Surf Green Frankenmachine (my nitro refinished parts p bass)

[DylanGCM]

What a blast this has been!
What started out as a $50 stripped Fender MIM p bass body find on FBMP became a 2-months long, 22-layer nitro sprayed dream bass for me.

Having only played for a couple years, I've loved modding my Squier CV 60's J bass, and kept thinking about what it'd be like to build a parts p bass as the other half of that classic pair.

I'm especially proud of having pulled this off in the margins of stay-at-home parenting my two toddlers and navigating an across-town move! Got pretty quick at warming a can of lacquer, popping on my PPE, and spraying a coat in my diy garage spray booth. Sweaty business, those Tyvek suits in the summer though

Pix first, parts and process (and more pix) to come:

*Dramatic GIF to introduce*

 

[DylanGCM]

Some more pix (and commentary)!

Super happy at how the waterslide logo turned out here. Buried it in a good many (14) thin layers of clear (yes, that's ridiculous).

Glam shot here, comically dramatic, gotta love it. I'm super proud of how crisp I got the edges of the refinished front. The sides and back are poly and the transition turned out seamlessly. Wish I could recall who to give credit to, but sanding the edge of the tape off (rather than pulling it or trying to use a razor blade to score it) couldn't have turned out better. I'm also amazed that 22 layers of nitro (4 primer, 4 color, 14 clear) is this thin. You can't see from this picture, but it doesn't look thick at all from the side where it abuts the poly.

Gotta know your roots! My first bass is a Squier and I LOVE it. The neck of this parts bass from is a 60's CV precision. Bought it from a fellow TB'er. The MIM body makes me feel justified in putting Fender on the headstock (I know that's debatable, totally respect your opinions there), but I feel equally happy about having this neck plate holding it all together

More pix and comments to come, thanks for checking it out!
Time to put on some ravioli for dinner while the kids finish up their last Bluey episode

 

[StevieMac]

Looks great, nice job.

 

[el jeffe bass]

Fantastic looking bass. Play it with pride

 

[DylanGCM]

Thanks, you both!!

It’s fun to get to share the project with y’all in this community. I’m certainly proud of it. And it means a lot to have my work appreciated by folks who know and care about the instrument.

And, really, I think it’s TB that even made me aware of people building and modding basses in the first place! A dangerous rabbit hole for sure, hah, but also encouraging and creativity inspiring

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Woowee!
She's a beauty!
The matching headstock is a stunner.
Great job.

 

[Killing Floor]

That looks great.

 

[DylanGCM]

Woowee!
She's a beauty!
The matching headstock is a stunner.
Great job.

Thanks! I was pretty excited to do a matching headstock.

Not much extra work to add it to spraying the body and I just thought it’d really make it look like an intentional, cohesive whole. Learning how to do a water slide logo was fun too. Also, it felt kinda special given how Fender doesn’t tend to offer matching headstocks on the majority of “trims” they sell.

 

[DylanGCM]

Alrighty, here are more pix with my running commentary!

Originally, I was really planning on making this a medium-heavy relic finish. I imagined a parchment or mint pickguard and thought that the relicing would give not only some character but an artistic contrast (primer and wood showing through here and there) to the solid color of the pickguard.

But then...I stumbled on Decoboom pickguards (check 'em out).
Clear, glossy acrylic front.
Engraved, hand-painted from the back.

This one with copper flecking just looked so cool, and I always love the somewhat southwestern palette of turquoise, orange, and cream together. So, I jumped on their limited remaining stock and got what might've been the last one in the batch.

It is awesome!! The back-painted design with the metallic copper flecks and clear acrylic over just pops. And, between my encouraging success with the finishing process (hard to take an awl and sandpaper to a mirror finish you spent hours upon hours on, turns out), and the style of this pickguard, I pivoted to go with a crisp, factory-fresh look. So glad I did!

 

[DylanGCM]

Oh, found a slightly better pic to show how thin 22 coats of nitro can be and how that edge turned out between the front and sides of the headstock.

(also, I just love how this turned out and can't help posting another pic...or two of the headstock)

And here's a close-up of that waterslide decal just for kicks:

 

[dougjwray]

That looks amazing!

 

[DylanGCM]

Last but not least, the guts...

Throughout whole parts-build project, I tried to ride that age-old like between budget and quality.
My goal was to spend somewhere around $600 for everything involved (from parts to paint to various finishing supplies).

I managed to get great deals on the body and loaded neck, which got me on the right track.
The bridge, and eventual strap buttons are leftover from mods to my jazz bass, so another win there.

On the intentionally expensive side though was paint and pickups
Paint was unavoidably expensive since I was committed to nitro and needed to use aerosol cans.

Pickups, to me, are one of the biggest determiners of tone (after the player themselves and possibly strings), and I think of them as kind of the heart of an electric bass. So I didn't want to skimp. But...I also hoped to find some sort of used option here on TB.

I've had a totally subjective, brand-consciousness-driven crush on Aguilar.
When I saw the AG 4P-60's come up used on here, I looked up a myriad of reviews and got even more excited.

Last night, when I finally plugged the bass in and played it...wow.
Instant classic tone, punchy, just a bit honky, responded beautifully to some overdrive on my Rumble 500.

To be honest, after noodling around for a few minutes I reflected to myself that I think I slightly prefer my J bass tone (just feels more round, full, smooth). The P had a bit more "honk" to it. Quintessential P bass tone, just new to me to be playing and hearing myself playing one.

BUT, then I put on Pomplamoose's Daft Pomp (Nick Campbell...c'mon, so tasteful) and played along.
MAGIC

THIS is what people talk about with P basses sitting perfectly in the mix.
I instantly realized that I'd never quite felt like I could get my J bass to mesh with the feel/tone on that album (i'd roll back tone or roll back my bridge to try, but couldn't quite get there). But this fit like a glove. Wow, just clicked.

Playing more today, I'm really enjoying the punch depth on the lower register notes and the clean articulation throughout the mid and upper fret notes. Almost feels more sustain-y than my J bass, but I don't want to overestimate my ears here.

Other guts: CTS 250k pots, copper shielding whole pickguard and cavities, .22 cap (I don't roll back too often and just wanted to try something lighter to have more usable range), pure tone output jack (cuz I like how much grip and contact it has with the plug).

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
Just fun to not need to hold back on the geeky details with y'all

 

[JRA]

i'm envious of your finishes, wow! the ax just kills, what a great look! it's a beauty --- congratulations on a superb job!

 

[Ricky Rioli]

That flecked pg is distracting me from the pleasure of the rest tbh. And I'm very keen on enjoying the rest!

 

[DylanGCM]

Y’all are too kind! It was fun to wake up to all your likes and comments this morning. Thanks for celebrating with me

 

[DylanGCM]

i'm envious of your finishes, wow! the ax just kills, what a great look! it's a beauty --- congratulations on a superb job!

Thanks a bunch! I’ve never done any finishing before and it was an incredible amount of work. I can’t believe it turned out as well as it did. Big thanks to the instructions on the Stewmac aerosol nitro can finishing 3 part article. That was my North Star.

 

[DylanGCM]

That flecked pg is distracting me from the pleasure of the rest tbh. And I'm very keen on enjoying the rest!

Hah! It is rather attention grabbing. Admittedly there is something I do still like about a plain parchment pickguard. I like this one a ton, but also like knowing it’s a super cheap and easy move to switch it out sometime (or back

Thanks for your sincere efforts to enjoy the rest

 

[CoughSyrup]

Glam shot here, comically dramatic, gotta love it. I'm super proud of how crisp I got the edges of the refinished front. The sides and back are poly and the transition turned out seamlessly. Wish I could recall who to give credit to, but sanding the edge of the tape off (rather than pulling it or trying to use a razor blade to score it) couldn't have turned out better. I'm also amazed that 22 layers of nitro (4 primer, 4 color, 14 clear) is this thin. You can't see from this picture, but it doesn't look thick at all from the side where it abuts the poly.

Can you elaborate on what you mean about sanding the tape off? How do you do that without damaging the finish?

 

[Engle]

Looks great! What did your booth consist of?

 

[Dark Horse]

Well done, it turned out great !