1964 Precision Restoration - Now Completed!

[molan]

A few years back I importedt an old '64 P bass in bits and in quite a sorry state. The previous owner had been able to afford a neck refinish from John Kallas (owner of JohnK Vintage Guitars who's built or restored some crazy amount of instruments over the years!). However, he ran out of money and offered it as a parts bass to get it finished. When he first bought it, the entire neck & body had been stripped back & finished some sort of horrible, slightly sticky to the touch, lacquer:

 

 

 

Here's how it arrived to me in it's original, but totally knackered, case:

 

 

I contacted a few people about refinishing the body but quotes were either really high or they didn't want to take it on given how nasty the existing finish was.

 

Then, one day, I was chatting to my good friend, and local luthier, Julian Mullen. I mentioned that I wasn't sure what to do with this albatross and he took a look at it. He had actually closed the refinishing part of his business because it was too time consuming and a pain in the donkey to try and run a paint shop. He had a good look and confirmed that everything definitely appeared to be original and that the first colour would have been Olympic White as you can see the overspray in the pickup and wiring cutouts.

 

He then said he had just one pack of genuine US nitro paint kicking around in his workshop and it just happened to be Olympic White - it then became a bit of a challenge for him and he decided to take it on. One of the first things he discovered, having stripped away the lacquer, was that the body was a little thinner than it should be for a '64 but that he could rebuild it up using a few more layers of paint than usual. This was no easy job as it required several coats of primer and nitro with full sanding down between each one. ules is something of a perfectionist and carried this out over a long period, making sure it was completely dry and ready between every coat.

 

He then fitted all the parts that came with it, pickguard & pickups not show in the pic above. After all this work, this is how it looks now, I couldn't be happier:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All pics taken on my phone so apologies for the quality. I've tried to show the true colour of the paint and this has darkened the board and guard a little. The guard is a lovely deep red tort and the board has some really nice dark grain running through it that almost looks like ebony (it will be brazilian rosewood).

 

Hopefully you can see that the nitro is already checking nicely and the neck has begun to do this as well (the neck was refinned back in 2011 so it's had a good 10 years to 'catch up' with the body finish). It should now continue to age gracefully

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reggaebass]

Superb, love it 😍 

[Beedster]

You can't beat a '64 👍

[ezbass]

Quality, one of my favourite P colour combos and the same as my old ‘63.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

That looks gorgeous Barrie. Congrats on getting it completed.

[molan]

40 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

That looks gorgeous Barrie. Congrats on getting it completed.

 

It took a good few years in the end - some of that was total inaction on my part though 😆

[bartelby]

That's rather lovely!
 

[wateroftyne]

Nice work!

[Shaggy]

Fab work Barrie 👍, and it’s going to be much more special to you than any bass acquired complete in the boringly normal way.......😉

[jonno1981]

Great result! Julian is one of the most trustworthy gents in the biz. This looks amazing.

[ped]

Looks great and you must feel relieved to have it all sorted. I’m amazed that nitro checks so quickly - I assumed it happened over a long period of time with temp changes etc.

[Lozz196]

That’s an amazing job

[miles'tone]

Worth the wait though! What a fabulous job. Congrats!

[LukeFRC]

Awesome! - I’m not jealous, really!

[tredders]

What a fabulous end result.  If it plays half as good as it looks, you’ve got a good one there. 

[Marc S]

Definitely worth the wait and the effort. Stunning result, and like @pedI'm surprised the paint has checked so soon.
Love that dark wood board, Oly White and red Tort place combo!  Definitely a keeper

[NancyJohnson]

Julien was my go-to guy for a while...fixed smallish issues on my first couple of Thunderbirds, a pickup swap on my Lull and a sizeable amount of investigation on a muddy NR Thunderbird about ten years ago.  Top bloke.  I remember when he was the tech guy at (whatever that guitar shop was) in Market Place, Reading.

[Grahambythesea]

Excellent result.👍🏼

[molan]

On 27/02/2023 at 22:55, ped said:

Looks great and you must feel relieved to have it all sorted. I’m amazed that nitro checks so quickly - I assumed it happened over a long period of time with temp changes etc.

I think the paint is probably 4-5 years old now but it’s been in a case and not played. 
 

We were planning to sand the neck back a little but decided to wait and it’s now checking as well. 
 

Neck must be 11 years, or more, since it was refinished. 

[DJ '65]

Wow, what a project and now such a beautiful beast…. Congrats not only on the bass but your patience! Well worth it.

[Geek99]

I er, might need a screen wipe 🫢