Finishes to Keep Maple Light

[ColdSteel]

Hello!

I am in the process of constructing a bass, and the only thing I have had an issue with so far is deciding on a finish. I have a fairly nice quilted maple top for my bass, and what I would like to do is keep the very light, almost white, color of the natural, unfinished maple. I understand light will naturally color the maple, so it would also be nice to use something that could prevent or slow this process, if that is at all possible.

I have the facilities to apply most finishes, so that should not be an issue unless it is extremely exotic, in which case I may not be able to obtain it anyways.

I attempted to search for information pertaining to this topic, but I am still fairly new to the forums, and I may have just used the wrong keywords. Thank you all for your help!

[Scott French]

I've used danish oil, nitro lacquer, and polyester. Polyester keeps the maple whitest in my experience with nitro second and oil turning it very yellow.

[Suburban]

First, you must find a truly transparent finish. I will not argue with Scott, since I only work with oil. And oil gives a very nice and warm yellowish tone...

And one more, very important thing, is the UV protection! If you want it to be whiteish for some time, you must have a finish with UV protection, because it is the UV that makes the vintage yellowish maple.
UV protection often adds a wee bit of color, so you will need to find some supplier to talk to, in order to find a good total solution.