Pete Bish Posted July 27, 2022 Share Posted July 27, 2022 Good evening Ladies & Gents, I have recently acquired a rather nice - but badly abused - Fender Musicmaster Bass (1977). It's a lovely player, but the previous owner/owners severely mistreated it. Looking to restore as best I can, but the main issue is the finish... As you can see, there are numerous scratches front and back. I have my ideas, but I'd be grateful to know what steps people would take to repair the paintwork ScratchX, drop filling, micro-meshing ... whatever you guys reckon. Thank you in advance! Btw, the botched Barclays thumb rest thing is especially ugly, I know. But that's a pretty simple repair by comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 That looks like it'll need sanding and respraying. Something like Meguiars scratch remover is the ultimate stuff, but those scratches look too far gone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkin Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Agreed. Are they even scratches? Looks like the front could be cracks in the finish? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigguy2017 Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Those aren't scratches - it looks like severe finish checking - cracks in the finish. The wood has shrunk a little and the finish has split. Options? Do you want it to look like a brand new instrument? If so then strip and refinish. On a vintage 1977 instrument like this I'd embrace the natural relic job... If the finish is lifting and detaching I'd drop fill with CA glue then sand back to flat and polish. Finish checking is cool on a 45 year old bass. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Yep, that’s checking in the nitrocellulose, a natural process and comes with owning a bass of this vintage. Don’t touch it, it’s part of its mojo. Custom shops recreate this effect on new, relic instruments. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Yes l agree. You would lose a lot of resale value if you refinished it, regardless of how well that was done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 (edited) Yep thum rest off... and i'd be leaving alone... Love the bridge (if it intonates 7/10...) and Scratch Plate dink to the end aint nuffin' Coolio! Add add the E or a new set of strings though... missing strings is takin relic to whole new level! Edited July 28, 2022 by PaulThePlug 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Agree. Leave it and enjoy playing it. It's part of the mojo of the instrument, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cribbin Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 I'll go along with most of the above, this would be a case where the term, polishing out value applies. If you don't feel you can live with the current finish, restore it to good playing condition as a project and move it on to someone who wants it as it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bish Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 Thank you for the comments, everyone. Genuinely appreciated. I have a couple of questions, then... 1) Can I be sure this is a Nitro paint job? I could be wrong but thought dropped by the late 70s. 2) Bridge: I could probably remove much of the corrosion and have it looking better. But would that be a bad move? 3) Scratch plate: The screws are a mish-mash, and one or two are of the countersunk variety. Tempted to replace all with something uniform. Thoughts? Also, the chip in the plate is rather other ugly. Would a complete replacement badly affect value? 4) The finish (big one): The big scratches do look like checking, as has been suggested. If I did attempt to drop fill with superglue, would it be wise to drop a bit black colouring in first? Black super glue is also an option. There are many other scratches on the body, front and back. I was tempted to START the whole process of restoration by cleaning the body and then polishing with a mildly abrasive cleaner like Meguiers Xscratch or Swirl Cleaner ... just so I can see the wood from the trees really...see what scratches remain. Is this a sensible approach in people's eyes? Thank you again, one and all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 If you like the bass as a design, leave it as is and acquire a new one as an addition, to counter the need to potentially wipe many £s off of the value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunion Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Leave the Mojo alone and enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bish Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 I hasten to add that - guttingly - the tuners are not original. Just a standard open-geared no-name product. Assessing my options here, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted July 29, 2022 Share Posted July 29, 2022 A 1977 Fender won't have an original nitro paintjob. Check inside the neck pocket for any clues that indicate whether it has been refinished already. If you can determine that the current finish is not original, stripping it off and redoing it won't lose any value. I'd probably leave the bridge alone, but I have had success improving old hardware with peek metal polish and elbow grease. The chip in the pickguard is very common with musicmasters - I have a couple of 1972 musicmasters and the original pickguards both have cracks in this area. You can get a replacement pickguard made fairly inexpensively. earlpilanz on ebay should be able to sort you out if you send him the original guard or a tracing. You can always put the original one back on later so it won't affect the resale value. I would replace the non-original screws with Fender vintage-style ones. You may need to wedge a bit of wooden cocktail stick in the holes to get the new screws to bite if the existing screws were oversized. I don't know about filling the checking with superglue. It might work; maybe try a small area on the back first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bish Posted July 29, 2022 Author Share Posted July 29, 2022 Thank you Jean-luc! Little update: turns out the original tuners on 77-81 Musicmaster are quite specific. Open-geared, but slightly stubbier than a typical Jazz or Precision. The plate has its own dimensions, too. Found someone selling 3 out of 4 on eBay for not silly money. Weighing up whether I should go for it and keep searching for that last one (hmmmm). Or, just get some vintage-style Fenders and accept it won't be completely right. I'm not sure how much bearing original tuning machines have on value. Perhaps you guys know better. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted July 30, 2022 Share Posted July 30, 2022 (edited) It doesn't look abused to me, the front "scratches", as several people already pointed out, really looks like cracks in the finish, which would have happned regardless of how much one had babied around the bass, and the back scratches look like perfectly normal healthy use of an instrument that age, without anxiously obsessive cautiousness around what essentially is a mass produced tool, meant to be used, rather than displayed as if it was a piece of high art. Edited July 30, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelDean Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 On 29/07/2022 at 12:57, Pete Bish said: Little update: turns out the original tuners on 77-81 Musicmaster are quite specific. Open-geared, but slightly stubbier than a typical Jazz or Precision. The plate has its own dimensions, too. Found someone selling 3 out of 4 on eBay for not silly money. Weighing up whether I should go for it and keep searching for that last one (hmmmm). Or, just get some vintage-style Fenders and accept it won't be completely right. I'm not sure how much bearing original tuning machines have on value. Perhaps you guys know better. I've got a player grade 76 Mustang. The tuners on that are also specific to the bass and no-one does an aftermarket replacement. They were pretty worn on mine, they didn't turn smoothly and really didn't hold tune well. I replaced them with Hipshot Ultralights. Best mod I've done to the thing and it took me 11 years of owning it to finally do it. If a bass has had a hard life, then sometimes stuff can go wrong when it's that old. The reason I didn't go for a Fender style alternative is because any other tuner would have involved drilling new holes anyway. One small hole per tuner is probably better than 4. Plus I still have the originals in the (incredibly unlikely) event that I sold it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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