ShortScale.org

I got this lovely late 70's Mustang Bass in a trade with Pacafeliz a while back. Long ago it used to be sunburst, but was stripped at some point. It has a nice ash body. This will be my next finishing project. I'm not quite sure which colour to use, so I'm open to suggestions.

I would love to do a competition orange paint job, but I wanted to do this for my jazzmaster project and I had no luck finding a suitable orange colour that looked the part. If anybody has a paint brand suggestion for a good competion orange (has to be available for Canuckistan) then please let me know!

Otherwise, I'm seriously leaning towards Daphne Blue or Surf Green. Besides being some of my favourite Fender colours, both are available from Krylon (well, very close matches, anyway). This would mean that I'd have to get a pearl pickguard, because I don't think these would look good with the stock black.

Another option would be to do a red transparent finish, like what was seen on some of the Fenders of this era. However, I just don't know how feasible this would be, considering that I am living in a condo and my painting booth is actually my balcony. That means I'm limited to paint that come in rattle cans, and I can't use proper spraying equipment. Keeping my painting surface clean isn't that easy either, my balcony faces a busy street so there was always dust blowing onto my Jazzmaster body which really slowed me down as sanding the dirt off was an uphill battle. I wouldn't want to do a transparent finish if its going to have speck of dust and dirt in it. What other finishes would look good with the stock black pickguard?

maybe it's not your thing, but shell pink, always looks good on a shortscale...imho.

astro wrote:What other finishes would look good with the stock black pickguard?

I know light blues looks nice with black PGs. And so does dakota red.

toez10 wrote:maybe it's not your thing, but shell pink, always looks good on a shortscale...imho.

Pink is nice, but I somehow don't see it working on a Mustang bass. I have been craving one of the Squier Bullet strats in pink, though.

Noirie. wrote:

astro wrote:What other finishes would look good with the stock black pickguard?

I know light blues looks nice with black PGs. And so does dakota red.

► Show Spoiler

Kinda like sonic blue, right?

► Show Spoiler

Dakota red 'relic'd' tele

The Dakota Red looks really nice with the black! That's a definite possibility.

The light blue one looks nice, but only because it's almost white. White guitars with black pickguards are gorgeous in my opinion, but I already have two in that colour scheme (including my RI Mustang bass). If I do a pastel colour I think I'll get a vintage pearl guard made.

That light blue looks really nice with black - a color combination I would've never really considered.

I think blue and black works:



You could stain the wood darker, something like this:

That grain on the back is wild, I'd definitely go for a natural or a wood stain with that black pg. love how those look on musicmasters, I'm sure it'll look equally awesome on a mustang.

DanHeron wrote:

errgh DO NOT WANT

i say natural finish as well. the wood grain looks cool. or dark blue with a daphne comp stripe.

Forget Dakota red, go straight up CAR + blackguard = win.

Make it a blue burst.

PANK WITH PEARL

hotrodperlmutter wrote:PANK WITH PEARL

+1

Cover entire front in Green Pearloid! Do edge binding in purple tinsel!

Black Cat Bone wrote:Cover entire front in Green Pearloid! Do edge binding in purple tinsel!

LAWLZ!

hotrodperlmutter wrote:PANK WITH PEARL

I'm definitely leaning towards a pastel colour with a vintage pearl guard.

that's it. do it.

plopswagon wrote:

that's it. do it.

Actually this would be my very first choice... I first wanted to do this on my recently finished Jazzmaster project. I looked everywhere and I just could not find a suitable orange for the comp orange paint scheme. I just don't know where to get the proper yellowish orange, everything I've found is more of a pumpkin colour. Not good. Would you know who makes a proper one?

I found a 1973 Chevrolet colour called "light Orange", paint code 61(1973) that appears to be a close match to Competition Orange. I haven't had any luck finding anyone online who ships this colour in aerosol cans to Canada. I did find one website that does, but their web store doesn't seem to work and won't let me complete the order. Despite rigorous Googling, I can't find anybody in Canada who sells colour matched aerosol cans over the web. I really want to do Competition Orange, but only if I can get it to look right.

astro wrote:I found a 1973 Chevrolet colour called "light Orange", paint code 61(1973) that appears to be a close match to Competition Orange. I haven't had any luck finding anyone online who ships this colour in aerosol cans to Canada. I did find one website that does, but their web store doesn't seem to work and won't let me complete the order. Despite rigorous Googling, I can't find anybody in Canada who sells colour matched aerosol cans over the web. I really want to do Competition Orange, but only if I can get it to look right.

Why not try a local paint shop?
For a long time I restored Vespa and Lambretta scooters from top to bottom. Some bikes were too far gone and needed full body restorations including paint jobs. I would pop into my local mom and pop paint shop that supplied home and auto paint and flip through HUGE books of automotive color swatches. This place was totally rad and had paint chips going back to the 50's. Before I bought a HVLC sprayer I would get the paint mixed up into spray cans. They did it in house, came in Lacquer and took about a week.
I'm just saying that if you've got the color code it might be worth walking into a couple places around your home town and see what's available. Mixing paint into cans is a pretty common thing for any decent paint shop.

rodvonbon wrote:

astro wrote:I found a 1973 Chevrolet colour called "light Orange", paint code 61(1973) that appears to be a close match to Competition Orange. I haven't had any luck finding anyone online who ships this colour in aerosol cans to Canada. I did find one website that does, but their web store doesn't seem to work and won't let me complete the order. Despite rigorous Googling, I can't find anybody in Canada who sells colour matched aerosol cans over the web. I really want to do Competition Orange, but only if I can get it to look right.

Why not try a local paint shop?
For a long time I restored Vespa and Lambretta scooters from top to bottom. Some bikes were too far gone and needed full body restorations including paint jobs. I would pop into my local mom and pop paint shop that supplied home and auto paint and flip through HUGE books of automotive color swatches. This place was totally rad and had paint chips going back to the 50's. Before I bought a HVLC sprayer I would get the paint mixed up into spray cans. They did it in house, came in Lacquer and took about a week.
I'm just saying that if you've got the color code it might be worth walking into a couple places around your home town and see what's available. Mixing paint into cans is a pretty common thing for any decent paint shop.

Cool! Thanks for the info!

I didn't know that color matched aerosols are a common thing. I've never fixed a car, in fact I've never even had a driver's license. I know nothing of cars at all, actually. All I know about car paints is what I've learned from the world of electric guitar. I had assumed that getting custom made aerosols was some kind of fancy thing that only a few people did... hence my assumption that I had to look online. I'll have a look in the yellow pages... I'm actually quite stoked now because now I can avoid shipping/customs/etc hassles!