How hard is it...

[Kindofblue]

To sand a bass. I want to take my red fender jazz bass and sand the body except for the front just leaves the front red,with trim on the sides and have the back sanded off to expose the natural wood. What type of sealer should I use? any help appreciated

[Fetusyolk]

fenders are known to have a pretty thick coat, so it should take a bit of elbow grease, but i wouldn't know anything else about this.

[OliverH]

I've started reworking a crappy made in Korea (or maybe China, can't remember) Squire P-Bass. The finish was scratched an dinged because it had been treated badly but otherwise ok. I used a whole can of paint stripper on it to gradually strip off the finish and colouring back down to the lacquer that they put over the bare wood.

To be honest this was the easy part, as I just sprayed on the stripper, put a layer of cling wrap (what you might call "Saran Wrap" in the states) over it to keep as much of the stripper from evaporating, then left it for a few hours to sink in. Then I took a scraper to it. You can afford to be quite rough with it because you still have to get through the clear lacquer underneath.

When I had got most of the finish off and I was down to the lacquer over the bare wood I got a small orbital sander and sanded the lacquer off gradually. It took a bit of muscle work and I went through a few sanding pads but got most of it off. The areas around the horns are a pain as most orbital sanders can't get in there, but you can buy an attachment for your drill or what have you.

At the point of getting the lacquer off, you have to be a bit more careful, especially around where the hardware mounts onto the bass so you don't put out any of the alignments. Hopefully I'll get around to fixing the routing on mine, getting the new bridge and tuners then staining it and putting it back together

[Pilgrim]

If it's a poly finish, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Sanding may also damage or change the contours of the body, while strippers don't affect poly much. Doing a particl finish removal may not be practical - you may have to refinish the whole thing in two steps to get it right. Visit Reranch.com for good information on refinishing. You need to seal the wood before applying a clear finish - there is much to learn if you don't want to mess up the bass.

[62bass]

Originally Posted by Kindofblue

To sand a bass. I want to take my red fender jazz bass and sand the body except for the front just leaves the front red,with trim on the sides and have the back sanded off to expose the natural wood. What type of sealer should I use? any help appreciated

Those poly finishes they usse are impervious to most strippers you can easily buy. Sanding is the best way although I usually use a heat stripper to remove most of the finish, then finish up by sanding. It's a lot of work.

I'd take all the finish off the bass and start over if you want a decent looking two tone finish.

[sixgunner]

The easiest and fastest way to remove poly is with a heat gun and a plastic putty knife...guaranteed.
You can use a regular household hairdryer as well.
If you heat it up, you can run a putty knife under the poly and it'll peel off like skin.
If you are wanting to leave part of the finish on, you'd just strip away the large portions leaving plenty of room to sand the edges