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here's an update on a bass I was working on. my friend had insisted that i do a relic blonde finish on this bass (sorry danny) and I think it actually came out pretty great. it was my first try at a relic finish. I also had to deal with a skunk strip that was coming out a little. I fixed this by carefully shaving off the excess wood using a razor blade, then I restain the wood and added a small amount of tinted lacquer. after it dried "mucked" it up a little and you really couldn't tell.
another issue was the pick guard. the one on it was not original, and we couldn't find a real one so I made a replacement, which I also relic. lastly the highest 6 frets were popping out, and I tried everything to save them but I could not. so I had to replace these frets also. let me know what you guys think.







by the way, I think this is probably the sweetest instrument I've ever played.

Nice!

Here's the rest of the story. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3298

Whatever one's taste, a pretty convincing result Aaron, TOP MARKS!

I dig it. When and if I do an Esquier build I plan on trying to give it the relic look.

Looks really nice. Is the pickup different as well? Wasn't the bobbin grey before?

yes it was a different pickup. the bottom of the pickup read 1968, i don't recall the month and day. I have a feeling at some point the original pickup died, but back in the day no one made replacement pickups. and when the tele bass came out in 68, the owner got a new pickup then. at least this is what my guess is.
anyway, the owner wanted to keep that pickup and he replaced it with a seymour duncan quarter pounder. both pickups I thought had a kick butt tone. I like them better then my p bass with a fender 62 pickup in it.
well I'm off to work on more guitars, I got a headstock repair on an LP to do, buff out an acoustic from a refin i did, adjust a neck on an old harmony, and paint three other guitars tonight lol. and thats not including my furniture work. heh I'll be up all night.

Nice work! Must be rewarding when things work out. (although I think its a shame to refin an instrument like that, but hey customer is king and it still looks right!)

Great looking bass. The only thing that comes to my mind is
that the metal/chrome parts are a little bit too shiny for the rest of the bass...

the point of doing this finish was to try to return it as close to the original as possible, or at the very least vintage correct. It's not perfect, but it's my first relic job, and I keep trying to show it to people to see what they honestly think. I appreciate everyone's kind words. Sometimes it's difficult to really get things just right when all you have to go by to copy of it in a vintage guitar book or pics from a similar instrument on line.

the funny thing about the knobs, is I thought they looked too new as well, so I actually aged them a decent amount. there was even a lot of pitting on the chrome. it's funny how that doesn't show on the pics that much.