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Thought I'd give refinishing a go.


leschirons

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Got a Stingray5 from skidder (Steve) in an exchange. Played and sounded great.

(Great guy by the way)

Only problem, it was black, and had high mileagešŸ˜‚

A luthier quoted me 320ā‚¬ to strip it back and finish if I gave him just the bare body.

So, a Black & Decker heat gun, about 8Ā  hours work and a saving of 320ā‚¬ later, here's the result. I'm really pleased.

Before and after.

Ā 

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IMG_20180902_154651.jpg

IMG_20180902_154633.jpg

IMG_20180902_154726.jpg

Edited by leschirons
Left a word out
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17 minutes ago, Zalastar said:

Wow! Just... wow!

Why would you paint that wood black in the first place ?

I guess because it's not one solid piece. You can clearly see the join on the back but I don't care. I love it. They even stamped "Opaque" in the neck pocket as finishing instructions I assume.

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1 hour ago, thepurpleblob said:

What did you use to varnish it?

A can of Baufix polyurethane clear. Only because it said on the can that you only need to wait 2 mins between coats. Put six coats on and then when dry and hard, polished with a similar to, but very fine product like T.Cut. That took out any dust particles.

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Well, here's a turn up for the books.Ā 

The tonal qualities have changed.

I plugged this in to a practice amp to make sure I'd reconnected the electrics properly. All good however, I've just plugged into my main gigging rig, same strings, hadn't touched the amps EQ since last use (my normal settings and in the same room) and it's like the bass has come alive. It sounded great before but now, with all EQ set mid point, I now have this fabulous Marcus Miller piano like tone.

Surely the finish can't make a difference.... can it?

I'm loving this even more now but would welcome any thoughts on this.

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20 hours ago, leschirons said:

Well, here's a turn up for the books.Ā 

The tonal qualities have changed.

I plugged this in to a practice amp to make sure I'd reconnected the electrics properly. All good however, I've just plugged into my main gigging rig, same strings, hadn't touched the amps EQ since last use (my normal settings and in the same room) and it's like the bass has come alive. It sounded great before but now, with all EQ set mid point, I now have this fabulous Marcus Miller piano like tone.

Surely the finish can't make a difference.... can it?

I'm loving this even more now but would welcome any thoughts on this.

Nice job.

If you've had the neck off -

On 02/09/2018 at 23:16, leschirons said:

They even stamped "Opaque" in the neck pocket as finishing instructions I assume.

I'd say you may have reassembled it with a better seat than it had previously.Ā  It seems a more likely cause than from changing the finish.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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I once did something similar to a dirtĀ cheap Telecaster (something to do with FenderĀ using up old bits of hardware after a factory fire or something)...less heat gun and more sandpaper, sweat and swearing.Ā  Took ages.Ā  Not sure I'd have done it if I'd paid proper money for it

Revealed some farĀ less attractive wood than on this one.Ā  Instead of varnishing it I oiled the body, after reading something about how that improved the tone by allowing the wood to fully resonate.Ā  hard to tell if that was what changed the tone given that i also drilled holes to make it through-strung and upgraded the pickups...but it's definitely a much better sounding guitar than previously so let's assume it was down to the oil setting free the wood

Downside is that the body shows every knock and scuff - fortunately I loveĀ the beaten up look

Edited by Monkey Steve
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