Bass update

I was unsure how to strip the paint from the bass body. Some guitar lacquer can be really difficult to remove. After spraying some paint remover and waiting, I soon discovered that this would be impossible. The remover did nothing (I got impatient and I didn't wait long enough). So I attacked the paint with some heavy grit sand paper to remove the thick clear coat, the black paint, and what looked like a think layer of gray primer. I wanted to get down to the grain to see what it looked like. The layers of paint were almost 1/8 of an inch thick in places!

After 10 minutes I finally got through to the wood. I was pleasantly surprised by the strong grain of what looks like a single slab of ash or alder or whatever cheap basses are made of. After about 45 minutes I stopped. I hate sanding and the dust was driving me crazy. The grain of the wood looks great so I'm going to try a transparent wood stain when everything is stripped and sanded. A dark grey stain will really make the grain pop out...

I'm going to saw off some wieght from the upper and lower horns and make it more contoured and rounded... I also need to fill in some holes made by the pickguard screws... Which means more sanding. Ugh. When I finally remove the thick paint I'll go over the body with finer grades of sand paper. There's a lot left to do...