Permanent Conditioner

[EricssonB]

Disclaimer: I've been reading up on this for a few weeks, read stickies and used the search bar.

Defretting Album

I'm defretting my old bass electric guitar () this week. Cheap project. It's been laying around for two years virtually un-played and just about salvaged. Doing it!

I'm about to start sealing up the fret-turned-finger board with epoxy under inspiration from Jaco, and I'm caught up on this particular situation:

I live in Colorado. It is very dry here. It's not the nice deep brown that it had during is life in marine-layer California. Even with utmost care while removing the frets, I was having the wood splinter and chip. Nothing major. I'll fill it during the epoxy stage. I want to recondition the wood before I entomb it, to enjoy both color and healthy preservation, so...

- Do I count on the epoxy layer to do that?
- Apply an oil to it?
- What oil? Lemon? Walnut? Peanut? Linseed? 5W-30?

I'm asking more specifically about the oil. While reading up on this process, it has been suggested that natural products eventually degrade and need to be reapplied, which could be a problem if it's entombed in epoxy.

Would it suffice to find a synthetic/longer-lasting product?

Throwing a bunch of info out. Expertise needed!

[EricssonB]

Bump it! Bop it! Twist it! Pull it!

[madmachinist]

applying epoxy resin to wood - i'd want the wood to be as dry
as possible . oil would likely keep the finish from bonding to
the wood .
in order to remove any human oils and sweat crud from the pores . i would go so far as to clean the board with MEK or Naptha before applying the epoxy .

now.......if the board is cracking or twisting from being too
dried-out , that's a different story.....

once you seal it in epoxy , it will likely maintain its condition
for a long time .

[EricssonB]

Good thinking! I've read that water could keep the epoxy from adhering correctly but didn't even consider oil. In that case, no oil. I'll go nekked.

I just sanded it nicely down for surface prep and now it's sitting my car (it's 95 and dry out) right now just in case there's any moisture in it. First light coat of epoxy is due in about 45 minutes -- after I finish sanding the body. Body will get a thin coat of Mahogany stain/poly-U followed by a few clearcoats, too.

[negativeions24]

Originally Posted by EricssonB

now it's sitting my car (it's 95 and dry out) right now just in case there's any moisture in it

Might not be the best thing. I wouldn't risk warping the neck before this awesome project truly starts to take hold.

[walterw]

yeah, in your car with the windows up when it's 95° out can put you up in like the 130-140° range, enough to risk softening glue and warping wood.

[WilliamSandoval]

Aaaaaaahhhhhh... Dry, Hot, Colorado!

[EricssonB]

Originally Posted by negativeions24

Might not be the best thing. I wouldn't risk warping the neck before this awesome project truly starts to take hold.

Originally Posted by walterw

yeah, in your car with the windows up when it's 95° out can put you up in like the 130-140° range, enough to risk softening glue and warping wood.

Yeah I was aware of this risk, so I left it in there for about 20 minutes -- just long enough to get warm and bake all that water out. Worked just fine; neck is true.

Originally Posted by WilliamSandoval

Aaaaaaahhhhhh... Dry, Hot, Colorado!

Boy was that sun sure harsh today.

Album is updated with new porn* photos of project. It's going great. First coat of epoxy was a little messy as I was trying to fill the cracks and cover the board before it all hardened in three minutes. Next coat will be awfully purty. With the frets filled, three minutes will be plenty of time to make the board look like glass.

The body? Meh. That'll take a bit more work. Hand-brushing a guitar with poly-U stain isn't the best practice. Spray is the way to go. Do I have spray? Not right now. But hey, this project is on a budget of, well, the epoxy.

*figured it's best to not call guitars "porn" on a Talkbass.

[WilliamSandoval]

How's the rain up there?

[EricssonB]

Nope. Not lately. I think CoSpgs tends to get hit more frequently by rain than Denver; probably dumps it all right past the mountains (where you are) and dissipates by the time it gets to the folks a few miles away (Denver, 'specially Aurora) so yeah, dry and dry.

[WilliamSandoval]

Originally Posted by EricssonB

Nope. Not lately. I think CoSpgs tends to get hit more frequently by rain than Denver; probably dumps it all right past the mountains (where you are) and dissipates by the time it gets to the folks a few miles away (Denver, 'specially Aurora) so yeah, dry and dry.

Oh, man! We are getting pounded with rain! about 5:00 every night it just dumps! And for some reason, the Fire Ban is still up!

But the past couple days, it's been dry. I kinda liked the rain...