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Post subject: let's get naked.. stripping p bass finish
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:00 pm
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Location: Toronto, Canada...Thats north of the ditch ;)
hey i was wonderin if eny one could help me out? like how i woulf\d go about strippin my squire p bass i herd some where it's like poly..sumthing or other eny help would be much helpful :P i was thinking a red wood stain


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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:49 pm
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I have never done it and I don't think I would ever try it. Take a look at this thread and website. I am sure you will be able to find some good answers here.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264931


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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:37 pm
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If you wanna go down to bare wood then stain it then you dont have any other option but its an absolute nightmare, i did it with one of my other p basses and i wont be doing it again in a hurry, it took for ever. one thing i will say is dont use a metal scraper for the paint as you will dig into the wood which means loads of sanding, use a plastic scraper instead and some very good paint stripper
good luck with the project if you decide to go ahead with.
Your a better man than me :lol:


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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:59 pm
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It's quite a job to strip some of these poly finishes which yours almost certainly is. I've done it.

For one thing, ordinary paint strippers won't even touch it. I've tried. Some guys claim success using a special aircraft stripper but even that is a lot of work. Your other options are sanding for a long time or using a heat gun, which I've done, to melt it and scrape it off. Even then there's a lot of sanding to do to get down to clean wood and sand it smooth enough for a finish. And of course, before you even start, you have to remove all the hardware, pickups and electronics.

The next problem is-what is the wood like underneath? Most painted instruments use mismatched pieces of wood or woods that don't look all that good finished naturally, like poplar or basswood. So you probably will be disappointed when you get that finish off and just have to cover it up with a paint again.

I stripped my old P bass down to bare wood and finished it with a clear oil/varnish mixture, but I lucked out because it was ash which looks good stained and finished clear and the pieces were fairly well matched. But that's not the norm.

I do a lot of work refinishing furniture and woodwork so I've got quite a bit of experience. I wouldn't want to tackle another job like that again unless the bass was so valuable to me to keep that I needed to refinish it.


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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:11 am
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wow thanks guys, i saw like on youtube the guy was just peelin it off like the skink of a tangerine :? well sumthin like that i just wanted to noe if it were that simple... then again enything worth doing is hard work right :)


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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:03 pm
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It's easiest I found if you use a heat gun and scraper. That gets it off down to the sealer coat which is often a polyester or epoxy. That you have to sand off. Heat guns are cheap these days-less than $30. But you have to work where there's lots of ventilation because the fumes will knock you over as the finish bubbles up and it'll set off any nearby smoke detectors.

If you are really serious about doing it and want to go all out send me a private message and I'll help. Expect to have to spend about $80-$100 in supplies including the heat gun to get a professional looking job. And about 4-6 weeks of time from start to finish. You have to let the final clear coat harden thoroughly if you want to polish it out. A simple stain and oil finish will take a couple weeks total.


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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 6:47 pm
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heres where i got the idea


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZvFrTtn_I


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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 11:35 am
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It seems he used a heat gun but he must have heated it, let it cool and then peeled off the finish. I wish it had been that easy with mine. When I heated the finish on mine it melted and as I went over it with the heat gun I followed behind with the scraper, pulling off the finish. That got about 90 % off. The rounded inside corners wouldn't come off as easily. I had to sand through them. A lot depends on the wood. Mine was ash which has many ridges and prominent grain. Smooth surfaced woods like alder and basswood would probably be easier. I used 36 grit ceramic sandpaper made from cut pieces from sanding belts. It was the only paper tough enough to cut through the poly sealing coat under the paint. All other sanpapers wore out too fast. Once down to bare wood I worked up through the grits with aluminium oxide sandpaper in 60 grit-120-180-220-280-320. Then I was ready to put a finish on.

Heat guns are fairly cheap these days. They just look like a hair dryer but put out way more heat.

A friend of mine stripped a Strat one time using a butane blowtorch. He burned the wood in spots though. Gave it sort of a rustic look.


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