I'm a woodworker, and I felt like this bass (Ibanez BTB845V) deserved some hand finishing as it clearly hadn't gotten much if any at the factory. There was way too much stain on this one for me and I wanted to also upgrade the electronics. I certainly didn't hate the tone of the stock Barts, but when I took it apart to fix a noisy pot I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the electronics and more disappointed in how "crammed in" everything was. So I took all the finish off, exposing the gorgeous mahogany back, recontoured the body to smooth the uncomfortable edges and put an oil finish on it. I also replaced the "off shore" Barts with US Barts. I like it a lot better and it is far more comfortable to play.
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Finished with the refinish.
- Thread starter dune
- Start date
Before, the mahogany wings were painted an opaque, not quite black. I don't mind sanding. 
As I remember, with the headstock I just used a Scotchbrite to take the gloss on the existing finish down to match the more satin appearance of the oiled body.
That makes sense. Since the “BTB” logo isn’t an inlay, you can’t really remove the stain here without losing the logo.
Yes, that's exactly it. I just got as close as I safely could to the logo, but didn't do anything at all within the logo and it looks OK.
@dune , i have the same bass. I'm not a woodworker but was curious how much effort it was to sand the finish off. I don't want to refinish mine but the sharp edge where my forearm rests would work so much better for me if it was beveled and rounded and I was wondering if the finish was poly or not. I had read that it was an oil finish but it feels like poly to me...
it’s a film finish of some sort. Mine is a demo that had a ding where the neck leaves the body. The finish flaked off at the impact point. And oil finish would wear differently.
I’m about to embark down this refinish path. My main goal is to fit different pickups (P4-type 5-string H pups by Aero) into the bass. Since I have to rout new pup cavities and make a new ramp, I am going to sand the bass down while I am at and apply an oil finish.
The hard edge on the top of the bass is definitely an awkward detail in the original design. The points of the horns is also implemented in a clumsy fashion from the factory. It’s like there’s a problem with their CNC program that no one caught.
You could probably start a guitar sanding business and make $billionsI don't mind sanding.
it's almost understandable if that was one of the differentiations between it and the premiere model but both models suffer from the same issue...
If you're not going to refinish the whole thing, but only recontour that Marquis de Sade signature edge, I don't think it will take that long at all or be that difficult. Getting through whatever film finish that was on it was no big deal but you're going to sand through the stain as well, so without refinishing at least the entire front, you may or may not like the aesthetics of the outcome. Sanding and recontouring WERE the refinish, really (preparation always is, really). Applying Danish oil is so simple, fast and fool proof. That part of it probably took less than 15 minutes for both coats, not counting curing time, which wasn't much here in the Mojave. As you may know, oil finishes are generally super easy to repair should the need arise and I think that the bass looks infinitely more high end with the oil finish than it did from the factory.
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That is a sweet looking finish for sure, and I do love translucents to pop the grain. Given that the front of the bass has ash showing as well as whatever burl they used for the top (poplar I think?) I was afraid that they wouldn't take any stain in a uniform manner, so I just went with the oil. Additionally, I don't have the skill set or experience to pull off an awesome finish like that green one in any case. Damn it, Jim! I'm a bass player, not a magician!
Edit: Still not sure I would trust that poplar burl to take color uniformly, but I've since learned to do burst finishes with Angelus leather dyes.
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how did you sand the finish off? Did you use an orbital sander or just do it by hand? Care to share details about grits, etc?
