What have I got here?

[iraggie]

So I'm stripping a Fender Jazz bass, and just love the wood on the back, but as I began stripping the front, it is a different kind of wood. Can anyone tell me 1) what these woods are, and 2) why Fender would do this on a guitar they were just going to paint anyway? I was hoping to do a natural wood finish, but I don't want it to look like crap with two different woods. Do you think it's possible to sand through this top layer?

Here's the picture. You can really tell in the bottom left of the first picture, where the body is tapered.

Thanks in advance.

[Brian]

Might make for an intersting natural burst since sometimes people want the back darker anyway.

My best guess is they knew they were going to do a solid color hence hiding the different woods, wierd way to laminate the wood togther though instead of it being a few pieces side by side vs that top and bottom.

[Maiden69]

I have found this in a few guitars that I have worked on, the 1st one was the neck headstock on the "limp"V, and a few old teisco style back in the days, and the most recent is the Jacson body I'm workin on right now. It's alder and it has a very thin maple laminate on top.

[Scott Rosenberger]

sometimes they put a thin basswood veneer on top of solid painted alder bodies to keep the color coat from settleing into the wood. Ibanez does this with the white jems and Kramer did it back in the 80's as well

[Brian]

Ibanez has started doing that with all of the RG's in the 500 series range and up I think.

[iraggie]

So, do you guys think I could sand through this layer? I would like to do a natural finish with a black pickguard. Also, anyone have any idea what the holes are for on the upper right of the front and in the neck pocket?

[darren wilson]

Ibanez has started doing that with all of the RG's in the 500 series  range and up I think.

I don't think Ibanez makes any alder-bodied RGs other than the JEM7V, do they?

As far as whether you should sand through this layer, it's really hard to tell from the photos exactly what that layer is and what it looks like. If it's just a thin veneer as suggested, i'd say keep sanding until you get to the prettier grain below.

[kench]

Also, anyone have any idea what the holes are for on the upper right of the front and in the neck pocket?

Those holes were used in the finishing process.. To hold and hang the body. But yours look somehow larger than the ones I've seen before. But not too much.

[demon]

hasnt really got anything to do with your question, but i have a P-bass that was bought new. I decided to refinish it and put an airbrush design on it. When I stripped it down it was made with really dull boring wood, but under the sealing coat there was a very nice grain PAINTED ON beats me why the hell they did that? but they did.........