Project "Mini Wunkay" - refinishing a shorty

[AlexBassDE]

Ok guys,

I wanted to have a "Mini Wunkay" - as the "real thing" is financially out of reach atm and I have switched to shortscale because of health issues.

So I thought the Harley Benton PB Shorty might be a good basis.

This is what I wanted to have in the end (the Fender HiMass bridge is missing on the pics):





If I only had known before what I was up to.

I will continously update that thread here - but I would ever do a refinish again, it would not be with a cheap bass with a poly coating that is made to resist a bombshell impact.

It is absolutely essential to have a heat gun AND a proper face mask that will prevent you from inhaling the stuff from the paint. Trust me - don´t do it as so many YT video show it.

And also think twice before rattle cans - you will be surprised how bad well known brand paints are. And how they create more work than necessary.

Anyway, as a starter, here is a pic from trying to sand of the paint from the PB Shorty with an orbital sander and 40 (!) grit paper after 1 minute:



IMHO absolutely indestructible that paint - so heat gun to the rescue:



Horrible experience as the paint is super thick and takes a long time with heat gun set to max (and burning the body in the process - for me it was impossible not to have at least slighty brown marks):



To be continued ...

[TDR1138]

Awesome. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

[AlexBassDE]

Next step was to open the cavities for the G&L MFD humbucker and to make space for the L-1000 electronics and matching control plate:




I used a straw to make some kind of "tunnel" for the pickup wires as I wanted to fill the gaps with epoxy. Well, let me phrase it like that: in theory it was a good idea.

I glued the wood part in, filled up the wholes and scratches and everything. Then I used a drill to cut away the largest areas of unecessary wood:



I started with a cheap hand router but couldn´t see what I wanted to cut away. So I tried anyway and went with the router into wood areas that should remain. Guess what, I used a chisel and hammer to finally carve out the pickup and electronics cavity. Lots of work. And hat to fill up the unwanted holes as well (you can see them as white pots in the humbucker cavity on the right side).

And after glueing everything and filling all holes with epoxy that damn stuff ran into every tiny hole and made it´s way outside of where it should stay. So I won´t use epoxy for such things anymore - but the damage was done.

I spare you with the details but this was then the result of cutting, filling, sanding away and before applying two coats of "wipe on poly" as a pre sealer/pore filler before spraying:

[Ken Baker]

I spare you with the details but this was then the result of cutting, filling, sanding away and before applying two coats of "wipe on poly" as a pre sealer/pore filler before spraying:

Looks like the project is coming along nicely. Nice work.

Ken...

[AlexBassDE]

Ok, here´s the next chapter:

I forgot to make photos of the bass after I sprayed the primer (unfortunately in dark grey - was a mistake as you can see later).

Then I thought of having an orange base coat would be a good idea - was too cheap to buy proper stuff and went with some house brand from my local DIY market (again big mistake).

This is what it looked like after three coats of orange base coat:



See those stripes? That´s because the nozzle of that spray can is quite directive AND the paint in the can just sucks. Plain and simple. Lessons learned: don´t cheap out on the paint.

After six coats it started to look okayish but still far from perfect.



Then I sanded that base coat with 400 grit and applied the final laquer - should´ve been a bright orange metallic color - BMW WB44 is the color code.

This is what came out of the first three coats:



I was very surprised of the dark color - I guess this is because I used a dark grey primer. In the future I will only use white primer. And I most probably would skip the base coat.

And you can see tiny little holes in the paint e.g. in the top left corner. There are plenty of other places where I messed up. Lesson learned: if you don´t prepare properly in the beginning (which means applying Wipe-on-Poly as a grain sealer) it will hurt you big time in the later stages.

Here it is the final picture with 6 layers (1 full can) of clear coat and I think I will use another full can and then sanding down to a glossy finish. If there are any more holes then so be it. This is my first try at refinishing a bass and so far I like the result - the next one is already in the works (I want to let the paints on this bass cure for a few weeks) and on this one I will be spending much more time on the prep stage:

[TDR1138]

Looking good!

Painting and finishing can be such a frustrating process. It's hard to not see all the imperfections that most people won't ever notice. And you're right, you've got to get everything right from the base coat on up. So I applaud your efforts.

And I think the color looks great.

[AlexBassDE]

Looking good!

Painting and finishing can be such a frustrating process. It's hard to not see all the imperfections that most people won't ever notice. And you're right, you've got to get everything right from the base coat on up. So I applaud your efforts.

And I think the color looks great.

Thanks - of course I could always sell the dings and dongs as "Light relic"

[AlexBassDE]

Quick update:

I am currently final sanding it and polishing is due very soon.

I finished the electronics and was surprised that the values for the caps were way off - all the TAD Mustard Cap 2.2nF I have in my arsenal are consistently 2.72 - 2.78nF. The TAD Mustard Cap 1nF caps were consistently 1.5nF.

[AlexBassDE]

Ok, I somehow lost my patience and wanted to finish that bass.

So I skimped a bit on sanding and polishing which can be seen here under this quite unforgiving light:



Yet I am quite happy about the final result and it sounds quite nice - all three modes actually (whereas OMG on my L2K is usually too much for my liking):

In this picture the bass looks way too red - the color in the first pic is much closer to reality:



Now this is what resembles a short-scale Wunkay in my opinion. Lightweight and also from the proportions. If anyone is interested in more details please post your questions here.

[Ken Baker]

Yet I am quite happy about the final result and it sounds quite nice - all three modes actually (whereas OMG on my L2K is usually too much for my liking):

Just lift one lead of the OMG caps.

Now this is what resembles a short-scale Wunkay in my opinion. Lightweight and also from the proportions. If anyone is interested in more details please post your questions here.

Good project, nice work.

How does it handle & play?

Ken...