The refinish of the Crazy Vibe Strat is progressing nicely, although I am finding this a little less straight-forward than the Jazz Bass. I think that’s because of two things: One is scientific and the other psychological.
The scientific reason is that the body is more porous than the Jazz Bass as the Strat was originally stripped to bare wood. I thought the oil finish I applied 2 years would have pretty much sealed the wood, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. When I was sanding it just to rough it up ready for the base coat I found the old finish coming away very easily, so I decided I should sand it off in case it proved to be too unstable to support the paint I was going to spray over it. The result is that the base coat took a bit more work and any small scratches and dents are more visible than on the Jazz Bass, which pretty much already had a plastic coating before I started.
The psychological reason is that I am more frightened of messing this one up. I had nothing to lose with the Jazz Bass. I only play it at home for recordings and it looked really ugly before anyway. The Strat is a bit precious to me, which is another reason this refinish job is a bit of a crazy idea. I guess I just like to live life on the edge!
However I am still confident it’ll look great as long as I keep reminding myself to be patient. What’s nice about applying a generous amount of white base coat is that it only takes barely 2 coats to finish the main colour. That way there’s less risk of running the paint as less spraying by me means less opportunity to create paint runs! The colour also doesn’t get overdone avoiding any possibly of the finish being too sickly or intense.
I had a setback with the headstock because mid spraying I dropped the thing and scratched & chipped it all up. Oh well, back to square one for the headstock. It’s ok, it’s fixable… Remember patience is the key!
So very soon I am starting the clear coat on the body and then it can cure next to the Jazz Bass until the end of June.
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