Does anyone have any cleaning/restoration advice please?

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Echo

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Greetings! I just picked up an 04 Thumb NT 5, but it could use some love. It obviously hasn't been cared for very well. It is very dirty and doesn't look like it has been waxed once.

I will be taking it apart and getting into all the cracks and crevices for cleaning. Should I just use a warm, damp cloth for cleaning, or is there a solution for natural finishes? This thing obviously has some layers of funk on it (and not the good kind).

Can I scrub the wood pretty hard with a soft cloth (t-shirt, for example) or is it too fragile for elbow grease?

Is there a solution for cleaning the frets without hurting the fingerboard? How do I make the frets sparkle again?

Also, it seems to need knobs. The knobs don't hold on tight enough and keep spinning once the max turn has been reached. They aren't loose enough to fall off yet, but I would like to get some nice, tight knobs in place. Is there anywhere I can order them? I'd like new strap locks too.

Finally, the pickups sound good so far, but the lettering has worn off and there is nasty crap caked down the side of them (like in every other nook and cranny). Is it possible to oder brand new pickups somewhere, and are they hard to install?

Thanks for any help you can offer. I really hope I can get this thing restored to at least a clean, waxed condition, if nothing else. (f**kin eBay)
 
I just picked up a Thumb 5 BO. It was a mess.

I took it completely apart. I used 220 grit sand paper and sanded the entire body and back of the neck. Be sure to sand with the grain of the wood. After that I used the Warwick Wax on it lovingly. Wax it every day for 3 days then every couple of days depending on how it seems to take. It will look great after one waxing, but you really want to seal the wood.

I used the 220 grit sand paper on the fretboard as well. I think there is a product called Lemon Oil that you should use on the fret board. I didn't have it and used the Warwick Wax again. Then I put masking tape on the fretboard between all of the frets. so I could sand the frets long ways. (yes these frets were bad!) I lightly sanded the frets and now they are shiney.

After that I has to do some work to my neck. It was slightly twisted, so I Loosened the truss rod and clamped it down to a table used some shimms to force it to the shape I wanted and then used a halogen work like to heat the neck. I let the light sit in one area for 20 mins then moved it down. After 80 minutes I was good and let the neck cool while still clamped. (it actually took me a few tries to get this right). Now the neck is straight.

Only thing now is I'm waiting on some parts from Dana B Goods to finish this up. Some screws, a tailpiece JAN III and other little various parts.

Good Luck and I hope this helps.
 
Jeremiah said:
I just picked up a Thumb 5 BO. It was a mess.

I took it completely apart. I used 220 grit sand paper and sanded the entire body and back of the neck. Be sure to sand with the grain of the wood. After that I used the Warwick Wax on it lovingly. Wax it every day for 3 days then every couple of days depending on how it seems to take. It will look great after one waxing, but you really want to seal the wood.

I used the 220 grit sand paper on the fretboard as well. I think there is a product called Lemon Oil that you should use on the fret board. I didn't have it and used the Warwick Wax again. Then I put masking tape on the fretboard between all of the frets. so I could sand the frets long ways. (yes these frets were bad!) I lightly sanded the frets and now they are shiney.

After that I has to do some work to my neck. It was slightly twisted, so I Loosened the truss rod and clamped it down to a table used some shimms to force it to the shape I wanted and then used a halogen work like to heat the neck. I let the light sit in one area for 20 mins then moved it down. After 80 minutes I was good and let the neck cool while still clamped. (it actually took me a few tries to get this right). Now the neck is straight.

Only thing now is I'm waiting on some parts from Dana B Goods to finish this up. Some screws, a tailpiece JAN III and other little various parts.

Good Luck and I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

That sounds much more advanced than I can handle. I wonder if I could pay to have all that done. For now, I'm happy just getting all the gunk off and making is sparkle and smell good. 8)
 
Echo said:
Can I scrub the wood pretty hard with a soft cloth (t-shirt, for example) or is it too fragile for elbow grease?
Click to expand...

Your bass can take a lot, don't worry. Bubinga and Ovankol are very hard and dense woods, so give it a try :-)
 
Florin said:
Echo said:
Can I scrub the wood pretty hard with a soft cloth (t-shirt, for example) or is it too fragile for elbow grease?
Click to expand...

Your bass can take a lot, don't worry. Bubinga and Ovankol are very hard and dense woods, so give it a try :-)
Click to expand...

Do you recommend a solution, or is plain warm water best?
 
First I clean the whole bass with lemon oil. this and using elhbow grease (scrubbing constantly and steady) on your frets will make them shine aain. also this will clean and moisture your fretboard and body of the bass. then i either go with a coat of Howard's Feed N Wax for the body and once that soaks in and cleans really well I wipe down the body (I let the wood drink it up) and then i clean it up. once dried I polish it with Wick's wax and that's it.

for the small crevices I use te canned air to blow in the cavities and around the pick ups and I use lemon opil to clean the screws and little niches with a q-tip.

on the water.. I never use water just lemon oil. the wax is to seal the water out so there is no motive to apply water to your bass.

I use several polish cloths. oe to clean and other to apply and polish the wax with. they are really cheap at GC and they are about $2.00 USD each so I get several of them.

you can get the lemon oil at the music store (small bottle big price) or at Lowe's or Home Depot (make sure is pure lemon oil (big bottle medium price but it lasts a long time and is the same pure lemon oil as the one at the music store).

take pics of pre and post so you can see the difference.

PD. make sure you remove the strings first. so you can access all the fret surface and fretboard.
 
Echo said:
Florin said:
Echo said:
Can I scrub the wood pretty hard with a soft cloth (t-shirt, for example) or is it too fragile for elbow grease?
Click to expand...

Your bass can take a lot, don't worry. Bubinga and Ovankol are very hard and dense woods, so give it a try :-)
Click to expand...

Do you recommend a solution, or is plain warm water best?
Click to expand...
I'd never use water on an oil finished bass. Lemon oil :-)
 
trujo777 said:
First I clean the whole bass with lemon oil. this and using elhbow grease (scrubbing constantly and steady) on your frets will make them shine aain. also this will clean and moisture your fretboard and body of the bass. then i either go with a coat of Howard's Feed N Wax for the body and once that soaks in and cleans really well I wipe down the body (I let the wood drink it up) and then i clean it up. once dried I polish it with Wick's wax and that's it.

for the small crevices I use te canned air to blow in the cavities and around the pick ups and I use lemon opil to clean the screws and little niches with a q-tip.

on the water.. I never use water just lemon oil. the wax is to seal the water out so there is no motive to apply water to your bass.

I use several polish cloths. oe to clean and other to apply and polish the wax with. they are really cheap at GC and they are about $2.00 USD each so I get several of them.

you can get the lemon oil at the music store (small bottle big price) or at Lowe's or Home Depot (make sure is pure lemon oil (big bottle medium price but it lasts a long time and is the same pure lemon oil as the one at the music store).

take pics of pre and post so you can see the difference.

PD. make sure you remove the strings first. so you can access all the fret surface and fretboard.
Click to expand...

Thanks a ton!!
 
for the knobs either tighten up the little screws to the sides or simply order new from your music store or Warwick dealer, or worst case scenario from the online store at Warwick but shipping will definetly be an issue.

same thing goes with the pick ups. the fading of the gold does not bother me since this does not affect the performance and they will fade anyways.

enjoy te process and show us pics to participate with you in this process.

by the way you did the right thing... as questions first, then act upon them. many peoplee do the opposite they do something...mess it up and then they ask questions.
 
All advice here has been excellent. The only tip I would add is that once your frets are cleaned up, you can buy a brass polishing cloth from the horn section of a music store and use that to do final touch up/polish on your bell brass frets and they will sparkle. 8)
 
Here are some before shots...

woops! how do i post pics?
 
I bought a used bubinga pomelle vette that was in pretty dirty condition...dinged, dry, dusty etc. I thought the body had awesome grain though so I bought it, and used my Ash Vette as a donor instrument, with the view of building a great bubinga one, and then a gig beater out of the Ash bass. I took the bass home, steamed out all the dings, sanded it back a little and waxed the hell outta her. I ended up swapping the necks, as the ash one had a far more vibrant grain the suited the bubinga better. Pickups and electronics swapped and I recently just bought all new black hardware for the bubinga one. Both have cleaned up into awesome basses, the ash is a great gig bass!!

Excuse the big pics but shows the detail well...

Before...


After...
 
wow indeed the darker fretboard looks radiant on that Vette bubinga. congrats on this. looks stunning.
 
I need a neck pic too, the ovangkol is almost flamed in parts...looks insane, but yeh the dark wenge board looks better. Interesting on the side of the wenge board on the other bass, it looks like tiger ebony...very interesting cross grain!
 
Ok, here is what the guitar looked like before cleaning...
 
Here is what it looked like while cleaning it. I added the towel shots, because these pictures really don't relate just how dirty this thing was...
 
Finally, here is what she looked like after her bath. The brass frets really came to life.
 
Wow .... :shock: :shock: :shock: ..... simply WOW.

Very well done!!!!

Now go get yourself something against worm!
 
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