How big a job is re-finishing a bass for a newbie?

[behndy]

hello!

i've never done any serious mods or repairs on a bass. i have a Dean that i'm not super happy with the color. it has a quilt top amberburst finish. Dean offers almost exactly the same bass WITHOUT the quilt top, and i like the orangey burst woodgain look a LOT better.

i'm not really sure how i would go about it or if it would be something that i would screw up and just try to get a professional to do, but i'd like to take off the wavey part that shows in the quilt top and either stain it orange or maybe another color. not sure yet.

is this something that is a hugely scary undertaking for somebody that's never done it?

sorry if this is something that has been covered. i searched and couldn't find a thread that dealt with this.

thanks much!

-0behn desu0-

[MNAirHead]

IT"s tools, time and patience.

[behndy]

hmmmm.... so, would a paint store be the place to talk to somebody about how i should go about it? or a furniture restoration place? after the quilt top is off is that the hard part? or is there an art to doing a finish that i'm prob'ly gonna screw up till i figure out what i'm doing?

thanks MNAirhead!

-0behn desu0-

[behndy]

so.... i talked to the only place sort of near me that strips finishes. they said it would only be $50, and that they usually do furniture and have only done it for one long time customer with his Fender guitars. they said that out of 4, 3 went really well, but one removed the signature off of an old guitar he was trying to restore.

how much work is the sanding and staining and lacquering after the plastic is stripped off?

-0behn desu0-

[Pilgrim]

You can do it yourself.

Start at Reranch.com and read everything you can find.

Then do a search in TB for "strip finish".

Then buy Dan Erlewine's book on guitar repair (check Amazon for used copies).

When you're done, you will have reached a much higher degree of competence in everything to do with bass construction and setup than you expected. The knowledge will benefit you for years.

Q: How much work? A: How good a result do you want?

A finish is only as good as the work that underlies it. Careful sanding, wood sealing and prime coat with more sanding as needed will give you a finish coat that's reaby to be finish sanded and polished to a beautiful luster. Plan to invest 10+ hours in the prep work and you will have a good start on it....after you get the old finish off.

Sealing, priming and finishing will take another 10+ hours....depends on what you do.

But y'know what? There's no glory to be gained in stripping old finish off. I think I might take those guys up on their offer. Stripping the old finish is the worst job in the whole process. Just make it clear that you want it extremely clean and with no surface damage.

[behndy]

thanks Pilgram! that's a LOT of help.... i'm interested in trying to do most of it myself, and it's very cool of you to share the resourses. from what i've learned talking to people the stripping does sound sorta horrible if you're not set up for it. so i think i will have them do it. but the rest sounds like a fun project..... and i have a SUPER cheap 6 that if i screw it up i don't care at all.

thanks!

-0behn desu0-

[ByF]

I am afraid that staining the wood is going to be a problem--even if you strip and sand the wood, there will still be areas where the old finish has soaked into the wood. The stain won't soak into those areas as well as in other areas, so the color will be splotchy.

Even under ideal conditions it can be hard to apply stain evenly. Working on a previously finished body will be less than ideal.

You might look into ReRanch's tinted lacquers. The lacquer is transparent, but has color in it. I used it on a maple neck that would not take stain evenly, and was pleased with the result.

Ed

[behndy]

huh. interesting. thanks ByF. i'd LIKE to try to stain it, but even just getting it a different color would be awesome.

thanks!

-0behn desu0-

[hbarcat]

First, refinishing a guitar is something you can do yourself but, as already mentioned, it takes a quite a bit of time. About 90% of the work is in the prep and finishing, with only about 10% in actual painting. And usually the worst thing that could happen if you screw it up is you have to start over again, so if you don't mind putting in the effort, go ahead and repaint your bass.

An option to consider is to remove the finish and do the prep work yourself and then have a professional spray on the paint, then you do the finish work yourself. This will save you a ton of money and you can still have a professional paint job.

Originally Posted by behndy

i have a Dean that i'm not super happy with the color. it has a quilt top amberburst finish. Dean offers almost exactly the same bass WITHOUT the quilt top, and i like the orangey burst woodgain look a LOT better. . . .

. . . i'd like to take off the wavey part that shows in the quilt top and either stain it orange or maybe another color. not sure yet.

I'm curious what you mean by "take off the wavey part that shows in the quilt top". The wavy part in quilted maple is part of the wood grain and is not part of the finish. See these pictures:


quilted maple


non-quilted maple

If you are trying to get rid of the "quilts" as in picture 1 and make it more like picture 2 then you won't be able to do this just by refinishing.

Do you have pictures of what your bass looks like now versus what you want it to look like?