1964 Fender Jazz bass guitar body restoration

Stripping the body

The body had suffered many renishes so it was decided to chemically strip the body back to bare wood and refinish in thin skin nitro cellulose Olympic white, aged to look as it would genuinely look now (40+ years on.)  It was a pleasant surprise to discover that there were no extra routings or holes and that all the parts were original and working.

Sanding and painting

After fine sanding, a thin coat of white nitrocellulose primer was applied, followed by Olympic white. The next coat was more Olympic white with a little stain added to darken it slightly. This was applied to the areas which would not be covered by the scratchplate, bridge etc to simulate natural ageing.

Next... a light tinted lacquer was applied to darken certain parts outside the normal wear areas.

Applying the aged finish

After thorough drying, the ultra thin paintwork was hand aged to give a medium relic look.

The bass was reassembled and set up and looks stunning, ......It's a mean sounding beast too.