(Click on the pictures for large-size) Alba Precision Bass copy that is being exstensively modded to look, feel and sound more like a vintage 1959 Fender P-Bass. This project is a little different from the other two that I have done, Thursday Burst and '51 Caster. The Alba bass was a super cheap copy of a P-bass which costed me only 110 euro shipped to the door, that puts the project in another league than the two other projects where the guitars was in the 500-1000 euro range. The Precision Beauty project will be an economical project that will transform this cheap Alba bass into a bass guitar that looks like a 1959 Precision Bass. Although it will, quaity-wise, of course not be as good as the original it's trying to replicate or like the 3000 euro Fender Custom Shop reissue. But non-the-less a really good P-bass that will be on par or better than some of Fender lower end lines and beat Squiers without a problem. My goal is to keep the total cost, including the Alba Bass at 110 euro plus all new parts, paint, laqcuer etc. under 220 euro. We'll see in the end if it'll make it! Stock the Alba bass is completely covered in laqcuer, that is the body has the usual cheap guitar super thick poly finish and the neck has the thinner polyish laqcuer that covers both the maple and the rosewood board (shame!) 
Original thick polyester finish The poly on the body is really thick, bulletproof stuff that is everything but easy to remove. I learned the hard way on the '51 Caster after trying several paint strippers without getting any results. Reranch.com as well as many other sites states that the only way to get rid of this bulletproof laqcuer is to use Aircraft Stripper, but as so many other things that stripper is no where to be find here in Finland. So I had to come up with my own technique, which includes a paint stripper called PUR tank stripper. I first apply that and let it set for about an hour, that takes away the polished top layer of the lacquer. After that I cleaned the body up and rinsed with water. Now comes the boring part, heatgun and paint scraper. I heaten the laqcuer to the point where it yellows, starts bubbling and eventually cracks and starts to flake. Then it's really easy to remove with the paint scraper. But this takes time and it's easy to burn the wood, so I definately recommend using Aircraft Stripper if you just can get hold of it! It took about two hours to get all laqcuer off the body. As this is a cheap guitar I was welcomed with a body that was indeed solidwood. But not a one or two piece body, but a lot of peices glued together and a lot of ugly glue seames. At this point I had to make the decision that I can't make a transparent white like the original 1959 P-bass, it's basically gonna be solid vintage white instead. Well, then I continued with 150 grit sandpaper on a beltsander and did a quick sanding with it. Followed that up with finer grits and wetsanding with 400 and 1000. Now it was ready for the painting but had to dry first after all the wetsanding, so I left it to dry overnight. 
Alba headstock The neck was alot easier to deeal with as the lacquer here wasn't as bulletproof and no nearly as thick as on the body. The rosewood (or ebony, I'm not sure) board was really easy. I took a blade from a carpetknife and scraped the finish off the board. When I had removed everything I treated the board with my favorite Ed Boyle's FretDoctor fretboard oil, the beautiful grain on the fretboard got a deeper look, darkened and got a nice amount of contrast added. And just a note here, I know that the neck isn't exactly the same... the former Alba neck has the trussrod bolt at the headstock while a '59 P-Bass has it in the other end of the neck. But I'm gonna live with that! 
Fretboard scraped free from lacquer and treated with FretDoctor Then I taped over the fretboard and applied the PUR tankstripper to the maple part of the neck, let it sit for about half an hour and then cleaned it... and to my joy! It had removed almost all lacquer, just had to do slight sanding and the it was only clean maple waiting to be tinted for vintage looks! 
A little fretjob and edges rolled I removed the masking tape I had used when stripping the maple and blocksanded the fretboard edges and frets. I also did some rolling of the edges to get the used vintage feel going on. Now the neck felt like 100 times better and nicer than it was when I started... I just wanted to put everything back together and start playing! Then I followed up by wetsanding the maple with finer grits all upp to 1000. I didn't let the neck dry after the wet sanding as the tinting benefits from damp wood, it exposes the grain better than if it's completely dry. This at least applies to waterbased stains which I used. I bought the stain powder at a regular supermarket, the color was Light Oak and it costed me 5 euros. 
Headstock tinted I decided before starting this project that I wouldn't age the hardware to the point where it's all rusty and dull. I want it to be shiny but still looked used, I studied some pictures of real '59 P-basses before I started messing with the hardware. I dinged up the neck plate a little with a screwdriver and sanded it slightly, then put it into a sealed box with this concrete cleaning liquid (some nasty stuff from the hardware store), the fumes from the liquid ages metal in a couple of hours. But the key here is that the hardware shall not touch the liquid then nothing happens... you only want to expose it to the fumes. 
Bridge and Neckplate reliced I did the same with all the other hardware and screws as well... with the difference that I didn't sand them before putting them into the sealed box. Sanding the metal before makes the fumes work faster but it also looses all the shine when doing that and I only wanted the neckplate to look that scratched up. 
1959 Precision Bass is taking shape! The next day when the body was completely dry I hanged it up and roughly spray painted it vintage white. This is unfortunately not nitrocellulose paint. Beacuse it hard to get hold of nitro here in Finland and it costs a fortune if you even find it in spray cans (I don't own a compressor and painting rig). So I decided to go the economical way here to keep the costs down. Cheap vintage white paint from the supermarket which costs 3.50 euro a can and then apply a nitro clear coat over that... as it's easier to get hold of clear nitro here. This was a little compromise that was neccesary to keep the project economical. So far I've been working 3 days on this, but only a couple of hours a day. Yesterday, that is 27th of June 2008, I sanded the first vintage white coat down and got rid of the paint runs that accidently happended and applied a second coat. It's still rough and the paint has shrunken into the grain of the wood, but that just adds to the old feel so now I'll just wait a few days for the second coat to dry and then sand it even, maybe some touch up spraying and then continue spraying it with clear nitro. Yesterday I also masked the rosewood fretboard and sprayed the maple on the neck with nitro, so it's hanging here drying as I write. I have a Precision Bass decal on order to apply once it has dried... which should be in about 5 days. 4th of July 2008, body and neck has dried. I reliced the body and sprayed a mist of nitro clear over it... let it dry and polished it up and scraped the laqcuer away from the reliced places, bare wood, dings etc. Followed up by dinging up the neck a little as well as partly rubbed the finish away from the back of the neck and "dirtied" it up a 'lil. Here are some pics of how the relicing turned out and how it looks with the stock 3 ply pickguard and white pickup covers. 
60's style Precision all the way! 
Some wear on neck and back of body 
And finally the top of the cream... I scored a used Seymour Duncan SPB-1 Vintage style Precision Bass pickup for a really nice price, 45 euro. So a fast calculation of total cost so far lands on 110 euro for the Alba Bass, 45 for the pickup and about roughly 10 for the vintage white paint and amberish stain (I had the nitro spray can laying around from my last project). Total cost: 165 euro, so far I'm satisfied! 
Seymour Duncan SPB-1 19th of July 2008. I had to order the Fender original anodized gold pickguard new as I couldn't find one a used one for sale, the guard costed a whopping 33 euro... ouch! But it was necessary as the bass turned out flat out fabulous! But before installing the new pickguard I had to fill up a part of the electronics routing as the canal beteween the pickups and the control routing went just under where the chrome pickup cover will be fastened to the wood. I to this scrap piece of maple and cut it to fit into the canal, painted it the same white color as the rest of the guitar and shot some nitro on it and then glued it in place with regular wood glue. It's not a perfect solution as I can admit that I should have relalized that the pickup cover/canal route problem before painting the body. Then I could have done the wood working first and sand it even and paint over it, would have been 100 times cleaner and nicer but too it was too late for that. It's still going to be under the pickguard all the time so it's not that a bid deal. 
The last way out wood working solution turned out... okay. The pickguard screw holes didn't match the 60's style guard so I had to fill the old holes up with glue and toothpicks and drill new holes for the new guard... The headstock decal also arrived from Haneberg Decal shop. It was a 60's style decal with the pat. number as well... but I cut that part off before applying the decal as it's '59 all the way here. The decal was quite cheap, costed 6 euro. To apply the decal you soak it in a bowl of warm water and it comes loose from its paper, then I picked it up with a Xacto knife and put it in place on the headstock. Waited a few hours for it to dry and then sprayed a mist coat of nitro over it for protection. 
Fender decal applied and nitroed 
The electronics are some left overs from my parts drawer. And orange drop cap and of course cloth-covered wiring as well, the pots and the jack are cheap parts and I will eventually replace them with CTS pots and a switchcraft jack. So here we are, the wood working and glueing has dried, headstock is ready with hardware mounted. 
Precision Beauty in all her glory! The thumb rest is made out of a scrap piece of hard maple that I painted black with some spray can I found in the garage. I sanded the gold pickguard in places to get it a little faded and worn looking. Now the bass is about finished, only the chrome covers left and then I have to upgrade the electronics also. The total cost so far is: 204 euro... not bad at all! The goal was to keep the total under 220 euro, well I'll be able to get a electronics upgrade still and end up a abou 220, but if I am to buy the bridge and pickup cover then the total cost won't hold. But I won't be in a hurry with the chrome covers, I'll probably watch the bay and the used market to see if the covers pop up cheap somewhere. Then I might snag them, we'll see. The potentiometers and the jack is definitely going to be replaced though. 
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