Refinishing my Ibanez blazer bass
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3rd December 2009
With all the dye now completely dry I decided to start on the black painting. Firstly I would be doing the 'fade' into the blue maple top.
The neck pocket was taped over so that I didn't end up with a skin inside it when I get to fitting the guitar back together.
The neck needs to sit where it was previously otherwise it may not be aligned properly.
Just before I started doing the 'fade' I taped the old scratchplate into place, covered the rest of the exposed parts of the guitar and sprayed the pickup and trussrod adjustment cavities black. This scratchplate will go in the bin once the guitar is finished because it was broken anyway. Lastly I put some tape on the rear of the control holes and I was ready to go.
The silhouette was positioned carefully, screws raised or lowered until everything was equal and then using some very cheap (£1 a can from Poundland) black gloss car paint I sprayed in from above but about 6 inches outside the guitar outline. I didn't do this part too heavily. Just squirting rather than a full on wash. I kept going and inspecting until the whole way round looked equal.
Once I was happy I put a curtain screw (The type you use with net curtains) into the horn strap nut and hung it from an S hook I had slotted into the grill of my cooker fan. I then turned the fan on and had instant ventilation sucking the smell away.
4th December 2009
Once the paint had a day to dry I turned the guitar over and sprayed the black paint on the rear. 3 coats was enough and I still had half a can left. That mean it cost me about 50p for the black paint.
The finish is pretty good and only a few grains still showing. Any little dings will be drop filled with laquer once I have sprayed a few coats on.
6th December 2009
With the black complete I moved onto clearcoating. I am going to use 4 x 500ml cans of Wilkinson £3.29 acrylic clear gloss which should mean 30-40 thin coats. Each night for the next week or 2 I will be spraying 6 coats. This will be done alternately, one night six coats on the face, next night 6 coats on the rear. Each coat will be sprayed approx 30 minutes apart.
Each coat on the face and rear will also overlap on the sides so when all the cans are run out I will be able to hang it up for a week or 2 to set properly. I may be able to get on with the polishing process before new year.
At the same time I am laquering the rear access cover, the screwplate, the headstock and the jack socket. There will only be laquer on the headstock and not the neck or fingerboard. These will be 'tru oiled'.
Just before I started laquering I decided to maintain the history of the guitar by detailing the 'Ibanez Blazer' and serial No on the rear of the headstock. Again using push transfers but small black ones this time.
The third picture below is an exact match (on my monitor) to how the colour looks in daylight. the guitar is hanging from the cooker hood here.
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