This is Danish oil (used to add a bit of color - that's optional), followed by a few days of drying, then Minwax spray polyurethane over that. I do a few coats of gloss (which is harder than satin), then scuff the finish with 600 grit, and spray a couple of coats of satin on top. Gloss finishes are much more difficult than satin ones, and the reward for all that extra work is they show fingerprints all the time. Satin doesn't do that.
The Polyester finishes that most factories use are thicker than the polyurethane used here, and if the thing gets dinged, they often de-laminate, so you get ugly chips missing out of the finish. With Minwax polyurethane, the finish is thin, but very tough. If you get a ding, it's smaller than you'd have without the finish (oil finishes will ding much more), and the finish does not delaminate - it stays with the wood, so the dings are far less visible.
I don't grain fill. That means, if you look closely, you see the wood grain in the surface of the finish. I like that look.
The most important thing in doing finishes is time. If the product says wait a day, wait 3. Rushing is the number one reason for sucky finishes. Also, go to Home Depot and buy a board that similar wood to what you are making a bass out of - if it's ash, oak can stand in just fine. Experiment on that board - don't try anything on your bass that you haven't had success with before!
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