Beat-up finish

[atilla]

First, everybody, thanks for ID'ing my Model 4.

Today's question is about my beat-up sparkly red finish. It's missing a chunk or two and has a scratch here and there. I've been thinking about stripping, sanding, staining and clearcoating it. I imagine I'd need to remove the neck, hardware and electronics...a job I'd rather leave to the local tech (same for reassembling the bits). I can handle the woodwork pretty easily.

I don't think I'd really be destroying any of its value, but correct me if I'm wrong. Also, what should I expect to pay for having it taken down and re-assembled?

[Grandturk]

Re: Beat-up finish

I completely disassembled my Model 4 two nights ago, and put it all back together last night. Each session took about an hour. A tech would probably charge between $25 and $50 each time.

If you're handy at all with a soldering iron, its actually not that hard to take the electronics out. For the active circuit, you only need to unsolder the pickups at the selector switches and the grounds on the tone pot. This frees up the pickups from the pots and switches. The other hardware is just unscrewed from the body. No problem.

As far as value, you're not talking about a '62 Strat. I picked up my Model 4 for $150 a week ago. I got it for a song because some loser spray painted the body metallic blue/green over the original finish. A couple of hours last night with rubbing compound and polishing compound and its back to original.

[Rollin' Thunder]

Re: Beat-up finish

Originally posted by Grandturk:
A couple of hours last night with rubbing compound and polishing compound and its back to original.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">For some reason that just sounds like a very monotonous evening.

[Grandturk]

Re: Beat-up finish

Originally posted by Rollin' Thunder:
For some reason that just sounds like a very monotonous evening.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes... yes it was...

But the results were well worth it!

[atilla]

Re: Beat-up finish

Originally posted by Rollin' Thunder:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Grandturk:
A couple of hours last night with rubbing compound and polishing compound and its back to original.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">For some reason that just sounds like a very monotonous evening. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's probably even easier in my case: The active circuitry is gone since I replaced the bridge PU with a Duncan Distortion. Thanks for the info!