Natural Finish question

One Bad Monkey

One Bad Monkey

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I've had my '96 Corvette Std. since 1997 and have been very good at waxing it about every six months. I have been thinking that, this next time around (in a couple weeks when I'm done using it) maybe I should take some 0000 steel wool to the body to just pull some of the various layers of old wax off it. Nothing heavy duty, just a light sanding to remove anything that, over the years, may have gotten lodged in the wax and then covered over.

Seeing as I've never done this before, would any of you actually recommend this, or is it something that I should just let be and continue to just wax as normal?
 
Personally, unless it's looking REALLY funky, I'd just keep waxing it as normal.

:d
 
Hey Jon, scotchbrite and lemon oil seems to be a less intrusive way of cleaning your bass :-)
 
Using the lemon oil and a scotchbrite pad to clean off the old residue? Just want to make sure whatever I do on this bass, I do it right. It's been my baby for years and I don't wanna mess it up. I'd cry.
 
One Bad Monkey said:
Using the lemon oil and a scotchbrite pad to clean off the old residue? Just want to make sure whatever I do on this bass, I do it right. It's been my baby for years and I don't wanna mess it up. I'd cry.
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He's right but make sure it's a non-scratch pad, that way it won't have any chance of damaging your bass with rash. I used it with Howard Wax and Feed which worked pretty well around the knobs where it has a slick appearance from where your fingers rub the wood. With the non scratch pad you can put a good amount of pressure on the wood and not worry about it.
 
I always just use fine sand paper. Never had a problem with it hurting the look. It has brought some of my basses back to near new condition!
 
I do dry. I go 400 600 800 1000

If its deep maybe 320

It almost perfectly restored my 88 thumb. Then I waxed several times and good as new. Done it on a few corvettes as well.
 
Thanks for all the info, guys. I appreciate it. Probably will give this a go in a couple weeks when I have some downtime from gigging and can pull the bass completely apart to do this.
 
Just out of interest... coincidentally, I've been wondering lately what level of grit Warwick take their timber finished bass bodies to for a natural finish bass?

I would think only about 320-400 or so, but I'm only speculating.

;)
 
Florin said:
Hey Jon, scotchbrite and lemon oil seems to be a less intrusive way of cleaning your bass :-)
Click to expand...

+1 ....
Absence of ferrous debris = 1000000000% more cool method.

Perznally, I'm with the 'just-let-it-be' crowd. If you've been using
an appropriate wax and/or oil, it should look waaaay better today
than it did when it was young :-)

And +1 to the Howards F&W mentioned somewheres earlier. It's
my all purpose finish, cleaner, etc ... altho I do mix in some real
lemon oil to thin it out for some purposes. HFW is an oil-and-wax
mixture in a squeeze bottle, viscosity kinda like thick liquid soap.

`
 
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Eberbachl said:
Just out of interest... coincidentally, I've been wondering lately what level of grit Warwick take their timber finished bass bodies to for a natural finish bass?

I would think only about 320-400 or so, but I'm only speculating.

;)
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I've used 400 on FL FBs as the final degree, and it's not really
as smooth as a new Wick body. I'm gonna wax the FB anywho,
so I don't see wasting 800 or 1200 to make it all silky smooth.
 
400 grit is what i used to make HP necks feel more like a satin finish, so its not really that shiny mooth grade. For a real polish on hard timber jewlery i have made i go 800, 1000/1200 then OOOO steel wool, that would be for something like polishing a fretboard.

Aslo Jon- remember if you go steel wool you have to tape EVERYTHING on you bass. the fluff from the wool can stick to and rust your pups and short out you electronics turing a nice preamp into so much expensive detritus.
 
Augie said:
Aslo Jon- remember if you go steel wool you have to tape EVERYTHING on you bass. the fluff from the wool can stick to and rust your pups and short out you electronics turing a nice preamp into so much expensive detritus.
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Thanks for the reminder; I think I'm going to go with the scotchpad instead. I'm also planning on pulling this bass completely apart so I don't have any little spots that I "can't quite get to" because of a bridge, pickups, strings, etc..
 
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