Someone in the Wishbass thread suggested I post this here, so I will. Someone might find some use out of it, as I have seen a lot of people asking about making their own fretless basses out of fretted ones.
For the record, I have never done any refinishes or anything. I got the idea from the June 2009 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine. This was the first time I ever attempted to do this. I read some reviews on Wishbasses and I thought it would be a fun project. They get a lot of bad press and it's mostly by people who have never actually played them. So, if you see some bad technique here. that's why.
A little back story... I did a superglue finish on the fingerboard a while back, but I did a bad job sanding the fingerboard, so it was uneven, resulting in some high action. Here are some original pics:
As I got it from Wish, for $300, with a VERY rough finish.
After I sanded it down:
After I stained it:
After the first time I did the superglue finish:
As I said, that superglue board was uneven. As you can see, I put a huge, unwanted radius on the board. That was just due to my inexperience. So, I sanded everything back down using 80 grit sandpaper, restained it.
Here are the products I used:
Medium Viscosity Superglue:
Accelerator:
Then I used sandpaper with grits 220, 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500. Then I used micromesh pieces 1500-12000 (
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200...nding-Kit.aspx). That is worth every penny. I was a bit hesitant because of that $21.50 price tag. But it is worth its weight in shine!
The superglue I used here was much nicer and easier to apply than the first batch. It was much thinner. The accelerator worked quite well too. Made the process a lot quicker.
I did this application outside, as to avoid the fumes. This was a great idea. The guy at the wood store recommended I used paper towels for the application. I tried this but did not like it. While it was a bit easier to work with than the back of a piece of sandpaper, it did offer fuzz and dust. I went back to the sandpaper after one coat.
Here was my basic plan of attack:
- Clean fingerboard from dust particles with a clean, dry cloth
- Apply two coats of glue, drying 10 minutes in between
- Spray accelerator
- Sand with 220
- Two more coats of superglue
- Spray accelerator
- Sand with 220
- Two more coats of superglue
- Spray accelerator
- Sand with 400
- Two more coats of superglue
- Spray accelerator
- Sand with 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500
- Move to micromesh from 1500-12000
I had to deviate a bit from that plan because of a screwup. Okay, so here are some videos.
This first one is out of order, as I forgot to record the first two coats of superglue, but I figured this is the first thing that you should see. This is actually the third coat of superglue, but the technique holds the same for all coats.
This is what it looks like after you apply the superglue so you can get an idea how what it will look like.
After the two coats of superglue, I used the accelerator. I actually changed my technique after this. I began spraying the accelerator directly to the board and then using a clean cloth to quickly rub up and down the neck. But either way works.
Here is where I sand after the accelerator.
This is what it looks like after the sanding with 220.
I kept on working and got up to about 7 coats.
This is where I am an idiot. I was putting my last coat on (after the video above) and I made a HUGE mistake. Even after the warning I gave in the first video about using a fresh sheet of paper for the superglue application, I messed up. I wasn't paying attention and I accidentally picked up a sheet with accelerator on it. As you might imagine, the second it hit the fingerboard, it stuck.
So, back down to 220. And repeat the process.
And here it is at 400. Starting to look shiny!
I put one more coat on and went to 1500. I used wet sanding for 1200 and 1500.
The finale!
Look at that gloss. You can see Law and Order playing on the TV through the reflection.
Here are a couple of pics, for thos who aren't watching the videos.
This is what the neck looks like after a couple coats of glue.
Here she is all finished and shined up!
Here is the coverplate that my boss made me. It got the micromesh treatment too.
I thinned it a lot from its original state.
I hope this was informative. Rememeber, if I can do this, anyone can. I have never done any woodworking at all before this. It's a little scary at first, dumping superglue on your bass, but it comes out really nicely. I like things that shine as well. This might be of interest to anyone who wants to do it.
If you have any questions or critiques, please let me know. My only complaint is a very small area in the top right that is a little lighter than the rest. I must have sanded through the stain just a hair when I went back and fixed my mess up.
