Well...here's an interesting one, a 1964 jazz bass body I was sent...original finish with some 'enhancements' (see pic below for close up.

As you can see, Ciro wanted to let her beloved Tommy know how much she loved him and thought that it would be a great idea to scribe her feelings onto his jazz bass.....stupid mare, couldn't she have used a card like anyone else?, yeah...great idea Ciro, let's destroy the vintage finish.....I think the relationship was down hill from there on in...anyway...Other than this sacrilege the bass was in amazing condition, no serious wear, neck was like new as were the parts. I guess Tommy didn't use it much after Ciro got her hands on it.

What to do.........

OK, partial refins are usually quite tricky to match up so I suggested removing the finish from the front of the bass completely and then respraying it leaving the edges and back original. The owner agreed and I set to work.

The above pic shows the body with the finish removed, clearly visible is the yellow dye that forms the basis of the sunburst. You'll notice the pickups and pots covered in masking tape, the owner was keen for the solder joins to remain intact, not for the purposes of conning anyone into believing it's all original, but it seemed a shame to unsolder everything when it could be worked around...it was tricky but I did it.

This picture shows the front of the bass sanded, the scratched in lettering is now just a memory, time to start thinking about reapplying some finish. Firstly the wood was bleached to lighten the alder slightly, then a yellow dye that matched the original was applied to the wood (see pic below)

Once this was done I applied a matching sunburst finish to the top of the body having masked off the edges and back. Once done, several clear coats were applied and the bass was left to dry out for a bit. Once suitably cured the finish was 'feathered in' to the original finish around the edges and the body was lightly distressed using pictures of the original finish as a guide. The result can be seen below.

The owner was delighted when he received his bass body back and sent me the pics below of the reassembled bass...looks great.