BroKen_H
Re-member
I had a similar situation with my first P. We stripped the old paint off, and sprayed on new (actually my dad did it at the body shop and I just watched). But the whole process took only two days with heat/putty knife, then orbital sander and lots of hand sanding (I got to do a lot of that part) on the first day and then sealant, undercoat, color, and then a generous allotment of clear coats (I think 6) on the second. Two days after the work, we started assembly (dry time from 10 coats of enamel). Got it together and the sound was simply not great. But we tweaked the electronics (DiMarzio pickups and a slightly bigger cap on the tone control) it sounded brighter, but still had sustain issues. We machined down an International combine shear pin to make a brass nut, and everything came together. Lots of tweaking with height adjustments and etc. etc. etc. and we had a beautiful bass that I played for 15 years.
Probably the differences in sound and sustain were just from drowning the bass in enamel, but it WAS there, physics or not. But maybe it was because I was 14, or because I was getting my dad to help me and wanted the project to last longer, or maybe I just wanted my dad to dole out more cast for the better pickups and the brass nut...that's a matter for a shrink, I guess.
Probably the differences in sound and sustain were just from drowning the bass in enamel, but it WAS there, physics or not. But maybe it was because I was 14, or because I was getting my dad to help me and wanted the project to last longer, or maybe I just wanted my dad to dole out more cast for the better pickups and the brass nut...that's a matter for a shrink, I guess.