refinishing a streamer stage 1

[streamerstage1]

hi guys, my first post


so i have a streamer stage 1 from 92 and its in rough condition. the see through red finish is dinged and scratched pretty badly and i'm wondering if i can sand it off and keep it natural. is this possible or will i have to sand half the body away? i did a search and some say it's not possible on a maple body as the paint goes in quite deeply. it's not an oil finish though it's got laquer.

so, anyone here tried it?

thanks?

 

[Mr Rabble]

hi, and welcome!

I think it's always possible to sand a bass to natural

 

[Vinnie]

Rabble has spoken.

 

[ThirdthumB]

Well,

we can speculate about whether it's possible or not, but why not try with a tiny discrete part of the body ?? Say the back near the control cavity. Sand it until it turns natural. Depending on how much you need to sand that part, you can do the entire bass, or decide not to. Idea ?? 8)

 

[Grgzilla]

hi guys, my first post


so i have a streamer stage 1 from 92 and its in rough condition. the see through red finish is dinged and scratched pretty badly and i'm wondering if i can sand it off and keep it natural. is this possible or will i have to sand half the body away? i did a search and some say it's not possible on a maple body as the paint goes in quite deeply. it's not an oil finish though it's got laquer.

so, anyone here tried it?

thanks?

Hi & welcome.
You have a coloured oil maple bass.The maple would've absorbed the coloured oil to varying depths making sanding it off quite a big job.
I've seen one guy do it by hand & his turned out ok,but it took over 30 hours of sanding & he made himself sick from not wearing a dust mask.
Good luck.

 

[warwickhunt]

hi guys, my first post


so i have a streamer stage 1 from 92 and its in rough condition. the see through red finish is dinged and scratched pretty badly and i'm wondering if i can sand it off and keep it natural. is this possible or will i have to sand half the body away? i did a search and some say it's not possible on a maple body as the paint goes in quite deeply. it's not an oil finish though it's got laquer.

so, anyone here tried it?

thanks?

Hi & welcome.
You have a coloured oil maple bass.The maple would've absorbed the coloured oil to varying depths making sanding it off quite a big job.
I've seen one guy do it by hand & his turned out ok,but it took over 30 hours of sanding & he made himself sick from not wearing a dust mask.
Good luck.

I think the OP has indicated that it is not an oiled body, it is painted and lacquered!

I have had the lacquer taken off a Streamer bass and it can be done. However :lol: It is a time consuming, labour intensive job.

Warwick lacquer is 'very' hard and the contours of the body (and neck) means that the bass has to be sanded by hand... a lot of time and effort. If the bass is so badly chipped and marked, to the point that it bothers you a lot then I'd consider selling it to someone who doesn't mind and buying yourself a natural Streamer. Believe me I talk from experience it is cheaper and easier in the long run :wink:

 

[Eberbachl]

I stripped and refinished a high polish Ocean Blue finish Rockbass Corvette - wasn't too difficult.

Some paint stripper, some scraping and lots of sanding.

Turned out to become a beautiful Natural Oil finish bass

Here's a before and after photo of it (notice I swapped necks with a fretted Rockbass Corvette too).



It was well worth the effort.

 

[olistorck]

sanding

Sanding out the oil finish out of maple is next to impossible. A stain will always remain... or you´ll change the shape 8) Using peroxide to bleach the entire body usually works quite well, leaving the maple bright white. The white will disappear over time becoming light honey coloured. No guarantee given, but as I work with wood professionally I speak with 25 years of experience.
Greets

Oliver

 

[Eberbachl]

Re: sanding

Sanding out the oil finish out of maple is next to impossible. A stain will always remain... or you´ll change the shape 8) Using peroxide to bleach the entire body usually works quite well, leaving the maple bright white. The white will disappear over time becoming light honey coloured. No guarantee given, but as I work with wood professionally I speak with 25 years of experience.
Greets

Oliver

As you will see from the picture above the result on mine was excellent.

The reason was because there was a clear sealer coat applied to the timber before the tinted translucent Blue finish was applied (perhaps with yet another coat of clear on top - I'm not sure).

The point is that it was not a stain at all - none of the colour penetrated the timber.

If streamerstage1's bass has had the finish applied in this manner then a refinish back to natural is a simple process.

 

[olistorck]

refinish

your body is alder, I presume... that is a whole different story, soft wood, soft cells, easier to sand off... maple absorbs stains much deeper than soft woods. My two cents.

 

[warwickhunt]

I can not say for certain that Warwick do this but it is standard practice for most luthiers to seal the body prior to applying a colour that will then be sealed with lacquer. There is less chance of the colour altering when it comes in contact with the raw wood.

FWIW I didn't have any trouble with the colour penetrating to any great depth into the wood on the 2 Streamers that I have had refinished (1 of my basses was a solid white colour and had the hardest lacquer known to man, that was impervious to chemical stripping agents :lol: ).

I still say that you'd save your self any heartache and a big wedge of money if you simply sold it and bought what you required! It's a bit like buying a car in the wrong colour or wrong spec and then spending a small fortune changing the colour or adding extras to get the spec that you require... why not just buy the model/colour that you require :wink:

 

[Lewis]

I still say that you'd save your self any heartache and a big wedge of money if you simply sold it and bought what you required! It's a bit like buying a car in the wrong colour or wrong spec and then spending a small fortune changing the colour or adding extras to get the spec that you require... why not just buy the model/colour that you require :wink:

i agree.

 

[Eberbachl]

Re: refinish

your body is alder, I presume... that is a whole different story, soft wood, soft cells, easier to sand off... maple absorbs stains much deeper than soft woods. My two cents.

....yes - but you didn't get my point (or read it).

I said it had a clear coat under the colour, and no colour had been absorbed by the timber.

It wasn't a "stain" that had been used, but a blue tinted coat over a clear base coat.

So - if that is the case with streamerstage1s bass, as it was with mine - then whether it's maple or alder isn't an issue.

The stain won't penetrate the timber and refinishing won't be a problem.

 

[olistorck]

stain

Point taken... I didnt´t read it too well, blame it on missing coffee :roll: :roll:

 

[streamerstage1]

hey guys,

thanks for your input. i guess could sell the bass and get one in the colour i like, but that's near impossible with the model i want (streamer stage 1 from before 92) . the reason i want to keep it is because it has the nicest flaming i have ever seen on a streamer and that makes it special to me. is there any way of finding out for sure if there was a clear coat applied before the staining, as that would make the process of removing the colour much easier.
the colour is trasnsparent red if that helps. i'm ok with doing this myself, i have a lot of experience with sanding and i know it can be tough, even at the risk of reducing it's resale value ( i won't sell it) the way it looks now is horrible so it's not like it has much value anyway.
will the warwick customer service know about this? doesn't hurt to ask them i guess.


thanks,

 

[warwickhunt]

If you dislike the colour/finish so much and it is already dinged etc. then I'd just take a piece of sand/glasspaper to an inconspicuous part of the bass and see what happens!

 

[olistorck]

stain

If you send me some close-up pics I can tell for sure...
Greets
Oliver

 

[Grgzilla]

hi guys, my first post


so i have a streamer stage 1 from 92 and its in rough condition. the see through red finish is dinged and scratched pretty badly and i'm wondering if i can sand it off and keep it natural. is this possible or will i have to sand half the body away? i did a search and some say it's not possible on a maple body as the paint goes in quite deeply. it's not an oil finish though it's got laquer.

so, anyone here tried it?

thanks?

Hi & welcome.
You have a coloured oil maple bass.The maple would've absorbed the coloured oil to varying depths making sanding it off quite a big job.
I've seen one guy do it by hand & his turned out ok,but it took over 30 hours of sanding & he made himself sick from not wearing a dust mask.
Good luck.

I think the OP has indicated that it is not an oiled body, it is painted and lacquered!

Well he did call it a,"see through red finish".He also said he wants to do this because of the highly fiqured flamed maple.Ya follow me?

 

[Mr Rabble]

...thanks for your input. i guess could sell the bass and get one in the colour i like, but that's near impossible with the model i want (streamer stage 1 from before 92) . the reason i want to keep it is because it has the nicest flaming i have ever seen on a streamer and that makes it special to me.

?!?!? :shock:
Almost 95% of Streamer Stage 1 sold before 1992 were natural oil finished...

 

[warwickhunt]

...thanks for your input. i guess could sell the bass and get one in the colour i like, but that's near impossible with the model i want (streamer stage 1 from before 92) . the reason i want to keep it is because it has the nicest flaming i have ever seen on a streamer and that makes it special to me.

?!?!? :shock:
Almost 95% of Streamer Stage 1 sold before 1992 were natural oil finished...

If that figure (95%) is correct then I must just be lucky as I've been in contact with loads of the see-thru coloured lacquered models. I've seen loads and in no particular order owned a pair of red ones (identical to the OP I assume), a tabacco-burst and a blue one (all see-thru) as well as a pair of solid black and one white one!

Though if you look at the maths of it; if there were 100,000 basses produced that is still 5,000 coloured basses produced. Maybe I was just attracted to them more so tended to seek them out... strange considering that I prefer the feel of the natural oiled finish. I'd genuinely be interested to know the number of basses produced each year by Warwick, the figure should be easily available as they are all numbered.