Musicman expert needed;)

[Brams77]

Hi there,

I was just wondering I know black pre eb basses 76-78 had undercoats or atleast some do.
I have seen gray or white. Now here is an example where its black over silver over white...
Would one assume this was a silver bass, if they even had that color at that time, and then sprayed black?
Looks quite unusual to me this would be a '78 stingray bass

Here are the pics

Edited April 25, 2014 by Brams77

[RhysP]

They did used to do a silver finish - it's one of the rarest pre-ebmm finishes as far as I'm aware.
Ben Orr with The Cars used to play a silver Stingray around this time.

[Brams77]

Thanks RhysP,

So you think it's a silver bass with black overspray?
I'm not sure if Leo also did overspray on badly finished customs colors like he did at Fender in the early 60s...
I'm not sure what to make of this...

Edited April 25, 2014 by Brams77

[rubis]

The wear pattern on the back seems a bit unusual to me, there are no scratch marks on the neck plate but the finish all around it is gone

[Brams77]

Yup, but I can relate to that, it's prolly been somewhere humid when a bass body gets damp e.g. in bad vented storage or whatever, the wood expands and shrinks quite a bit and you get some severe checking in the finish. When that is happened it doesnt take much to get bare spots as the finish doesnt hold really well anymore to the wood of the body.
I had this once myself on a 1971 jazz bass where I had washed a gigbag innthe washing machine apparantly wasn't fully dried yet, put the bass in, when I took it out again, after a month or so, even the clear lacker on the fretboard was fully checked.. I can imagine something similar happened with this one...

[rodney72a]

Take the neck off and post a photo of the neck pocket and neck heel. That should provide the clues as to what the original finish was. (Unless it was painted over during a refin, of course.)

[Brams77]

Well I don't own the bass, I do have a pic of the control cavity, it seems that is also fully black.
There is no pic of the neck pocket, just wondered if someone knew if undercoats like that do excist.... But I definitly have the feeling this was a silver bass and had a overspray in black later on...

[rubis]

I should think when it was repainted, the control cavity would be sprayed, that's quite normal, but the neck pocket would masked off or covered by a " holding stick " to maintain the neck pocket fit.
This would, as pointed out already, give a clue as to the history of the bass.
Shame it wasn't left silver, I imagine that would make it quite rare and valuable
I wonder if any " home relic-ers " will try out your method of leaving an instrument in a damp gig bag for a month! Did it warp the neck or cause any other damage?
Good luck with this bass, anyway, are you intending to buy it?
If so, I'm sure the seller would send you more pics, including the neck pocket, electrics etc

[drTStingray]

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1398407945' post='2433731']
They did used to do a silver finish - it's one of the rarest pre-ebmm finishes as far as I'm aware.
Ben Orr with The Cars used to play a silver Stingray around this time.
[/quote]

Called Inca Silver - tends to go greenish over time. The Bass Centre had an immaculate 77 one previously owned by Colin Greenwood - I've kicked myself ever since I didn't buy it.

The pic in the OPs post looks like a refin to me. I can't imagine why the factory would overspray a non standard colour. Fenders tended to overspray standard sunburst bodies with custom colour orders it is said - I've seen pics of custom colours over sprayed also but it's mostly standard ones. Having read a Hank Marvin interview recently it seems artist's attitude to guitar colours was often dictated by stage show and he mentioned several of his being refinished in different colours - so maybe owners attitudes in the 60s and 70s to having guitars re painted was different from now.

Edited April 26, 2014 by drTStingray

[Brams77]

[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1398499604' post='2434654']
I should think when it was repainted, the control cavity would be sprayed, that's quite normal, but the neck pocket would masked off or covered by a " holding stick " to maintain the neck pocket fit.
This would, as pointed out already, give a clue as to the history of the bass.
Shame it wasn't left silver, I imagine that would make it quite rare and valuable
I wonder if any " home relic-ers " will try out your method of leaving an instrument in a damp gig bag for a month! Did it warp the neck or cause any other damage?
Good luck with this bass, anyway, are you intending to buy it?
If so, I'm sure the seller would send you more pics, including the neck pocket, electrics etc
[/quote]

No I'm not intending to buy, altho it's offered for not that much money and still has the original epoxy preamp. But one has to invest too much money in getting it the way I would like. The fretboard was refinished when it was refretted and the board is alot lighter then the original bfinish on the back of the neck, looks kind of off to me, and then there is the pickguard missing and the tuners are replaced with hipshot ones I believe... All is reversable but then you'll end up investing as much as getting an original anyway...
I already have a pre eb that was also refinned it's better to save myself from yet another project, I think;)

Or does someone know if it has such an unusual color it would be a really outrageous sounding one? I mean did they hand pick better bodies or necks for such a color? I don't think it would be likely... But who knows...

Edited April 26, 2014 by Brams77