Fortunately, I paid a fraction of what it would be worth if it was original. Unfortunately, its been stripped and re-done with a rubbed oil finish. YUCK!!! Then, the tuners have been replaced and a wood block has been dropped into the body so that a Bad*ss bridge could be added. Fortunately, the original bridge and one of the original knobs were in the case and yes, I'll probably drop a new bridge on it... Perhaps a Hipshot so that I can play it out and so that the original can be dropped back on if I ever wanted to do that. But thankfully, the horseshoe is 100% original, the neck is thin and straight and the truss rods work perfectly. There isn't the usual rout under the pickguard for the second pickup, probably because the single pickup is further forward from the standard bridge position like the '62 in the photo in the link. But DAMN!!! It's sounds fricken' amazing. BTW, when the pickguard is off you can tell that it used to be a Fire-Glo!
Bottom line is that I'm going to try and bring it back as close to original as possible with the exception of a see-through finish.
Thankfully I found out that it is possible to refinish it. But, that because the oil has seeped into the wood that it'll probably only look good with a solid colour unless I wanted to take huge amounts off of the body by sanding - which I'm not prepared to do! First a couple of photos, then a request for your input... Here come the photos:
Here are the questions:
1) Anyone know what the available finishes were through that era?
2) If you had to refinish this in a solid colour, what would your favourite be? And please, don't be afraid to provide a link or photo so that we can all see.
3) Any suggestions on who might be good to do the revamping and refinishing? And who will follow some pretty EXACTING procedures, because of the oil in the wood to make sure that the new paint sticks?
Thanks and looking forward to your input!
Jeez, just realized... One year different and it would have been my "birthday bass"! Well "birth year"...
Dave
