I am afraid I have to switch to plan B...
Plan A was to wax with steel wool. And to be honest I had a good feeling about that, the coat on the bass looks just great and I am almost halfway in the waiting period. Got a lot of great info from you guys so I was confident enough to take the plunge.
While waiting, I figured I could at least clean up the cavities. The control cavity cover didn't fit anymore, nor the pickups and the neck. I made everything to an exact fit (planned oil in the first place) and with the rather thick varnish coat on there, all holes and cavities became too small.
While doing so, I came across a problem I had earlier: if you remove the varnish from the inside of the cavity, the varnish only lays on top of the surface. The adhesion isn't very good so it seems and around the control cavity the varnish came loose with little bubbles of air underneath here and there. The problem is I cleaned up with a knife, so I really cut the varnish from the inside, making this happen. But I could fix this. I thinned some varnish and coated the edge, so the varnish got into the bubbles. Then I just pressed it back with my thumb and let dry. Due the to coated edge, the adhesion was restored the next day and the bubbles disappeared. So far, so good. Now I only need to use some sandpaper to do this cleanup. Already tested and this didn't present me with the same problem.
Next day I thought, well, everything looks good again, let's order the wax and steel wool.. but, I just wanted to see how the neck looks in there.. (and it was a bit loose before so I thought it may fit perfectly right now). But so it seemed it just didn't fit. No problem, tried to remove it again and then disaster happened.. at the edge of the neck pocket, the varnish kind of snapped or broke due to the stress of the neck pocket flexing a bit I guess. A small but ugly yellow spot appeared next to the neck pocket, somewhere inbetween the sixteen layers. It looks brittle, so it's absolutely dry enough. I also cannot reach it from the sides to drop in some new varnish, really frustrating.
Call me unteachable, I didn't see this coming though....
Meanwhile I also tested plan B: I sanded back my testpiece with 1500 g and coated it with one layer of satin varnish. The sanding made it satin too, but I still got some witness lines that I couldn't get rid off. The satin varnish did hide the witness lines completely though, in only one layer. I was surprised by how good it looked.
Right now, I am kind of hoping this plan B will hide the ugly spot for me, that, of course, appeared right next to where thre pickguard goes, not under it... I also need the extra layer of plan B, but don't want another 3 clear coats on it again, so I guess plan B became a better option, knowing that the test piece came out so well.
What I am planning to do now: I will first clean up all cavities with sandpaper as nice and good as possible. Then, I will sand the entire bass with a high grit (starting 600 if necessary and go up to 1500). Lastly, I will coat it once in satin varnish, let dry for one week and be done with it.
Actually, I'm a bit fed up with this project and I so want it to be finished.. one more setback and I'll throw it out of the window.. :scowl:
Plan A was to wax with steel wool. And to be honest I had a good feeling about that, the coat on the bass looks just great and I am almost halfway in the waiting period. Got a lot of great info from you guys so I was confident enough to take the plunge.
While waiting, I figured I could at least clean up the cavities. The control cavity cover didn't fit anymore, nor the pickups and the neck. I made everything to an exact fit (planned oil in the first place) and with the rather thick varnish coat on there, all holes and cavities became too small.
While doing so, I came across a problem I had earlier: if you remove the varnish from the inside of the cavity, the varnish only lays on top of the surface. The adhesion isn't very good so it seems and around the control cavity the varnish came loose with little bubbles of air underneath here and there. The problem is I cleaned up with a knife, so I really cut the varnish from the inside, making this happen. But I could fix this. I thinned some varnish and coated the edge, so the varnish got into the bubbles. Then I just pressed it back with my thumb and let dry. Due the to coated edge, the adhesion was restored the next day and the bubbles disappeared. So far, so good. Now I only need to use some sandpaper to do this cleanup. Already tested and this didn't present me with the same problem.
Next day I thought, well, everything looks good again, let's order the wax and steel wool.. but, I just wanted to see how the neck looks in there.. (and it was a bit loose before so I thought it may fit perfectly right now). But so it seemed it just didn't fit. No problem, tried to remove it again and then disaster happened.. at the edge of the neck pocket, the varnish kind of snapped or broke due to the stress of the neck pocket flexing a bit I guess. A small but ugly yellow spot appeared next to the neck pocket, somewhere inbetween the sixteen layers. It looks brittle, so it's absolutely dry enough. I also cannot reach it from the sides to drop in some new varnish, really frustrating.
Call me unteachable, I didn't see this coming though....
Meanwhile I also tested plan B: I sanded back my testpiece with 1500 g and coated it with one layer of satin varnish. The sanding made it satin too, but I still got some witness lines that I couldn't get rid off. The satin varnish did hide the witness lines completely though, in only one layer. I was surprised by how good it looked.
Right now, I am kind of hoping this plan B will hide the ugly spot for me, that, of course, appeared right next to where thre pickguard goes, not under it... I also need the extra layer of plan B, but don't want another 3 clear coats on it again, so I guess plan B became a better option, knowing that the test piece came out so well.
What I am planning to do now: I will first clean up all cavities with sandpaper as nice and good as possible. Then, I will sand the entire bass with a high grit (starting 600 if necessary and go up to 1500). Lastly, I will coat it once in satin varnish, let dry for one week and be done with it.
Actually, I'm a bit fed up with this project and I so want it to be finished.. one more setback and I'll throw it out of the window.. :scowl:
... thought I was the only one continuously fighting with the finishing stage.. if, and I emphasize _if_ I get this thing finished up well, I will forget all these troubles and be happy with a great instrument. But sometimes I find it hard to persevere and the long timescale isn't helping as well regarding my patience and the suspense...
.
