Tribute to my brothers P-Bass.

[Wayne.Mumford]

This is a picture of me in 1977 with my brothers P-Bass, unfortunately it had a bad crack in the neck which I tried unsuccessfully to repair. Not long after it went to heaven. I was only 17 with no skills of anything ha ha. Anyway, I am going to have a crack at a replica to dazzle him.
If you haven’t noticed, it has a Tele headstock,strange. It also has the vintage “chicken head” knobs, which I purchased of eBay. I am pretty sure that the colour is Decota Red. I have never attempted a solid colour as all my kits are stained with poly, so wish me luck. I might need some help as that colour is a vintage nitro colour. First I would like to know what sort of sanding sealer I should get. I already have some, Feast Watson from Bunnings. A little worried that nitro and poly don’t play well together. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Just in case someone is going to pull me up about the “stained with poly” line, I meant stained and then finished in poly. I know there will be someone just itching to pull me up, ha ha.

[ozzbike]

This is a picture of me in 1977 with my brothers P-Bass, unfortunately it had a bad crack in the neck which I tried unsuccessfully to repair. Not long after it went to heaven. I was only 17 with no skills of anything ha ha. Anyway, I am going to have a crack at a replica to dazzle him.
If you haven’t noticed, it has a Tele headstock,strange. It also has the vintage “chicken head” knobs, which I purchased of eBay. I am pretty sure that the colour is Decota Red. I have never attempted a solid colour as all my kits are stained with poly, so wish me luck. I might need some help as that colour is a vintage nitro colour. First I would like to know what sort of sanding sealer I should get. I already have some, Feast Watson from Bunnings. A little worried that nitro and poly don’t play well together. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

The Feast Watson Sanding Sealer is really hard to use mate. It sets like a rock and on the two occasions I have used it no amount of sanding could get it down enough to allow stain to pass through.

I honestly recommend that you chose one method or the other here....mixing paint and poly is not going to work for you. May I be so bold to suggest you see if you can find the nitro colour and go the whole way with nitro if you are comfortable with the hassles of that spray route.

The red colour from Angelus Leather dye is very red....but not Dakota Red...and it sits very well under the red label marine grade Cabot's aerosol oil based polyurethane.

In the end you need to choose a direction you intend to take with this and then stay the path. Lots of sanding sealers out there....from shellac through the FW stuff to mohawk and behlen products.

This stuff is good but really not cheap.......

https://luthiersupplies.com.au/mohaw...sealer-aerosol

They have lots of other stuff too.....not cheap....

https://luthiersupplies.com.au/luthi...uitar-lacquers

[McCreed]

As has been pointed out, nitro and polyurethane are not compatible, any nitro base colour will require a nitro top coat is you want to clear coat.

You can achieve the same result with acrylic lacquer also. It doesn't have to be nitro unless you're really looking to be period correct. There are advantages and disadvantages to using nitro but I won't get into that debate now.

If you don't have spray equipment, there are places you can get acrylic lacquer mixed to a paint code and put into aerosol cans. I think SCA actually offer this now. It still isn't cheap going this route, but cheaper than dropping a grand on a full spray set up.
I personally would suggest going with acrylic.

BTW you can find paint codes for GM Dakota Red easily on the internet.

IMO if you're going with a solid colour, you won't sanding sealer. Unless you're using a really open grain timber that requires filling (that's another discussion) all you should need is primer. And you want to use white primer under a red base coat.

[Simon Barden]

Indeed, primer/filler and top coat. No need for clear over the top except on the neck.

[McCreed]

Indeed, primer/filler and top coat. No need for clear over the top except on the neck.

Good point about not needing a clear coat over the colour, but it's something lots of people do and a personal preference/choice.

The same applies to (some) non-metallic acrylic colours. I have done it with and without a clear top coat. I prefer a clear coat.

[Simon Barden]

If you have a painted headstock with decals on, then you'll certainly want clear over that. And if you do have clear over part of the paintwork, you'll probably want it over the rest of it as it can have a slight affect on the colour, and is likely to age differently as well. Nitro clear is certainly very slightly yellow, just a bit less so than Tru Oil, but poly any acrylic clears are clear enough.

[Wayne.Mumford]

O.k. I have decided to use Duramax primer/undercoat by Dulux, I have used it before on my axe bass. The only problem with that is that they don’t have a corresponding red colour I need. So I got some Duplicolor “Hermitage” which is pretty close. I have tried a small test swatch and it seems to be fine over that primer. Two coats of primer and it’s looking good. Pics to come, too dark out to get pics now.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Some Pictures of my progress, I am really liking this Duramax primer, goes on well and sands easy.

[McCreed]

Looks good. The colour match looks pretty dang close (from what I can tell from the original photo). It has a nice gloss to it's on it own too.