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Refinishing bass

#21
Originally posted by timp
I need to get my brother to let me borrow his digital camera so I can take and post a pic of my Sting Ray. It is the standard burst finish, it is real transparent and looks absolutely super. I think that the body is swamp ash, and the grain shows through real well. Really a beautiful burst finish IMHO. I also have a Carvin with the tung oil over Koa. It is also quite striking in appearance. I read somewhere that with tung oil the more you buff with steel wool the shiny it gets. It is impervious to finger-prints and such, I simply wipe it down with lemon oil about every six months and it looks good as new.
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"I read somewhere that with tung oil the more you buff with steel wool the shiny it gets."


Timp, you are flirting with disaster any time you use steel wool around almost any electronic gear. Steel wool breaks up into almost microscopic particles. The pups have magnets that can attract the particles of steel wool. If those particles ever get on the pup magnets there is NO way to remove them. If you doubt what I'm saying try removing steel wool particles from a toy, or refrigerator, magnet. Even on an exposed magnet it is almost impossible to remove them.

If you use brass wool instead of steel wool you can get the same results without putting your pups at risk. Brass is non-ferrous so it doesn't stick to a magnet.

Stainless steel wool could be an option but only after testing to make sure a strand doesn't stick to a magnet. Some S.S. wool is alloyed with ferrous metal and is just as risky to use as steel wool.



 
#22
Pkr2,

Thanks for the comment. I would never go after my bass with something like that until I had removed anything that could be negatively affected by refinishing products or materials. I suppose however, that there are plenty out there who would be that slow ;) . Your advice however, did not answer my question which was will the buffing process make the tung oil shine more?
 
#23
Sorry Timp, I read the steel wool part of your post as a comment as opposed to being a question.

Yes, up to a point, the wood will get shinier. However if you want a high gloss finish tung oil is not the best choice. Before the wood can be polished, the wood must first be brought to a high level of smoothness. This is usually done by filling the pores of the wood with a filler before the finish is applied. The finish is then applied in multiple coats, allowed to cure and then the finish is polished. Notice that I said the finish is polished, not the wood. Do a search for french polishing.

Very dense woods such as ebony, birdseye maple and old growth walnut will take a polish with little or no filling required. These types of wood will get shinier the more you rub them. On the other hand, you can rub all the tung oil you want to on a piece of spruce or oak and never get it to shine because of the open pores.

Hope this helps.
 
#28
Originally posted by bassman5
The stain I got at the store is an oil based stain. Everyone has recommended water based stain. What is the difference between the two?
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Other than the ratio, paint and stain are the same thing. Vehicle(liquid) and pigment (color)

Water based or latex use water as the vehicle and clean up can be done with water as well as thinning the product.

Oil based product uses oil as the vehicle. Imagine that. Thinning is with oil. Clean-up requires a solvent.

Water based is cleaner to work with, dries faster and in some cases harder.

Multiple coats of laquer followed by french polishing is the king of finishes in my opinion.

Hope this helps.
 
#30
Originally posted by bassman5
Thanks PKr2 that did help alot, but 1 more question, if I use the oil based stain instead of water based stain, will it affect the polyurethane over it in any way?
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Most of the the experts say it's better to use water based stain with water based clear coats and vice versa. I would not mix them myself but I have seen people mix them and the job seemed to turn out ok. You can always check on a piece of scrap wood. My advice would be to get the stain and finish from the same manufacturer. Then you know you wont have a compatibility problem. By the way, oil stain is no better than any other stain. I doubt you would be able to see the difference.
 
#31
Thanks to everyone that contributed to this post. I am now on my second coat of polyurethane and have stained it. It looks really good, and as soon as it is done and put back together I will try and post some pics and get some feedback. If anyone has any more suggestions on this topic please keep them comming just incase I ever do this again on a different bass. Peace.



~Marty
 
#34
i'm having similar issues with a Warwick Rockbass. I sanded it down moving from coarse to fine. I want the grain to show through. I am going to use this bass alot. All this talk of oil vs waterbased and Different finishes are deeply confusing me. The body is made of carolea wood (pine?) and I want to let the grain show through so I bought a can of light pecan minwax stain. I also want a gloss finish so it shines in the light. If this process of staining is going to be ALOT of work I might just apply a few coats of gloss white paint and some kind of final gloss finish. I dont have alot of time to do this so it needs to be done right the first time or all my hours of sanding the flat black original paint off and prepping it for a new finish will be null and naught! HELP!
 

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