More stripping...

After scraping all the loose finish off the body and then wiping it clean with mineral spirits, the previous modifications are visible.


Apparently, whether it was factory on the bass or not, it at one time had string through body ferrules in it. They have since been (poorly) filled and then covered up by the finish. They are clearly visible now from the back side.








At least half of the pickguard screws were also filled and covered, making me wonder what kind of guard they were using. Another point of interest is the fact that the bridge ground hole was filled in at some point in the process. It would have been impossible for it to work well without the bridge ground. Maybe this project was never actually finished and used or they would have found out that issue as soon as they plugged it in. Anyhow, it’s been located and re-opened and it goes all the way into the control cavity, so it will be easy for me to put a ground back in there. I don’t believe I am going to use string through
body on this project, so I will finish filling the holes and level them out so they won’t be visible through the finish like they were before. I also plan to fill all of the bridge screw holes since I have no idea what type of bridge was being used. The holes that exist are not the Fender standard pattern so I will have to drill new holes to use a standard style bridge.


















The construction of this body is also not typical hard wood like alder or ash. It’s a multi ply which is seen on either really low end or really high end basses. This one is obviously the low end, but I have heard some great sounding plywood basses before. Seeing as I am doing this for the experience rather than the final product, this makes little difference to me as I’m sure it will sound fine even if it isn’t a super great tone wood body. .










After finishing the stripping process and getting the body relatively smoothed out, I applied a sand and sealer coat to it. This goes on slightly tacky and glossy and is sanded to a smooth satin look and feel. This can be used to fill in slightly uneven areas of the body and to seal it from absorbing moisture. In humid Florida, this is definitely necessary to do since I won’t be applying a primer or finish coat for a while. This is how the body looks after the coat is applied.




















































Here's the body sanded and sealed:






























The next step is going to be getting some wood filler and filling in all the screw holes, both those that have been partially filled and all the others. I’m going to start fresh with new holes for everything since I’m not sure what pickguard I’ll be using yet and I don’t want many sets of holes to exist, whether they are hidden or not. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with this sand and sealer getting the edges of the body smoothed and rounded, much better detail than was done in the original manufacture of this bass body. It’s a nice inexpensive piece of lumber and it makes little difference how much I mess it up at this point, so I might as well use it to improve my woodworking skills as they are a decent thing to have. The body now has a nice satin look and a silky smooth feel to it. I’m taking a break on this for now until I get some filler to work on getting the holes filled and leveled out.

I picked up some wood filler from Home Depot to fill the bridge and pickguard screw holes with. I vaguely remember using this type of thing before, but it’s been a while so I need to get used to applying it. It fills nicely and is a good color that blends well with the body color. This is how it looks before being sanded smooth. Once the excess is sanded off, all you see is the little dot where the hole was and it smoothes out very well. Now that the screw hole filling is complete, I need to figure out all of the potential routing I might have to do in the body. I’m still missing a neck for this bass, so I don’t want to drill the bridge holes yet until I make sure the scale length is going to be correct. The control cavity might need to be enlarged if I want to use CTS sized pots in it. I might just go with the budget type as they are going to be included with the pickups I am buying for this project, so if they work correctly I might not spend the money on new ones for now. However, I don’t want to have to route the body after it’s been painted, so I might do this cavity enlargement just in case, as it’s best to do it when there’s no finish to damage. I need to wait for the pickguard to arrive before I can accurately tell exactly where it needs to be routed out though.

The pickguard is another issue I ran into. I have a white SX P-style pickguard from a different project on hand. Upon doing a test fit, it doesn’t appear that this one will work for this bass. The neck pocket does not cover enough, and it doesn’t look like it goes up far enough on the body, either. A Fender pickguard might be a better fit, so I purchased a cheap one that should be arriving soon. I will then use that one to figure out which holes I need to drill to mount it. It is going to be white in color, but I will likely paint it something else depending on what color(s) I end up using for the body. Plastic paints work well for these. This is what the SX guard looks like and why it won’t work for this bass. The neck pocket itself measures to be Fender spec, but upon test fitting necks it seems to be just slightly on the slim side. I will probably widen it just a bit so that a neck will fit snugly. I still need to find a neck to use for this bass. The SX P style neck I have doesn’t fit this body, so I will have to find another option. I’ve been attempting to locate an SX J neck, as they are a little narrower at the heel, but have so far not been able to.