Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:20 am
The color will be a brownish burgundy sunburst. I saw this color on a Les Paul in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1978 or 79. I asked the owner about the color, and he said it was a special color called "Mink." It had a soft lavender center over the maple, then gradually getting darker out to the edges where the color can almost be described as a port wine stain (or, less delicately, prune juice).
I told Paul about this color through e-mail, and he made a test chip that hit it right on the head. Of course, over the Mink coat will be the conversion-varnish clear coats and lots of buffing. It should look terrific.
The bass was originally a MapleGlo that I bought used in 1975. It was missing a large chunk of clear coat off the back from buckle damage, and I figured I could refinish the bass myself. I know how to use an airbrush, so how hard could it be? My first mistake was using ZipStrip to take off the original finish, and that ate into the binding and inlays. I was able to arrest the process before it had gone to far, but it wasn't right. I airbrushed a cherry stain sunburst (which faded over the ensuing decades) and a polyurethane clearcoat. About four years ago, I pulled the old gal from under the guest bed and joined my company house band. Now that I have money, I could fix the thing, replaced the badly peeling tailpiece, got a new high-gain pickup for the bridge location, had a wiring check and setup done, then all that really needed to be done was to fix the finish. Ted Staberow helped a lot by sanding the old finish off, rebinding the neck, adding new frets, and to make the bass unique (for a '72), installed walnut headstock wings. The combination of the wings and the shadua strip down the middle harks the early 4005 headstock appearance. When it's finished, the only original stuff on it will be the toaster, pickguard, clear acrylic finger pull, TRC, Grover tuners, nut, knobs, and jackplate. Oh, and all that wood. Here's a "before" shot:
I told Paul about this color through e-mail, and he made a test chip that hit it right on the head. Of course, over the Mink coat will be the conversion-varnish clear coats and lots of buffing. It should look terrific.
The bass was originally a MapleGlo that I bought used in 1975. It was missing a large chunk of clear coat off the back from buckle damage, and I figured I could refinish the bass myself. I know how to use an airbrush, so how hard could it be? My first mistake was using ZipStrip to take off the original finish, and that ate into the binding and inlays. I was able to arrest the process before it had gone to far, but it wasn't right. I airbrushed a cherry stain sunburst (which faded over the ensuing decades) and a polyurethane clearcoat. About four years ago, I pulled the old gal from under the guest bed and joined my company house band. Now that I have money, I could fix the thing, replaced the badly peeling tailpiece, got a new high-gain pickup for the bridge location, had a wiring check and setup done, then all that really needed to be done was to fix the finish. Ted Staberow helped a lot by sanding the old finish off, rebinding the neck, adding new frets, and to make the bass unique (for a '72), installed walnut headstock wings. The combination of the wings and the shadua strip down the middle harks the early 4005 headstock appearance. When it's finished, the only original stuff on it will be the toaster, pickguard, clear acrylic finger pull, TRC, Grover tuners, nut, knobs, and jackplate. Oh, and all that wood. Here's a "before" shot:
