permagrin
New member
Hey all! My first post here. I've got a '78 Stingray, love everything about it, esp the tone. I find I tend to play differently on different size necks, and I've been gas'n for a Sterling for some time to get a similar tone with a smaller neck. And a couple trips to GC made it worse, but I couldn't afford new and have been searching for a used Sterling.
Well, the search is over - I found someone selling a Desert Gold Sterling in the for sale ad in this here forum, and a local guy too. Met up with him, checked the bass out, and took it home.
It does have a couple minor issues, and I have a couple questions for y'all. There were several very shallow indentations on the neck behind ~9th fret, like it had been habitually set against something, noticeable when playing. I lightly sanded the length of the back of the neck with 220 and thankfully the indents went away quickly, then smoothed with 400. But I think I took off a good portion of whatever finish was there. I put just a couple drops of clear oil-based stain on a rag and wiped it down, then wiped it with a clean rag about 3 min later (although that didn't do much; I didn't use a lot of stain and what I did use was pretty well soaked in). The back of the neck now feels and looks phenomenal, but I'm wondering if there's more finishing I should do to the maple (e.g., a real thin polyurethane application or 3)?
On a related note, there is one chip in the finish, right behind the first fret, about a 1/8" x 1/16" oval, that goes to the bare wood. And this one is bothersome. How do y'all recommend I fill it?
And last, I'm not digging the white pearl pickguard. It had some gunk on it that I thought were scratches but came right off with a little naptha, so it's actually in great shape. But cosmetically I'm thinking of a change. I've kinda narrowed it down to either orange swirl or abalone... thoughts? Anyone with a desert gold bass have any pics (I have seen the desert gold bongo with the orange swirl here)? Any other pickguard colors I should consider?
Thanks in advance. I already cleaned up the body and took the gunk off the fretboard and oiled it (rosewood). Plus I had to address a hum that sounded like it wasn't grounded properly... opened up the cavity and checked around and everything looked in order, so I didn't touch anything... but after that the hum went away. I'm hoping it's not some intermittent, hard-to-find kind of thing, but if it comes back I'll be asking y'all about that, too.
I still need to file the nut slots a tad and then re-do the setup, but that's easy stuff. Even as is, I'm loving this bass... my fingers are still a little sore from playing it so much this weekend!
Well, the search is over - I found someone selling a Desert Gold Sterling in the for sale ad in this here forum, and a local guy too. Met up with him, checked the bass out, and took it home.
It does have a couple minor issues, and I have a couple questions for y'all. There were several very shallow indentations on the neck behind ~9th fret, like it had been habitually set against something, noticeable when playing. I lightly sanded the length of the back of the neck with 220 and thankfully the indents went away quickly, then smoothed with 400. But I think I took off a good portion of whatever finish was there. I put just a couple drops of clear oil-based stain on a rag and wiped it down, then wiped it with a clean rag about 3 min later (although that didn't do much; I didn't use a lot of stain and what I did use was pretty well soaked in). The back of the neck now feels and looks phenomenal, but I'm wondering if there's more finishing I should do to the maple (e.g., a real thin polyurethane application or 3)?
On a related note, there is one chip in the finish, right behind the first fret, about a 1/8" x 1/16" oval, that goes to the bare wood. And this one is bothersome. How do y'all recommend I fill it?
And last, I'm not digging the white pearl pickguard. It had some gunk on it that I thought were scratches but came right off with a little naptha, so it's actually in great shape. But cosmetically I'm thinking of a change. I've kinda narrowed it down to either orange swirl or abalone... thoughts? Anyone with a desert gold bass have any pics (I have seen the desert gold bongo with the orange swirl here)? Any other pickguard colors I should consider?
Thanks in advance. I already cleaned up the body and took the gunk off the fretboard and oiled it (rosewood). Plus I had to address a hum that sounded like it wasn't grounded properly... opened up the cavity and checked around and everything looked in order, so I didn't touch anything... but after that the hum went away. I'm hoping it's not some intermittent, hard-to-find kind of thing, but if it comes back I'll be asking y'all about that, too.
I still need to file the nut slots a tad and then re-do the setup, but that's easy stuff. Even as is, I'm loving this bass... my fingers are still a little sore from playing it so much this weekend!
