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Glossy finish from sweat

KwanzaaLizard

KwanzaaLizard

Oct 24, 2005
64
17
Grand Rapids/Mount Pleasant MI
#1
My Ibanez SR506 body has become glossy and "sticky" due to excessive sweating (me, not the bass!) I actually kind of prefer it to the rest of the body, which is a sort of dry mahogany. I know it will potentially change the sound but is there a good way to get the rest of the body to match without having to drench it all over with my perspiration? I'm totally willing to try that but it sounds like a lot of work to me.

:crying: <-- sweating and rubbing my cheeks
 
#2
The glossy sticky stuff is basically just a heavy coat of rubbed in wax. Your perspiration has dried off. If you want to get the same look all over the body, start rubbing on some coats of a floor wax, like Johnson's Paste Wax. Wipe some on, buff it with a wool wheel in an electric drill, wipe some more on, etc. The buffing will make it shiny and too many layers of wax buildup will make it sticky. Then you can let your cat lie on it for that dried-on hair effect.....

If you want it to be shiny but not sticky, you can get that just by heavily buffing it all over. You can remove the excess layers of wax, including your personal wax, with a light wipe of NAPTHA on a cloth.
 
#4
KwanzaaLizard said:
My Ibanez SR506 body has become glossy and "sticky" due to excessive sweating (me, not the bass!) I actually kind of prefer it to the rest of the body, which is a sort of dry mahogany. I know it will potentially change the sound but is there a good way to get the rest of the body to match without having to drench it all over with my perspiration? I'm totally willing to try that but it sounds like a lot of work to me.

:crying: <-- sweating and rubbing my cheeks
Click to expand...


I highly doubt that it will change the sound even a little bit.
 
#5
If you want to gloss the whole bass, get yourself some Micromesh and work through the grits.

The finish on the SR mahogany basses is VERY thin, so go slow. You should be able to get a really nice gloss. The Micromesh is a high enough grit that it will polish out nice, but you'll have to be careful not to go too far.

Finish up with some paste wax and you're done.
 
#7
Guys the bass in question has a matte finish. OP wants to take it back to matte where his arm has polished it to a shine not make it shiny!

OP buff it with steel wool to cut the shine. Be careful not to get shreds of wool on the pickups. Or use a Scotchbrite pot scrubber pad.
 
#10
Nothing will safely create a glossier finish on your bass aside from simply refinishing it properly. A good, natural product can add some depth and a little bit of a shine to a matte finish, but you should stay away from all these things like floor wax and buffing with steel wool. They might put a nice gloss on your bass for now, but they'll ultimately destroy the finish and most likely the wood beneath it.
 
#11
JaminTravis said:
Nothing will safely create a glossier finish on your bass aside from simply refinishing it properly. A good, natural product can add some depth and a little bit of a shine to a matte finish, but you should stay away from all these things like floor wax and buffing with steel wool. They might put a nice gloss on your bass for now, but they'll ultimately destroy the finish and most likely the wood beneath it.
Click to expand...

Using a finishing wax on an oil finished body will increase the life of the finish, and give it a bit of sheen. I finish every bass I build with an oil finish with a couple applications of Mixwax Paste Finishing Wax. The bass in my avatar is finished this way, I give them a new coat of wax about once every year or two.
 
#12
These body's are not oil finished. Its some sort of hard, semi-transparent, matte finish they put on and, no more than 6 coats of it at the very most. The matte turns into a really nice gloss with constant rubbing. On my SR500 you can see where I usually pluck my strings because there are two small glossy ovals next to the E string between the two pickups from my fingers landing on the body.

OP, I think you should get what your looking for by getting a buffing wheel for drill and a couple buffing pads. Just start in a small inconspicuous place in case it doesn't work. Also try checking out polishing compounds. I think the solution your looking for is to use the right combo of polishing pad and compound. Remember that polishes are actually abrasive and you're probably looking for one of the least abrasive grades (they come in different grades).
 
#13
As stated, I want to have a glossy finish on the whole body. Thank you for the information on how to restore it to a matte finish, however! Always better to have more knowledge on the subject. As for the buffing, Techno, I was looking at the micromesh mentioned earlier. Would that also be a suitable option? I have a geetar I'm trying to cut some of the clearcoat with and I think micromesh might be the way to achieve that...

Thanks all for the :help:
 
#14
I'm not positive it will give you what your looking for as all my experience comes from automotive polishing and waxing and I've only ever used polishing pads. I have a few different pads and compounds, I'll see if I can get some time to test then on my SR500 as I'd like to make mine glossy as well.if it fails I wouldn't mind stripping it to bare wood anyway so its win win for me.
 

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