have no idea how to prep wood.  No grain filler, no pre-sanding with grit down to 2000, and probably not a clean enough painting environment.  Hope it turns out OK. If you're re-painting over existing finish, that gets rid of some potential problems.

I'm going to do a bunch of prep myself, including a fair bit of filler work (there is wood missing on the back, and dents in the front). I was advised not to prime it myself as they would be removing the stuff I applied before applying their own.

I'm cautiously optimistic, but I know it won't be the same as getting a dedicated instrument refinisher to have at it. As long as it looks better than whatever I could do for ~£120 then I will be happy.

[Dave W]

My homemade JPJ bass started out as an ESP looking like this:



and ended up looking like this:



An autobody shop did the paint job and honestly the back looks even better than the front. A small section ( half thumbnail-sized) of top coat on the front has chipped away, but I'm pretty sure it got hit with screwdriver installing the pickups. It cost $300 ten years ago.

Wow! I don't remember you posting that before. Very nice!

Reminds me of some of the 90s G&L finishes.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

They didn't have grain filler so they used auto body filler and as a result, the bass is pretty heavy and extremely bright. I didn't remember the body wood being so dark (just found that pic on my computer the other day). I guess it's basswood, but it may be whatever "fauxhagony" Epi uses.  I've posted it here before but it was linked to Photobucket. When I get some money, the Mexi-P pickup is going to be replaced. I just told the shop I wanted it hunter green and bowling ball after seeing a set of Fender Custom Shop basses in black bowling ball. The back has a lot more silver. If I get time today, I'll take a picture of it and post it.

[Alanko]

Hunter Green you say?

[Pilgrim]

They didn't have grain filler so they used auto body filler and as a result, the bass is pretty heavy and extremely bright.

That may be roughly akin to a transparent Lucite body now.   

[Highlander]

That may be roughly akin to a transparent Lucite body now.   

As a curious aside, it now exists...

[Alanko]

My Casady project has taken an interesting turn...

[Rob]

Gonna need a sound clip.

[Alanko]

I might be able to provide one in February or March. 

I've just bought the pickup, and it isn't here yet. It is a Guild BS-1, rather than a Dark Star or Curtis Novak number. I played an M-85 reissue last month that sounded pretty tasty, and since I'm refinishing my JC I might as well go whole hog. And in theory it gets me closer to that Crown of Creation tone...

While I'm routing the top of the bass for this pickup I might as well fit a Stratocaster jack, eh?