finishing by brush ?

[EddieN]

The wipe on poly will go on over paint as long as you prep the paint first by very fine sanding to help adhesion.

One thing though-all these alkyd or poly finishes that are oil based will slightly add an amber colour, so it might not look good on white and other very light colours.

You can buy water based varnishes that will not yellow but they aren't good to apply with a cloth. They work best with a synthetic brush or paint applicator pad. The pad thing though is probably too large to work with on a bass body. I haven't worked too much with the water based varnish. I did some stairs once with Varathane water based varnish applied with a brush. Very fast drying and you have to be careful with it foaming up when brushing. You don't have much time to tip it off to level it. It gave a very clear coating when dry with no yellowing. Seemed to cure pretty hard too after a few days, but I didn't try polishing it out. May have had some acrylic resin in it.

And don't think that using something other than nitro will get you past the "sorta lengthy cure time". Varnishes take even longer to cure hard. than nitro.

Thanks for the advice. I did a little test on some scrap with the oil-based Minwax Wipe-On Poly and the part I bolded turned out to be quite true. I'm using a color close to Fender's Sonic Blue and the more coats I apply, the greener it gets. Bah! Guess I'll give the water-based a shot. Or maybe just figure out a way to work with the nitro spray.

 

[spamnebula]

I imagine unless you're an experienced luthier or worked in a guitar factory and finished the type of wood instrument you're working on under controlled conditions repeatedly, it would be difficult to project exactly what you're going to get. I suppose alot of testing will increase your chances. I imagine trying to match a color is a challenge.

I remember talking to this wonderful Jazz drummer who said that when a beggining drummer picks out symbols it didn't matter too much. He said "you're perception of it is always changing."

Regardless of what you end up with flexibility in what you percieve can be helpful if it's not what you imagined. For instance changing pickgaurd colors if it applies here. For me I like to see do-it-yourself custom colored instruments because it enhances ones individuality and playing style. Diversity.

Best of Luck in all that you do.

 

[Jazzdogg]

I've had good luck shooting General Finishes' High Performance water-borne acrylic with an HVLP rig. It's a water white (non-yellowing) finish that has very high abrasion resistance and rubs out very well if given sufficient time to cure properly.

FWIW, High Performance was the highest rated water-borne finish in a recent review conducted by Fine Woodworking magazine.

If you want to have some fun, try some experimental finishishes in which Transtint analine dyes are added to both raw wood and various finishes (Transtints are soluable in water, alcohol, and solvents).