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Posted (edited)

Just curious how much it might cost to refinish a bass body in another colour? roughly? does it depend on the finish etc.. would be a flat colour i wanted..

any ideas

Edited by bubinga5
Posted

Depends on how you do it. I refinished a bass in plain white for about £30 using some rattle-cans from Halfords. OTOH I remember reading a great quote from the Manchester Guitar Tech people that basically said that if you want them to re-finish your bass, it'd be cheaper to sell your bass and buy a new one in the right colour! :)

Posted

I fancy getting my Warwick re done at some point, so would also be interested in the answers. I leant her to a friend for a gig, and he didn't take off his belt like I always do, so she has a few battle scars on the back. I also wouldn't mind getting her done in warwick's green, as I'm a little tired of the blue. Would the paint need to be special to still see the figured maple top/swamp ash back?

Posted

When I was thinking about a refinish I was recommended to John Diggins and there's example prices on his website

[url="http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html"]http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html[/url]

In the end I decided against it.

Posted

[quote name='spinynorman' post='1235078' date='May 17 2011, 11:43 PM']When I was thinking about a refinish I was recommended to John Diggins and there's example prices on his website

[url="http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html"]http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html[/url]

In the end I decided against it.[/quote]

Ouch they are expensive!

Posted

Yep, I've refinished a few of mine, and I can concur that if I was doing it for someone else I would charge through the nose for it. Especially if it had a bulletproof fender finish on it.
Nitormors and Halfords, 30 quid tops, oh and about a month of your life stinking and shouting at things. :)

Posted

Do you mean "do it yourself" price or "send it to someone who knows what they're doing price"? :)

I got a quote from Simms last year for refinishing a body in Burgundy Mist Metallic - £249, which I thought was pretty good considering the quality of their work.

Posted

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1235659' date='May 18 2011, 01:26 PM']£249...???? :) :)[/quote]
[quote name='mart' post='1234535' date='May 17 2011, 04:38 PM']OTOH I remember reading a great quote from the Manchester Guitar Tech people that basically said that if you want them to re-finish your bass, it'd be cheaper to sell your bass and buy a new one in the right colour! :lol:[/quote]
IMO the Sims price is a good one considering the time and effort it takes.

Posted

How would I go about stripping a bass? One of the tough ones, not sure what its called, but a colour with a clear coating. Is it chemical, heat, sanding or a mixture of them all? And also how hard is it to get a good looking solid colour put back onto it?

Posted (edited)

[quote name='lobematt' post='1236970' date='May 19 2011, 03:09 PM']How would I go about stripping a bass? One of the tough ones, not sure what its called, but a colour with a clear coating. Is it chemical, heat, sanding or a mixture of them all? And also how hard is it to get a good looking solid colour put back onto it?[/quote]

Somebody with more expertise will probably come along and clarify this, but my understanding was that if you want to put a solid colour on, then you probably don't need to strip all the old coating off. You just need to sand it enough to make it rough so as to provide a good surface for the paint to grip to.

How hard it is to get a solid colour on will depend on 1) what experience you have of spraying, 2) how fussy you are - i.e., what you mean by "good looking". I found it quite easy spraying my bass, but a) I've done quite a bit of spray painting and :) I wasn't too fussy. Oh and c) I didn't mind spending a bit of time with t-cut rubbing the paint down after I'd finished spraying.

Edited by mart
Posted

I'm not too fussy and have no spraying experience, the colour I'm thinking of changing is red into white so if I don't take it all off will it take hundreds of coats of white to make sure it isnt looking pink...

Posted

[quote name='Eight' post='1236972' date='May 19 2011, 03:10 PM']Real men need nothing but sandpaper... and a lot of time on their hands.[/quote]

Real poly sealer stripping sadly can't be done any other way. :)

Posted

[quote name='mart' post='1237013' date='May 19 2011, 03:50 PM']Yep, that's probably true. Although a bass that's "white with a hint of rose" would probably go down very well with the ladeez :)[/quote]

Haha you may have a point! Difficult to get the matched headstock I wanna give it as well haha. So just a LOT of sanding then? For respraing does it matter which type of paint you use?

Posted

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1237039' date='May 19 2011, 04:11 PM']Real poly sealer stripping sadly can't be done any other way. :)[/quote]

Except my way - using a poweful hairdryer and a paint scraper. Takes off the outer poly on a Fender and most of the sealer too

Posted

I stripped the poly finish from my bass with a gas blowtorch & a paint stripper. I heated the paint up gently (torch on lowest, unless you like scorched wood) & gently scraped with scraper. I then did the same again with the shellac that was under the paint & sanded the body down smooth with 40 grit, then 70, 120 & finally with 240 grit sandpaper & now in the process of coating the ash body in Danish oil (it reeks, but looks good!) I'm planning on doing 2-3 coats per day for the following 4-5 days (or whenever I get bored of not being able to play it). THen I'm gonna leave it for a week & then coat it with bees wax.

I'm still toying with the idea of adding some silver leaf, aluminium paint or some other colour to a section of the body.

If you can spraypaint, then finishing a bass isn't gonna be hard.

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