X-Ray

Thanks to all of you guys who responded, that's very helpful info. To Idch, That guitar looks awesome, that's exactly the look I want to achieve... Regarding the wood quality, all the Musicmaster Bass info i've gotten online states that they are made of Alder wood, which you said is the same in that picture. I'll try to sand only to the sealer, the only problem is that there are a couple pretty sizeable chips (1 inch) that are rather deep and penetrate beyond the sealer. I will see whether I can fill these in rather than sand all the way down to the wood. Is there a way to fill in/patch those chips that penetrated the sealer... To the Supernova (and anyone else), If I do end up sanding down to the wood, what are the pros/cons of oil vs. sprayed on laquer? I used Tung oil when I refinished my wooden kitchen countertop, and it worked great. But I did 4 coats, fine sanding after the first 3 coats. It looked great and works great to seal water, food, but its pretty sensitive to scratches. Do you think the same would happen with a sprayed laquer? Also, how many coats of oil/laquer do you think the guitar would require? Thanks again for everyone who responds... -X-Ray BTW - To Neohet, I'm not a radiologist, may name is ray and my friends gave me the nickname in highschool and it stuck...

Hi, I'm new to this forum and have some questions that some of the experts here can hopefully answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a Fender MusicMaster Bass that I bought a few years back. I love how it sounds and plays, but its got some wear on the body (big chips, dings and scratches in the paint) that I've been contemplating on fixing. My questions are as follows: 1. Will disassembling the guitar in order to fix it up affect how it plays when I put it back together? I don't want to jeopardize the sound... 2. The chips in the paint reveal a nice wood underneath. Ideally I would like to strip the original paint and just keep the natural wood finish. I saw on this website the tutorial on how to strip paint by sanding, which seems straight forward enough. But I couldn't find any information about how to coat or refinish that wood (to make it look similar to those vintage P-bass or Telecasters). Can anyone point me to a website or source that will show me how to do this? 3. Any tips on how to remove the rust from the bridge and tuners? I've used vinegar on my chrome bike, but I'm not sure that will work here... Thanks a ton, X-Ray