Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

[Immortal]

I have a chance of getting one bass guitar (cheap one) and I want to rebuilt it a bit as for a hobby, if you know what I mean.

It has red finish on the body and black on the neck. I was thinking of grinding down the paint and the whole finish to the wood by sandpaper. I'm not sure whether is ok to keep only wood. Wouldn't that be too soft? Guitar is a bit older and very massive and heavy. I wanted to do that Musicman look by varnishing plain wood without finish.

What is that thing in the finish between paint and wood? Is that a hard pitch or poliester? Do I need that coat even though I'm planning to varnish the wood only? Would it be bad not putting this on the guitar?

Thanks a lot!

[zeegler]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

You may be talking about sanding sealer, or primer. This is the usual way a guitar is finished:

wood - sanding sealer - primer - paint - clearcoat/varnish/lacquer.

There is certainly nothing wrong with refinishing a guitar in a natural finish. Just a thin coat of clear will protect the wood well enough. If you want that dull matte look you can use a satin clear or just a regular clearcoat, and use steel wool to take some of the shine away.

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Thanks. I was afraid that I will need some special stuff to do that.

My friend is a carpenter so he'll now what to recommend since there are no special extras to be added on wood.

Will post pics when I get the things and start working.

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Hey, how are the frets usually fitted on fretboard? Are they glued on or just hammered in? Can I replace them by myself?

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

[img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

I'll consider that advice.

Another question: is varhishing the fretboard good idea? It seems very cute and shiny but it's ugly it becomes worn out.

[zeegler]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Sometimes they are glued in, but usually just pressed in with a fretpress. There's more to refretting than just hammering new frets in I'm afraid. Unless you have the specialized tools, it's very difficult and time consuming. Plus, after the new frets are in, they might need levelling and crowning. I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you are prepared to take it to a luthier to refret properly after you screw it up. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but just relating my own experience. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I'm not the most patient person in the world.

[zeegler]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

As far as I know, the only time a fretboard is lacquered, is when it's maple, and that's to prevent it from becoming dirty and stained. Perhaps you could put a finish on rosewood or ebony, but I'm not sure why you would want to.

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Thank you very much. I see you really know how to deal with these things.

I'll contact you if something goes wrong or strange. If you don't mind, of course.

[Budman68]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

If you are looking for the natural "look and feel" of wood on the body, just remove the whole finish, sand it smooth or whatever method you'd like, and then rub on a product called "TUNG OIL". this is an excellent product and the bottle should have complete directions on how to apply it. Basically, you rub it into the wood, let dry, scuff with steel wool, then rub in another coat, let dry and then you can get something called "0000 steel wool" for the next step. After the tung oil is dry, just rub it down with the "0000 steel wool" and it will be very smooth. These products can be found at any hardware store or home fix-it centers.

Good luck with your project!

Dave->

[zeegler]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Originally posted by Immortal:
Thank you very much. I see you really know how to deal with these things.

I'll contact you if something goes wrong or strange. If you don't mind, of course.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No problem dude, any time. There are people on this board who know way, way more than I do though. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Hey. I was making a rutine check. I started to narrow the neck and testing the intonation before I take it to pieces. I was checking it with tuner and I was wondering what happens if I slightly bow neck with fret hand. The neck is kind of soft and it retunes the guitar if you're bowing the neck.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

[zeegler]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Originally posted by Immortal:
Hey. I was making a rutine check. I started to narrow the neck and testing the intonation before I take it to pieces. I was checking it with tuner and I was wondering what happens if I slightly bow neck with fret hand. The neck is kind of soft and it retunes the guitar if you're bowing the neck.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That is normal. Wood is quite flexible, and even with a truss rod, you can still flex a guitar neck a certain amount. Be gentle though, and don't crank on it too hard. Also, the strings should return to pitch once you release the tention on the neck

[axeman81]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

yeah,
Slash used to get a tremolo effect out of his stoptail LP's that way, bending the neck [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
I remember being amazed by seeing that when I was a kid [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

- Rune.

[Immortal]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Originally posted by budman68:
If you are looking for the natural "look and feel" of wood on the body, just remove the whole finish, sand it smooth or whatever method you'd like, and then rub on a product called "TUNG OIL". this is an excellent product and the bottle should have complete directions on how to apply it. Basically, you rub it into the wood, let dry, scuff with steel wool, then rub in another coat, let dry and then you can get something called "0000 steel wool" for the next step. After the tung oil is dry, just rub it down with the "0000 steel wool" and it will be very smooth. These products can be found at any hardware store or home fix-it centers.

Good luck with your project!

Dave-&gt;

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm going through my insomnia times because of your post!

I was thinking and finnaly decided to give your advice a chance, but the only problems is when I come to the shop... What should I say? No one knows tung oil here in Slovenia. Especially, no one knows an oil that could do a finish on wood! Stupid people. I stood there with three salesmen in shop and they were trying to explain me that there's no oil that could do a finish on wood. I was feeling like being fooled.

Are there any synonyms for tung oil? I've found only a latin term but after spending several hours in national library behind books about botany I found nothing, zero, null! Not a single a page or picture describing something like tung tree or oil!

Also, what is this steel wool? I was looking at some pictures on google and steel wool looks similiar to a steel mop that is used for cleaning steel dish. It's like a rough sponge. But here aren't any dimensions [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Budman68]

Re: Suggestions: making homemade finish on the guitar

Originally posted by Immortal:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by budman68:
If you are looking for the natural "look and feel" of wood on the body, just remove the whole finish, sand it smooth or whatever method you'd like, and then rub on a product called "TUNG OIL". this is an excellent product and the bottle should have complete directions on how to apply it. Basically, you rub it into the wood, let dry, scuff with steel wool, then rub in another coat, let dry and then you can get something called "0000 steel wool" for the next step. After the tung oil is dry, just rub it down with the "0000 steel wool" and it will be very smooth. These products can be found at any hardware store or home fix-it centers.

Good luck with your project!

Dave-&gt;

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm going through my insomnia times because of your post!

I was thinking and finnaly decided to give your advice a chance, but the only problems is when I come to the shop... What should I say? No one knows tung oil here in Slovenia. Especially, no one knows an oil that could do a finish on wood! Stupid people. I stood there with three salesmen in shop and they were trying to explain me that there's no oil that could do a finish on wood. I was feeling like being fooled.

Are there any synonyms for tung oil? I've found only a latin term but after spending several hours in national library behind books about botany I found nothing, zero, null! Not a single a page or picture describing something like tung tree or oil!

Also, what is this steel wool? I was looking at some pictures on google and steel wool looks similiar to a steel mop that is used for cleaning steel dish. It's like a rough sponge. But here aren't any dimensions [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here ya go, it's also called China Oil:

Tung Oil

And here is a good description of the steel wool I was talking about:

0000 steel wool

By the way, I can't believe that a hardware store didn't have either of these. Time to find a Home Center like Lowe's or Home Depot possibly?

Dave-&gt;