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Double Bass Where can I get varnish to touch up dings on my DB ?

T

thejcearl

Dec 31, 2015
3
0
73
#1
I;ve acquired a Johannes Kohr bass three months ago, and the previous owner (high school student) left some scratches on that I would like to touch up so they are not quite so visible. This instrument is about 10 years old. Any ideas where I can find a varnish made specifically for basses ?

thanks very much - Jim
 
#4
I have used Zinsser Bullseye Shellac, amber color, to touch up some minor dingleberries. It probably takes 2 coats. If the bass is a very dark color, it won't work.

The good thing about shellac is it's really easy to apply and highly reversible. I wouldn't do this to an uber-high-dollar vintage instrument, but I'm OK wth it for my factory made Romanian bass.

Let the flames begin!
 
#9
As an alternative to varnish, you can use Copic markers to touch up the finish. They're available in artist-supply stores and come in many colors. I use a combination of two colors to touch up my Shen. It's not permanent solution in some locations; touchups on the wear edges (e.g., upper bout) have worn off after a while. But it's a good solution for the inevitable dings that my bass receives. Not really a stain; the color seems to remain on the surface. Worth a try.

BTW, I've also heard that rubbing walnut (shelled) into scratches will mask them.

Also, this.
 
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#11
I had a few tiny little nicks and dents along the corners of my upright; nothing too drastic, just some chips a millimeter or two long, but down to the wood in a couple of cases.

And you luthiers can have a go at me for it, but I coloured in the wood bits with my daughters brown felt-tip pens and then touched up the varnish with my wife's clear coat nail varnish, then buffed it in with an emery board.

And it looks fine! No-one would be the wiser!
 
#12
Creating an account on the Met music site is as easy as filling in your contact info and billing address, which one would need to do with any other online retailer . I think perhaps certain items (instruments) aren't on their site without a commercial account perhaps, but varnish and tools and wood and such are as easy to order as any other site.

"The Art of Violin Retouching" by Brian Epp is very useful, and will give you an idea of what supplies you'll need.
 
#13
I use a Tibet Almond Stick to hide scratches on my basses. It works well if you don't want to deal with stains or varnishes.

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- Steve
 
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#14
Well, your experience may be different, but I have sent customers to Met Music when they had a large restoration needing a lot of parts and they refused to sell them to the customer without going through the entire commercial account process. On any given day, I have between $5-10k as a minimum tied up into materials and parts for the various restorations and new builds, so I try to let the customers pay for as much as possible with suppliers. Met music has consistently denied them this option even if they drop ship it to the address on my acount and I verify it. I switched to using International Violin because they are always very helpful and willing to take our $. Met are nice folks but their 1925 business model is not winning them new customers.......
 
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