HOLD ON!
Do you really want to bathe your bass in cigarette smoke? Sure it may yellow but it will also stink.
Agreed...except that it may not yellow at all....depends on the poly formulation. But it will indeed "stink".
You don't want to try to home-finish it with tinted clear either. NOt only is a thicker finish undesireable, only a pro could apply it and have it come out good. But even then it would look phony.
I disagree completely. It is quite possible for a first timer to do a simple overspray and have it look great. And no, it wouldn't look "phony" so long as it was done carefully. A few things to notice on older nitro guitars is that the Olympic White typically doesn't yellow "evenly". This is pretty easy to replicate....just don't spray the tinted clear evenly.
Another option would be to not use "Tinted Clear", but instead just overspray a nitrocellulose lacquer that doesn't contain anti-yellowing agents, such as Watco or Minwax brands. These will yellow naturally. UV will yellow them fairly fast, depending o the exposure type - sun, tanning bed, etc...
As for finish thickness, that's a whole 'nother debate that really hasn't been proven for either side - the pro's or the cons.
Let it happen naturally, it really doesn't take that long.
I disagree. It all depends on the formula Poly that was sprayed. Most modern poly contains anti-yellowing agents that will keep this from happening naturally.
And don't hear those saying it won't yellow, my Oyympic white Tele got nice and "vintage-y" while being stored in it's case all on it's own.
What year is your Tele ? Up until the early 2000's, the poly didn't seem to have the heavy anti-yellowing agents that it does currently, so Poly finished guitars built before then will often yellow "somewhat". After about 2003 or so, they don't tend to yellow much. There are exceptions to this, but for the most part, current/modern guitars won't yellow much, if at all.
