Double Bass How To Dull A Gloss DB Finish?

Time, wear, and tear are working on mine. Varnish or laquer?

McC, I rubbed out the highly reflective nuclear gloss on my Engelhardt with a green scotchbrite pad. I just rubbed it as if I were polishing it, not too much elbow grease, and then wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove the dust. It did the trick very well, and I now have a nice satin finish. I was inspired by a thread late last year in which someone was refinishing an older bass, but I can't remember who it was off the top of my head. Now if I just had the nerve to sand out that orange-brown sunburst stain...

JimClark, we must have the same bass. I have an M-1. Have you removed the finish from the back of the neck? I think that I might like to do that. I spoke to a repair guy who said that I should just scrape the finish off. I was hope that there was an easier more contolled way of doing that.

Oooo - A DB post up here in BG!!!

Get a rope!

To get the gloss thing down you need a good working knowledge of abrasion and its relation to grit size. Much polishing in industry is really abrasion with smaller and smaller grit. JC is on the right path with the Scotch pads but I think the green may be a little too course. I believe the ranking is green-purple-grey-white with white being the finest pad in their line. These can be used for this purpose but I think their finest is still too rough. if you rub down all the way to white it will not be glossy but you may still see scratch marks in the finish. I would recommend a product called Micro-mesh. It is a cloth backed abrasive pad with grits that ascend from 800[equivalent of grey scotch] to 12,000 grit[this will polish glass]. Any grit from 2-6000 will dull a glossy finish without leaving obvious scratches. I get this product from Stewart-Macdonald, but a search will no doubt yield other sources.

JJ, I do indeed have a dynamically-colored M-1. I did sand out the finish on the back of the neck with sort of a medium-fine grit sandpaper to get the finish off, then sanded the wood with a fine grit paper once I got there. It has made a noticeable difference.

I too have a super shiny, day-glo orange, sprayed on thick lacquer finish Strunal. I've been meaning to try to de-gloss it but there's still the horrid color. I'm a tinkerer and a decent woodworker but have been put off by the amount of time the bass would be out of commission if I were to sand it to the wood and refinish.

So Lex Luthier (and other esteemed luthiers) what finish do you use on your new basses and what is the drying time?

A coat of shellac will bond any finish to any other. First remove all wax and polish with 0000 steel wool and mineral spirits or naptha (work outdoors or use a respirator--that stuff kills brain cells cells cells cells). To kill orange, add blue.

I refinished my engle--it lives in the living room, and that orange color was just too ugly.

NOTE: These steps were done by a beginner and are offered just as experience to learn from, not as a guide to doing it right

Stripped it with a commercial stripper. The finish came off very easily--I belive it was nitro laquer. Sanded it, then stained it with a reddish brown. Finished it first with Behlen's Rockhard varnish, because I assumed I wanted durability above all with this workingman's instrument. The behlens is very hard to get an even finish with--it had a nice gloss, but like most polys it has a cold, bluish look. I let the varnish cure for nearly a year, then wet sanded it with 800-1500 sandpaper, to rub out uneven spots, drips and witness lines. Then I put a coat of qualasole over the rubbed out varnish.

Qualasole is very cool stuff--somewhat like french polishing, in that you are applying shellac, but simpler. It gives a very satisfactory but not glass like gloss finsih, warms up the poly undercoat some, and feels very nice

I made a mistake in the course of the staining which messed me up. But there's no reason why you can't get a better finish than the engle comes with, which is heinous. It looks great in the living room now, and i frequently get favorable comments on it at gigs

You could dull the gloss by putting a thin coat of shellac over it. One advantage of qualasole is that like all shellacs, it can be tinted, to maybe modify the color if you don't want to strip it. You control the gloss by the extent of rubbing you do as you apply it.

ive been trying to degloss my bass now for about a month, and have tried scotch brite pads, sand paper, and recently micro-mesh. Anything i use leaves a white residue instead of deglossing. Is there something i can do to remove the gloss and residue without going all the way past the finish to the wood?

The gloss finish bugs me too!! Im just finishing a custom double bass for myself, and i personally think that pumice powder does the job in the proper way. Buffing your instrument with pumice powder dulls it beautifully, without danger of scrathing the surface. The low lustre finish you will be left with is way more smooth and stylish!!

Thanks for your reply. Where can i get pumice powder?

I'm afraid I have to disagree with Pea's statement that "Buffing your instrument with pumice powder dulls it beautifully, without danger of scrathing the surface". Pumice is an abrasive and just like any abrasive, it will (and does) scratch if you don't know what you are doing with it. Pumice comes in grades from "F" to "4F" and most finishers consider it to be something you rough it out with. For a fine smooth finish, you need to follow up with Rottenstone powder and Tropoli powder. I all cases, you MUST use a lubricant such as parafin Oil. Done properly, pumice stone powder and the other finer grades of powder will give a nice matt finish. I personally would not recommend using it untill you have some practice on something you can afford to mess up.

This might not be the spot for this question but i ill give it a go. My fingerboard on my engelhardt "EC1" is ebonized, wich means its painted black and is really ugly and not to smooth. What can i do to get rid of the "Ebonized" look and feel?
p.s. I got the bass for free and am getting a new bass soon so I dont mind if i mess it up just a little.
peace
Chad

Put a real ebony fingerboard and sell at higher price or leave it to the next owner to decide...