Silky999

First coats of nitro are on…

Thanks for all the lovely comments.

Yeah, I am on my second mdf spray booth in the workshop as the first one was a bit small. It has a 6” Vortex Pro extractor , led strip lights and a spraying jig. The extractor is ducted to outside and I wear a half face VOC respirator. I only spray 1k or nitro as 2k needs positive air fed respirator. The workshop(garage lol) has some fan and ceramic heaters which keeps its reasonable.

Just waiting for @HeadlessBassist graphite neck to come from China so I can put together. It is due imminently.

Shellac is on and Nitro clearcoat starting today….

Thanks Folks, it’s coming on a treat. The Liberon is now curing for 7 days before a couple of coats of shellac and starting the nitro clear coat.

Shaped, sanded, black grain filler and first coat of Liberon Finishing Oil.

Front and back flattened and one side shaped.

Initial cutting and routing done on this beauty, just need to shape in the front and back.

I’d send it back and maybe buy from somewhere else? It is clear that the dealer is also happy to send out substandard basses and not doing any QC themselves. in my conspiracy theory head, could the dealer be buying up seconds and passing them off as full price instruments?

Slightly scaled down…. i don’t know whether to go for the chrome or walnut control plate Thoughts?? I’m thinking chrome as I am just waiting for some chrome pickup rings to come from the USA to tidy up the pickups cavities. I don’t want to fit a normal pick guard and it wouldn’t fit anyway. The neck plate is just on for a test fitting and I will get a new one for it.

I would absolutely endorse having a go yourself. You can get a decent finish with rattle cans (I started with cans from Northwest Guitars before getting spray guns etc) and sprayed in the garden with the body screwed to a bit of wood as a painting stick tucked under my arm! Admittedly it is more challenging this time of year with the weather 😂. You could always knock up a bit of a backdrop out of some cardboard boxes and spray in the open door of a garage or a shed but definitely get respirator that can deal with Volatile Organic Compounds off eBay or Amazon. Decent protection is cheaper than you think and the VOCs will make you feel like crap if you don’t. Make sure you get either nitro or 1k paint/finish such as polyurethane as 2k stuff(it has a separate hardener) has isocyanates which is as nasty as it sounds and needs decent extraction and a positive pressure respirator to be safe. Body prep is everything and the more time you spend on that such as sanding, grain filling, sealing before you start painting will reap absolute dividends and a better finish I personally find nitro finishes more forgiving than poly as they flash off and dry quicker which is a plus if you are spraying in the open as it means less sanding of dust nibs, dead flies etc 😫. If you do use nitro, it really needs to cure for a couple of weeks after the final coat before you can do the final sand and polish and it can remain quite soft during that time which I learned after leaving what I thought was a cured body on a soft patterned towel. It left the imprint of the towel material in the finish🤬 You can also get some shrink back into pores if you haven’t put enough coats on or sealed the wood adequately. Poly is more durable, needs less coats and cure time but takes longer to dry between sprays and also doesn’t melt into the previous layer in the same way nitro does. I also found that rattle can poly doesn’t go on as well as nitro and I got better results with wipe on poly(make it yourself by thinning normal poly rather than buy it) than spraying it. Practice on a scrap bit of wood first to get the hang of the spraying and it’s is better to spray more thin coats spaced out than fewer thick ones. Hopefully @slowTwitch, that has given you some options and I’m sure whichever route you choose, be it car sprayer, luthier or have a go yourself, you will get the result you want.

A little something for all you short-scale aficionados as I know it can be challenging to find a smaller bass that is not your run of the mill mass produced fare. This body is custom made by me from one solid piece of Walnut. It has been oil handed sanded with Liberon Finishing Oil and finished with nitro satin clear coat. It will have a 30” maple neck with chrome retrovibe lightweight tuners. Pickups will be Tonerider Precision Plus paired with a Bloodstone Guitarworks P bass loom. Hardware includes chrome Gotoh bridge and Schaller type strap lock buttons. I’m hoping to get it all buffed and put together this weekend with more photos to follow. This unique custom bodied beauty will be going on sale soon with an anticipated price of £795 ono including a Fender shortscale gig bag. Drop me a DM if this bass makes your GAS come alive!

My costs would include disassembly, reassembling and basic setup……..I’d feel like I was taking the p*ss if that was extra 🤣 If someone wanted to send just the body then I would factor that into the price and charge a little less…….time is money as they say!

A car place would need the body only so you would have to take the bass apart. It’s also depends what type of finish you would want. A car sprayer would probably use 2k type paint, so paint and a hardener. It’s quicker to apply and also doesn’t need cure off for as long before polishing in the same way nitrocellulose or 1k poly would. 2k is also quite toxic hence they should use proper air fed respirators and decent extraction. They may not do nitrocellulose if that’s what you wanted. So from a luthier perspective, you are looking at stripping the bass to body, taking any existing clear coat off, prepping the colour already on, priming, new colour then clear coat, cure, polish, reassembly and set up. As a rough estimate, I allow poly clear coat 7-14 days to cure and nitro 14-30 days before polishing. Poly consumables - £140-215 Nitro consumables- £150-260 Total Polyurethane Refinish: £350 – £450 (Primer, colour, poly clear, materials, and labour included.) Nitrocellulose Refinish: £400 – £550 (More coats, more labour, longer cure — hence the higher price.) I hope that helps.