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Double Bass Strip or not to Strip

BassGreaser

BassGreaser

Aug 22, 2002
4,013
1,663
Austin, TX
#1
I have a Strunal 5/20 hybrid that has been a great bass for me for the past 5 years. Now I know it's definitely not the best bass out there, but it's my bass. It has the thick hard finish on it and for the past serval years I have been thinking about getting the finish stripped and having an oil vanish applied to get the best possible tone out of this thing. What do you fellow DBers think if this idea is it worth it?
 
#9
Allow me to add my knowledge about this specific bass. It is a well made hybrid and the polyurethane varnish chokes the sound. One of my friends has the same one and after stripping it and varnishing it with oil varnish he noticed a tremendous improvement
in terms of volume and complexity of tone. As i remember the sound was a bit "pingy" and after the varnishing it became warm and deep.
The whole process was performed by a violin luthier in Greece with excellent results. He stained the tonewood with golden brown stain
and varnished it with a smooth satin oil varnish.
If i were in your shoes i'd try to find a decent double bass luthier to do it.
Mike
 
#12
MIKMAN said:
Allow me to add my knowledge about this specific bass. It is a well made hybrid and the polyurethane varnish chokes the sound. One of my friends has the same one and after stripping it and varnishing it with oil varnish he noticed a tremendous improvement
in terms of volume and complexity of tone. As i remember the sound was a bit "pingy" and after the varnishing it became warm and deep.
The whole process was performed by a violin luthier in Greece with excellent results. He stained the tonewood with golden brown stain
and varnished it with a smooth satin oil varnish.
If i were in your shoes i'd try to find a decent double bass luthier to do it.
Mike
Click to expand...

Mike,
Thanks for the info it makes me feel hopeful about this idea
 
#15
arnoldschnitzer said:
I agree you should have a pro do the finish work. However, you could save a lot of money by doing the stripping yourself. It's relatively easy, but messy, smelly and time consuming. Citrustrip is one of the less toxic yet effective products for that purpose.
Click to expand...
arnold i will be moving out to Philly in a few months
and I was actually going to contact you to see if you would be willing to to the process on my bass and see how much it would cost.
 
#16
Wow. There you go. Word from a Master.

So if you do decide to do this, please document all the before, during and after states of your Strunal with photos, controlled audio recordings and even a spread sheet of money and time spent. Sometimes to know if it's worth it, somebody just has to decide to do the experiment, record and track all the relevant data, and then come to a conclusion after it's all done. And then share the data so others can learn from the experiment.

I'd be very interested to know how this turns out.
 
#17
longfinger said:
Wow. There you go. Word from a Master.

So if you do decide to do this, please document all the before, during and after states of your Strunal with photos, controlled audio recordings and even a spread sheet of money and time spent. Sometimes to know if it's worth it, somebody just has to decide to do the experiment, record and track all the relevant data, and then come to a conclusion after it's all done. And then share the data so others can learn from the experiment.

I'd be very interested to know how this turns out.
Click to expand...
Long that is a great idea.. I will do just that. i am very interested in seeing how this bass sounds with it fully opened up and putting out the best sound it can, and one of the main reasons why I want to keep this bass is it doesnt feed back at all even using my Underwood pickup right into an old Ampeg B25b tube head playing with louder groups, and I tend to have a nice deep sound going through an amp. :D
 
#20
not the same animal BUT, I made my own fretless electric bass. Before I put any finish on it I strung it up and played in unplugged. I loved the acoustic sound, I could hear the wood talkin. Then I proceeded to spray lacquer on it, just a few coats, restrung it - lost all that woody sound. So I stripped all the finish off and applied 1 good coat of oil/varnish. Now I'm happy because I like the sound and feel of the instrument much better. I like wood
 

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