Oil Finished Bass Needs Help

[clemford]

Hello everyone, I realize this forum is mainly for kits but I could use some expert help. I just bought a Tune TWB53 FM Bass that needs some work and I'm not sure how to go about cleaning and refinishing it. I was told that it's lightly stained and finished in oil. There's finger grime in areas on the Maple Top that looks to be into the pores and some of the stain color looks like it may be worn off. The top also feels a bit rough like it could use a light sanding. I'm not sure what the wood is on the back but it has some deep dents and gouges. It would be nice to fill some of the dents in but that would fill in the grain. It would also be nice to be able to match the stain on both the front and back but I have no idea how to match the colors. It also looks like the back must've been stained before the maple Top was glued on because there would would be no way of not getting the dark stain on the light maple top, so if I could match the back color, I would have to be very careful not to get it on the maple top. I also could use some tips on the best way to refinish the oil. This isn't really a high end guitar but I sure like the looks and feel of the instrument and I would love to restore it back to as close to new as possible. I'm currently restoring a Schecter Hellraiser 5 Bass so this project is next. It's the first oil finished instrument I've owned and i will certainly do a better job taking care of it than the previous owner I rescued it from did. Thanks for any help.

[tippie53]

you can try a little water on the dents ,that may help to reswell the wood cells. As for what the finish was I would think that it may not be a true oil but a wipe on poly finish . This is a case of you can fix it till its broke. Not all finishes are compatible and you may make things worse .
Try and find more detail about the finish from the maker . That would be the best advice I can give you at this point .

[clemford]

you can try a little water on the dents ,that may help to reswell the wood cells. As for what the finish was I would think that it may not be a true oil but a wipe on poly finish . This is a case of you can fix it till its broke. Not all finishes are compatible and you may make things worse .
Try and find more detail about the finish from the maker . That would be the best advice I can give you at this point .

I agree, sometimes things are better left undone. I figure I should do as little as possible. I would like to clean the spots a little though. Would a little ammonia carefully just on the grime spots be too harsh? Mineral spirits did nothing.
The maker advertises these as hand rubbed oil finish and the Dealer said it it lightly stained with oil finish. The back side is dull but the front has a satin sheen in areas.

[David L]

My experience with trying to match stains (I don't have an enormous amount of experience so take this into consideration) on non-guitar projectcs is that it is nearly impossible to do, here's why, matching the color is hard enough but a bigger problem is that there is some sort of finish on it that will prevent it from taking the stain, the wood is sealed in some manner and the stain will take to the wood that has been sanded and won't take where it hasn't been sanded and the transition area from sanded wood to non-sanded wood area will have all kind of ugly things happening to it, if I was in a situation that I felt that absolutely must do something with the back to make it look better I would start by sanding the entire back down to bare wood and try to remove as much/many of the dents as John suggested. I do this by using an old clothes iron (You can use your wife's new one but it's a lttle chilly sleeping in the dog house this time of the year) turn iron up to almost full power and let it come up to temp., put a generous drop of water in the dent and zap it with the iron, when the snap, crackle, pop, and sizzleing stops (usually after just afew seconds) the dent should be mostly raised if not completely. Then the staining/finishig progess can begin with a clean slate.
Check out some gereral woodworking sites, they may be more helpful than this.

David L

[kencierp]

Any of the top on the line furniture cleaners will work just fine -- Formby's is a good one -- there's also cleaning products made for guitars -- Dunlap?. I would not mess with it. Look at Clapton's Strat and Willie Nelson's Martin Classic. Its to be played and make music!!

[tippie53]

Good post Ken
Lets say you got Mojo on the guitar and in the words of Frank Zappa " Shut up and play your guitar " LOL

[clemford]

if it was all the same wood I'd strip it down, fix the dents with bondo or a good filler and restain it but since it's got the maple top it's not worth it. I'll just clean it up with your suggestions and oil it up. Someone suggested lemon oil to clean it and tung oil or true-oil to finish it. You guys are right that it's best to just shut up and play my guitar. I guess it has character this way.

[clemford]

I took it apart tonight and it looks like the finish is natural with only oil. I put some mineral spirits on part of it to show how it darkens. That should make life a little easier now since I don't have to match stain. I should be able to sand it down some and oil it up . The maker replied back to me and said they use oil from the Hafele company to finish it. Hopefully I will be able to sand out the dents a little to take the edge off them. It would be nice to find a filler though but it might show.