Squier Bitsa inverted PJ thing...

[rushbo]

I’m putting this up on this esteemed forum as both a cautionary tale and proof that with a bit of patience and ‘this much talent’ you can bolt something together from bits, which is greater than the sum of the parts…

I started off with the best of intentions – inspired by all the amazing work I’d seen here, I thought I’d have a go at my own humble project. I’ve always loved Precision ‘specials’ – there’s something about the look and the sound of them that really appeals. And for some reason, I’ve always loved inverted headstocks…I blame Jimi Hendrix for that. Anyhoo, I found a Squier PJ on Gumtree for £80 (with a Hiscox case and spare strings too), so I was halfway there. The only drawback was it was pretty heavily dinged and a rather nasty metallic purple to boot. The only solution was to strip it and paint it.

That’s when the fun started.

I read a bazillion instructions from a bazillion websites about what to do. The Reranch site had some incredibly detailed information, but it looked pretty intimidating. The Manchester Guitar Tech site had some more great advice, but it was all a bit scary. Eventually, I bit the bullet, ordered some primer, some Olympic white nitro and a can of vintage tint lacquer and off I went.

Stripping the Bass was a bloody nightmare. When they finally drop the bomb, the only things left on Planet Earth will be Keith Richards, Cockroaches and whatever is coated in the godless substance that was layered all over this Bass. Nitromors, my industrial sander and all the swearing in the West Midlands couldn’t shift it, so I flattened it, filled the dinks with woodstopper, smoothed it off and primed it. The spraying was done in my kids’ old playhouse which meant I had to kneel down in a tiny wooden hut to work - not the kind of place a Lakland is finished… The primer went on nicely, as did the Oly white. So far so good. I’d followed the instructions to the letter and it seemed to be paying off. Only the lacquer left to go…

The lacquer made my lovely, off white Bass look like someone had thrown teabags at it. Blotchy and horrible. I don’t know what I did, but it was pretty profoundly terrible. To make matters worse, I’d gone out and bought a lefty Squier PJ (from Preloved this time, but for £80, I got a Bass in great condition, a Marshall practice amp, a tuner, a stand, a decent lead and a ‘beginners guide to Bass’ book – bargain!) and I was beginning to think I’d wasted time and money on a bass which at very best was going to look like a smokers lung.

So, I did what any self-respecting grown up would do. I sulked. Then, in a fit of pique, I sanded the thing down to flat(ish), jumped in the car, found the nearest Auto supply shop and grabbed two tins of red spray paint and some clear coat. Without even considering the shade, I blitzed the Bass with three or four coats of red and I was amazed when it started to look really rather good…maybe there was hope after all. I decided not to clear coat it in the end as I really liked the matt satin effect that just the rattlecans gave it. I sanded the logo off the southpaw headstock – not because I have no love for Squiers (quite the opposite in fact) but because it looked odd. Then I bolted it together, which was surprisingly easy – thank you Squier (Indonesia) manufacturing! Then the hardware went on (black – I love black hardware). Most of it came from BC including a loverlee Schaller bridge and a smart, bespoke scratchplate from the legendary BassDoc and voila! A pretty groovy and very distinctive, useable Bass.

I’ve had a great night tonight setting it up and with a tweak of the truss rod and two goes at soldering the pups back in (I suck BIG TIME at soldering…) it lives! The Squier pups sound really ballsy, so I’m in no hurry to swap ‘em for something ‘better’ right now. The nobrand machine heads are a wee bit stiff, but seem to be working well. I LOVE the colour (a sort of pinky Fiesta Red) and the neck is a dream. Very similar to my Mexican Jazz. I’m still playing about with it, but it’s just minor cosmetic stuff. I think it’s great and the colour neatly symbolises my mid-life crisis.

(If you’re paying attention, you may be wondering about the fate of the other bits of Bass –I bolted them together and flogged them to one of the Music teachers at the school I work at, who just happens to be a lefty. Now that’s synchronicity…)

I’m braced for the brickbats, ladies and gents, so feel free to tell me where I’ve gone wrong. I know a year or two down the line I may regret not lacquering my ‘masterpiece’ but I think my previous experience made me a bit too wary. It seems pretty resilient, but I may change my tune…

Oh yeah, when I’d gone down the rattlecan route, I found T[url="http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/29/guitar-painting-part-1/"]HIS [/url]on the Interweb. Informative, easy to follow and funny as hell. The guys a star.

The moral of the story…have a go. Maybe not on that 1969 Rickenbacker 4001, but most of us have a ‘beater’ don’t we? Get down to Auto World, buy something garish and frivolous, fire up the sander (after first praying that your bass isn’t slathered with Fullerplast or whatever the hell mine was covered in) and get busy. What’s the worst that can happen…?


[url="http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/29/guitar-painting-part-1/"]htt[/url][url="http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/rushbo1/PJ%20Bitsa/IMAG0165.jpg"]http://i306.photobuc...sa/IMAG0165.jpg[/url]

[url="http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/rushbo1/PJ%20Bitsa/IMAG0164.jpg"]http://i306.photobuc...sa/IMAG0164.jpg[/url]

[url="http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn268/rushbo1/PJ%20Bitsa/IMAG0163.jpg"]http://i306.photobuc...sa/IMAG0163.jpg[/url]

Edited January 27, 2013 by rushbo

[JimBobTTD]

Looks good!

[silentbob]

Nice work, I did my own inverted P project a while back, thread's here if you want to take a look.
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/113240-encore-derision-or-d-bass-project/page__hl__derision

[rOB]

Looks great. Good on you for getting busy.

[lee4]

I think you've built my dream bass

[Dave Vader]

nice job, I had similar experiences with refinishing a few years ago, and stumbled over the very same thread you did. Still makes me laugh.

[rushbo]

[quote name='lee4' timestamp='1359390090' post='1954017']
I think you've built my dream bass
[/quote]

Me too...

Seriously, it wasn't too bad thanks to the swapability of the Squier bits and some bargainous hardware from BassChat and Fleabay. The paint job will never win any awards, but it does look very Rock and Roll. The BassDoc did a great job with the plate too. Even my rather conservative bandmates in my 'Classic Rock' band gave it some begrudging praise.

This was the first time I had ever done anything more than just swapping a bridge or scratchplate and once I'd got beyond the horror of scraping the nuclear shielded metallic purple paint off the body, the rest was pretty straightforward.

Go on...tart up that nasty Encore Jazz Bass you bought at that car boot sale for a tenner. All you need is some decent grades of sandpaper, some auto paint (lacquer optional), some imagination and a bit of free time. As much as I love, black or sunburst basses, there are approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 currently in circulation. I hear Custard Yellow and Atomic Lime Green are next seasons 'must have' colours...

Oh and thanks to everyone for the kudos...

[lee4]

Could be a new thread;Pimp my shi*e bass!
Now,what can I get on Ebay..........?