Here’s the 1975 Musicmaster I bought from DaveB back in February of this year. The hardware store red enamel paintjob looked good from about 15’ away. Not DaveB’s work by the way, it had been spray painted before he got it.
The face of the headstock had been sanded off and a Fender decal was added but whoever did it didn’t mask off the neck so there were runs down the sided and a couple of places that had run on the face of the headstock as well. It was definitely a candidate for a proper refinish.
All of the hardware and screws had a nicely aged look so I didn’t want a bright, shiny, new finish. After removing the pickguard I found that the original finish was Daphne so I decided to try and put it back to original. I sanded a small spot under the pickguard and was surprised to see the original finish was still there.
At that point I thought I would just take my time and sand off the red enamel. Unfortunately the original blue paint was only under the pickguard area. The rest of the body had been sanded down to the sealer. A complete refinish was now back on the agenda.
I liked the look that rodvonbon and Dice were getting using Reranch tinted neck amber over their paint so I decided to go that route. I had bid on and lost this body off ebay.
It looked like what I was after so I decided to try and replicate it to a milder extent. Once I had the body stripped and sealed, I shot it with blue.
After a few days of drying I screwed the bridge, control plate, neck plate and pickguard back on. Then I masked them off and shot the body with a couple of mist coats of tinted neck amber.
Once I was happy with the color I removed the hardware and started the clear coats. Then I let it set for a few months while I was obsessing over a mandocaster build. I used fine steel wool to smooth everything out and skipped the polishing stage because I wanted the dull look of an aged finish.
I refinished the neck with trans tint dye and tru-oil and applied a new decal and a bone nut. I had never used tru-oil before so I had a Squier mini strat neck that I refinished as a practice run. It came out better than any of the other necks I’ve ever finished using tinted neck amber and clear lacquer. And it feels smooth as silk.
I’m extremely happy with how it all turned out and it sounds great on top of all that.
very very very nice
