I'm talking about George's Fbass Ceruse finishes: Lets take the two more complex ones. Black & White Ceruse and the other one is Black & Turquoise Ceruse finish.
http://www.fbass.com/finishes.htm
I'm guessing it involves water based dye, sanding in between colors and thin finish like Tung oil or polyurethane between colors as well. Btu which one do you start with or do between coats, basically what is the exact process, and does the final layer has to be Lacquer to get that look, or few coats of Tru-Oil will be fine as well.
Cheers
Here's what I do:
1. Dry sand through 220-grit using garnet or aluminum oxide abrasive. Don't skip grits. When surface preparation is done solely with abrasives, I use 120, 150, 180, 220. When I've planed or scraped the wood, I can often begin the sanding process with 220-grit (Naphtha and an inspection light reveal the condition). The starting grit is determined by the condition of the wood. Regardless of the starting grit, the objective is a consistent scratch pattern across every square inch of the surface before proceeding to a finer grit.
On ring-porous species like oak and ash I may stop sanding at 180-grit. On diffuse-porous species like maple, I always sand to 220.
I don't usually sand raw wood beyond 220-grit because doing so usually inhibits the penetration of finishes. However, I will sometimes sand end-grain beyond 220-grit to exploit this phenomenon to my advantage;
2. Vacuum with a brush attachment to remove sawdust;
3. Moisten the surface of the wood with a lint-free rag moistened with distilled water to pre-raise the grain. Allow to dry thoroughly;
4. Lightly hand-sand with 220-grit to remove the "stubble;"
5. Vacuum again;
6. Position a halogen (or comparable) light sources so its light
across the surface of your work;
7. Wipe the surface with a lint-free rag moistened with naphtha. While the surface is wet, look for a consistent scratch pattern free of cross-grain sanding scratches or any other "glitches" that need to be corrected before you start applying finishes;
8. Apply water-soluable analine dye & let dry completely;
9. Seal the wood (and the analine dye) under a coat or two of dewaxed shellac (Zinsser Sealcoat). Let each coat dry thoroughly;
10. Use the inspection light to examine the Sealcoat: sand with 320-grit stearated, open-coat, aluminum oxide abrasive as required to remove surface irregularities and flatten the shellac. Apply more Sealcoat if needed to achieve a flat, consistent, barrier layer;
11. Tint oil-based pore filler with Japan Colors and fill the pores, remove excess. Let dry thoroughly. Lightly sand w/ 320-grit to remove any pore filler left on surface;
12. Clearcoat with a waterborne acrylic finish if I do not want any ambering of the clear coat; otherwise, use the clearcoat of your choice.
13. After a curing period of at least seven days, rub out the clear coat.
You will have to address the different rates of absorbtion of finishing materials into end- and face-grain before the wood has been sealed - make sure you contour your test piece to create grain-exposures similar to those on your bass.
Because ultra-tough finishes can be difficult to repair seamlessly, I prefer clear coats that are easily repaired. I prefer not to use nitrocellulose lacquer for a variety of reasons.
This is what I do: YMMV.
Have fun & good luck!
We should come up with a thread list of all these great little nuggets of tips/tricks/processes and all... next thing you know, we could compile it and sell it for the next TB fundraising project 
i guess it just didnt work so well after all. looks like you got the right formula though Wilser. good job, that's a sweet job
