Adding veneer to my old bass

Hey Mutt, That grey undercoat stuff is pretty tough. Can I just leave it on?? If I use Naphtha on it to clean it, will it be strong enough to bond to??

It's taking forever to sand through and the heat gun doesn't phase it.
 
Chili said:
Hey Mutt, That grey undercoat stuff is pretty tough. Can I just leave it on?? If I use Naphtha on it to clean it, will it be strong enough to bond to??

It's taking forever to sand through and the heat gun doesn't phase it.
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If you are using epoxy then yes you can leave it on. You will need to scuff it up to give a good mechanical key. Suggest you hit it quite hard with 60 or 80 grit. Many hand veneers are laid on a surface that has been "Toothed" with a toothing plain that you would use to cut highly figured boards. They leave very shallow grooves which help avoid getting bubbles and blisters in the veneer and also allow the glue some space to squeeze out. Google toothing plane and you'd get the idea.
 
Cool. Thanks for the suggestions.

The veneer arrives on Monday. If they aren't flat, I will press them for two weeks (going to Germany - hopefully will get to meet JoeyM). If they look okay, I'll glue them down and leave them for the two weeks.
 
GONZO-X said:
i guess we will see.


i've witnessed this before......
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I guess I've witnessed it before more than you have then...;)

Tone is not objective. It is also not predominantly driven by such things on what is an instrument where most of the "colour" is added by the pickup. The tone may change it may not but the outcome will be much the same and it is not driven by adding a veneer covering to the face and/or back of the body.

I deal daily with attempting to control the finished tone of instruments. You mileage will not vary.

A purely acoustic instrument. Now that is a different matter.
 
Sanding the undercoat was a PITA, but it's done. 60 grit on the front and back and I had to buy a flapper wheel drill bit for the sides. Tough stuff. I will never do that again. I even tried paint stripper and it had no affect whatsoever. WHATSOEVER!!

The flapper wheel "contoured" the wood in peculiar ways, but a little sanding has the body looking nice and smooth again.

Next up is to trace the cutouts onto a piece of paper to make a template. Then I will glue the veneer to the body. Once the glue is set, I'll use the template to cut out the holes for the pickups, neck, controls, etc.

Here's a pic with all the paint removed.

IMG_0307.webp

So, in other news. I bought a bass neck and body from Guitar Fetish and will be using the same veneer on that. I also got some pickups and an active EQ preamp, plus most of the other necessary hardware. It's gonna be cool!!
 
I got home last night from a week long trip to Germany, so no progress. (Almost got to visit our friend JoeyM, but he had a gig the one day I was available) Last weekend, I glued the veneer to the top and let it sit all week. It's very brittle and cracks easily, so I will have to be extremely careful when I trim it today.
 
Update!!

Trimmed the veneer and cut out the pickups and neck slot.

IMG_0361.webp

At first I thought I made a huge mistake. When trimming the edges, the veneer was brittle and cracking and breaking at the edge. It came out really horrible and I thought I had trashed the guitar. But with just a little bit of sanding, it cleaned right up. I still have a lot to do to get it to fair in nicely with the bevel of the guitar edge, but at least I know it will be pretty decent when I'm done. <whew>
 
That does look pretty good. I've thought about trying that on an old beater I have laying around. Good job sir.
 
Been away all week... again... :( Got back last night and got to work on it today.

More sanding on the edges. Good but not perfect, but leaving it as is. I could keep sanding until there's no guitar left. Then sanded the top with up to 400 grit. Smmoooth.

I then added a veneer to the back. Trimmed and cut out the access panel. Tomorrow I'll sand the edges. Now that I know what I'm doing, it should move along quickly.

Thinking ahead to the finishing stage.

Walnut stain the sides heavily.
Walnut stain the top and bottom lightly and let it dry.
Spray water to raise the grain then sand off the tops of the grain.
Tung oil on top and bottom; several applications.

Should I cover with a urethane, lacquer, or clear coat of some sort?? The last part of the finishing process has me confused.
 
Chili said:
Been away all week... again... :( Got back last night and got to work on it today.

More sanding on the edges. Good but not perfect, but leaving it as is. I could keep sanding until there's no guitar left. Then sanded the top with up to 400 grit. Smmoooth.

I then added a veneer to the back. Trimmed and cut out the access panel. Tomorrow I'll sand the edges. Now that I know what I'm doing, it should move along quickly.

Thinking ahead to the finishing stage.

Walnut stain the sides heavily.
Walnut stain the top and bottom lightly and let it dry.
Spray water to raise the grain then sand off the tops of the grain.
Tung oil on top and bottom; several applications.

Should I cover with a urethane, lacquer, or clear coat of some sort?? The last part of the finishing process has me confused.
Click to expand...
can you finish over tung oil? I'm not sure about that. Putting oil on something you're gonna paint seems counterintuitive ..... you try to NOT get oil on things you're gonna finish.
Better check ...... if I had to bet I would bet that you don't want to put tung oil on something you're gonna want to finish ..... laquer for sure I'd think and maybe poly too.
 
When you spray water be VERY CAREFUL. Thats an old trick we used to discover blisters in the glue line. Burr will move tremendously and if you have any pockets where it isn't down they will raise up like bubbles/blisters and are real hard to get down again. Just a heads up.

Think carefully about grain filling too. Burr needs grain filling if you want a nice flat even finish so grain fill with a darker colour and aim the darkest colour you will have once stained or it will look wrong.

The edges where you may have some breakout you can build up with car filler in bad cases and with epoxy if it aint to bad. Again colour the filler or epoxy to match your proposed finish.

Just some stuff I picked up years ago. Hope it helps.
 
Lt. Bob said:
can you finish over tung oil? I'm not sure about that. Putting oil on something you're gonna paint seems counterintuitive ..... you try to NOT get oil on things you're gonna finish.
Better check ...... if I had to bet I would bet that you don't want to put tung oil on something you're gonna want to finish ..... laquer for sure I'd think and maybe poly too.
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I've read conflicting info from the internet... go figure. But the one that stood out was a forum thread where several people had no problem with poly over tung oil. Not sure if that's what I want to do, but I've got scrap pieces to try it on. Just wanted to know if anyone here had first hand experience.

muttley600 said:
When you spray water be VERY CAREFUL. Thats an old trick we used to discover blisters in the glue line. Burr will move tremendously and if you have any pockets where it isn't down they will raise up like bubbles/blisters and are real hard to get down again. Just a heads up.

Think carefully about grain filling too. Burr needs grain filling if you want a nice flat even finish so grain fill with a darker colour and aim the darkest colour you will have once stained or it will look wrong.

The edges where you may have some breakout you can build up with car filler in bad cases and with epoxy if it aint to bad. Again colour the filler or epoxy to match your proposed finish.

Just some stuff I picked up years ago. Hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Helps a lot. I went looking for grain fill last week and couldn't find it easily at any local store. I'll have to search around or buy online. Ah, quick search shows a store in town. Heading there now!!!! :D

I'll post more pics later today.
 
Epoxy is a good grain filler for burr stuff and you can colour it easily with acrylic or spirit stains. Test on scrap....

You can finish over tung oil no problem. Tru oil is better if you are after an oil finish.
 
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