I guess I lied? Third time, not exactly a charm, but...

[vanstry]

So yeah, I'm sure some of you have seen my travails with the cursed P-bass. Last time, I tried a reshoot and somehow something messed up the paint and I wasn't happy. So I tried to smooth it with a foam brush and hosed it down. Then left it for a long while.

Eventually I took some 800 paper and sanded back the two offending areas, until the were more or less smooth, but without going through the paint. I then dug out the paint jar out of the trash, which had almost two thimbles worth of paint left in it. Put that in the gun and sprayed the two offending spots. Looked 'eh' but I left it.

Last weekend I clearcoated it. 13 coats. Some sanding between coats (600). Today I broke out the 1200 and spend a lot of time working on orange peel. Then 1500, then 2000. Then hit it with some mequires for clear coating. Probably need to hit it with that again, then take some sort of polish to it. The mequires does make it shine, but it is a pain to work with, dries really fast here.

So here it is (pics below). I didn't want to post about it until it was mostly done, because the damn thing has been cursed so far. It doesn't look bad, but I know where the bad spots are, so they stand out to me. I'll shine it up some more, and build it out and then decide if I'm gonna keep it, or find some kid at the local music school who can't afford a good bass and just give it to him.

 

[vanstry]

Once I shine it up some more I'll take some pictures in the sun so you can see the metal flake better.

 

[AirCap]

Looking better to me!

 

[Seamas]

Glad you got back to it. I hate to see people get discouraged and quit something. Always a great thing to overcome adversity, no matter the form it takes.

 

[rgand]

Good that you're going to put it together. I like that blue you chose. It should make a fine instrument. Looking forward to some progress pics.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I'm glad you have stayed the course on this. 
Despite the frustration you've endured along the way, this is how skills are developed, and how most of us have learned.

 

[vanstry]

Okay, finished with rubbing it out and polishing it. Tonight I'll mount the pickguard then mark it to cut out the notch to access the truss rod. I'll probably build it out sometime in the next couple of days.
Here are some pictures in the sun with a slightly better camera than a phone.

 

[mayfly]

wow!  That looks great.  It's going to look even better with a pickguard on it...

 

[AirCap]

Nice work! You're hired.

 

[Cagey]

Very sharp! You must be pleased!

 

[vanstry]

Thanks, all.

My problem is, that when I build things, I'm a bit OCD. So once I know where I made mistakes, I can't stop looking at them. Yeah, it looks good, but it could have looked oh so much better.

Hoping to move to a new place in a few months. Once there, I'm going to see about a better place to paint than just the garage and I think I might start going with a urethane clear coat that's a bit tougher than the water based ones. I'm starting to think that some of my problems are because I'm using a consumer grade water base clear and I need to move to something a bit more robust than that.

Course if I build enough of these, I'm gonna have to start finding people to give them too. I've already got six bass guitars and I haven't played with a band in ages.

 

[rgand]

Damn nice.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I think it looks fantastic! Finishing is black magic, plain and simple...

 

[BigSteve22]

I think it looks fantastic! Finishing is black magic, plain and simple...

I agree: Spiffy job, love the color, great result.

 

[vanstry]

Well, except for the strings, it's done. Finished it just a little while ago. Sadly I forget to get strings for it, and the store I like to go to is closed until Tuesday. So either Guitar -ugh- center, or maybe order a set online.

Here's a pic:

 

[vanstry]

Forgotten to mention, that's a KSM Foundation Bridge.

 

[rgand]

That looks great. Congrats on the assembly.

 

[Logrinn]

Looks killer. Now let's crank up some Iron Maiden* and RAWK :headbanging:







*Didn't Steve Harris use a blue P-bass?

 

[mayfly]

That is beautiful!  Congratulations.

 

[vanstry]

*Didn't Steve Harris use a blue P-bass?

It had chrome parts and a mirror pickguard though, instead of black.