OOOPS! I did it again...

Florin

Florin

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Hello guys and gals. I've just refinished another bass, this time a vette $$. His owner, (Baragan from the forum) told me that he never waxed his bass, and he is a little bit lazy, so I offered him to oil his bass, to be better protected. So... Here we go :-)
That's the bass:




Removing the hardware:



















At this moment I changed my mind, and decided to leave the electronics and PUPS there.








Removed the old finish with #000 and #0000 steelwool



The bass is ready to oil. I have used Birchwood Casey Tru Oil.




I applied fith my fingers, with the grain, and rubbed a little until I felt warm.
After that I've left it to dry a couple of hours and aplied another coating.
This is after 5 coatings. After that I left it to dry for 2 days.




Then I had to remove some of the oil again with #0000 steelwool.
I,ve decided here to remove everything from the bass...

Look the way I cut the wires, so I could know wher to solder them back ;-)









Here the bass is ready to oil again:


Ok, this was a solution to make a support for the bass to dry :-)




This is after 5 more coatings of oil.


Fter drying 2 days, I have buffered a little with #0000 steelwool, to remove the high gloss look.




Then I have rubbed it with an old jeans to give it a shiny look, and then I have waxed it.

Then, I assembled it back, and set it up. Look the way I set up the pickups :-)


And this is the bass now:







 
rrreeeally nice!
hm... think i'm gonna try linseed on my vette soon.
 
You're a very nice guy Florin. :D

And the bass looks gorgeous: the ultimate shine !!! :D Definitely one of the most expensive looking pieces of Ash I've seen in my life............. :D
 
Ooooh thats very nice really brings out the wood grain, now silly question time....

Does that bass ever need to be oiled again to remain protected?

Does waxing it regularly provide more protection than oiling it like you did does?
 
the oil is used to seal the wood and stop moisture getting in. the wax is used to keep the wood in good condition and protext the finish/wood.

you only need to reaply the wax
 
Wow - what a great detailed account of your project. Well done, it looks gorgeous and thank you for sharing it.

P
 
Great work Florin. And what a very pretty bass that is.
Baragan must be glad, that he knows you :D
 
Thank you my friends for your kind words :-)
@ Evilsmile, I don't think this bass will need to be oiled again... just the regular waxing from now on.

I don't know about other oils, but this one is an oil when applied, but becomes a hard varnish after drying. So it penetrates the wood well, then it hardens. I applied enough layers to build up a little. All the pores on the wood are sealed now, so the bass is not exposed anymore. The waxing is just for aesthetic reasons now... but in time when the oil finish will wear it will enough to keep the bass protected.

Cheers :-)
 
Florin, that is great stuff. Thanks for the detail. This will definitley help my with my vette when it gets here...
 
Well done Flo,I love your manicure bro. :lol: :lol:
Seriously though mate that's an excellent how to & the pics just make it that much better.Cheers dude.
 
florin, that rules! here is a suggestion if you want a sturdier support for the bas when it is drying. if you have a garage or attic with exposed beams you can do this: get a block of wood and bolt it to the beam in the garage or attic. THEN, on the other end of the block of wood, bolt the guitar to it using the neck joint screw holes. It will sit perfectly, will be sturdy and will offer complete airflow all arond :)
 
Hey Florin,
What size allen wrench did you use as a spacer when you re-installed the pickups (photo #47)? I like the look of that spacing and it might be a little closer than my setup right now. Did you space the same for both the B srting side and the G string side?

Also, I think that if you ever grow tired of touring and playing in bands you may have a promising career the instrument customization department.

Nice work! 8)
 
thumperton said:
Well done Flo,I love your manicure bro. :lol: :lol:
.
Click to expand...

My wife is cutting my fingernails (and Luca's too) when I sleep. When I am awake I move too much it is not possible to do that. However, I always say to her to leave my right hand's thumb nail sauvage, for double thumping :-)

@ BA- good tip man, I'll use it next time !

ALB, I use 4mm allen for bridge pickup. I set equal the B and G string, then I set the G string side a little bit closer, but using my ear this time. After that I set the neck pickup height using my ear, it must have the same output as the bridge pickup.

I'll love to work on instruments the whole day long, that would be the dream work no 2 :-)
 
But... these are passive pickups, and they are MM style humbuckers, with large poles, and they are two of them. That is the reason I am setting them to 4 and 5 mm.
You can set active pickups closer, as they have weaker magnets ;-) The bridge pickup on my SSII is about 3mm from the strings...
 
Florin said:

You can set active pickups closer, as they have weaker magnets ;-) The bridge pickup on my SSII is about 3mm from the strings...
Click to expand...

My vette has passive MEC's so I'm assuming 4/5 mm spacing would probably be ideal.
 
you can go a little bit closer :-) Just listen not to have sustain loss, or bad intonation. Or not hit the pickups when playing. The closer they are, the better is the signal-to-noise ratio, and the better is the sound.
 
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