Modding my cheap P-Bass

Nice video, Jay.

I've got my own project on the go. Right now, I am focused on upgrading the electronics, but plan to repaint and do a bunch of other up grades to my china jazz bass.

When re-painting you might want to check out Re-Ranch finishes available from Warmoth, proper guitar systems including sunbursts, blondes, candy apples etc

Can you post a pic to show your current finish?

What is it you want to do? Repaint, stain, or keep it natural?

I assume if it's a cheap project base, the wood used is less than ideal, so imperfections might steer you away from stains or natural finishes.

If you want to repaint it, and there's no chips or significant blemmishes, you'll need to sand to get any polished finish off, so your new paint has something to stick to.

You could get nasty and use a paint remover solution, but you'll end up with a gunked up mess and raw wood that will still require a lot of sanding.

For the best finish, be prepared to do a lot of sanding. And when I say “a lot”, I mean when you are so sick and tired of sanding, you're only half-way done.

It's probably got a polyester finish which is a thick, one coat, virtually indestructible paint. It's very hard, but at the same time, very brittle. This means it can be scraped off fairly easily. To do this you need to chip off a lump somewhere out of sight, under the scratchplate or neck plate, use a sharp wood chisel and a hammer very carefully. Once you've got a small area back to the wood you can use a metal scraper to take the rest off. I did this on a Squier Jagmaster and it came off quite easily, sanding would have took forever.
One of my favourite finishes is Candy Apple, as the name suggests it was inspired by the Toffee Apple lol. You have that deep red candy outer shell, and deep inside you can see the apple. After sanding and priming you give the guitar a couple of metallic base coats, gold works best with red, and silver works better with blue, yellow and green. Next comes the colour coat, it's mixed without black or white pigments so as to remove the opacity and give a translucent colour coat so you can see the metallic base coat through it, think red wine. After several coats of this comes several more coats of clear lacquer, the finish is so deep it feels like you can dive in and swim in it!
Re-Ranch do the kits in aerosol form or you can have the paint mixed at an automotive paint store but you will need a spray gun and compressor, thinners and activators etc

What do you call that - Candy Granny Smith Apple? Dude, that is gorgeous! And the head stock, too!!