# Natural bass wood finish tips



## Stealthtastic (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm sanding down my MIJ Ibanez 7620, and was wondering what kind of oils and or finishes you guys think I should apply. This is my first time finishing a guitar, and would like a little input. Thanks.


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## otisct20 (Oct 12, 2011)

ehhh i would leave it as just basswood, basswood is usually very plain and quite ugly. is it a flat or arched top body? (i cant remember which it is right now) if you want it nice you may want to try a veneer. either way post up some pics!!! i gotta see how this goes! good luck dude


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 27, 2011)

otisct20 said:


> ehhh i would leave it as just basswood, basswood is usually very plain and quite ugly. is it a flat or arched top body? (i cant remember which it is right now) if you want it nice you may want to try a veneer. either way post up some pics!!! i gotta see how this goes! good luck dude


 meh, I'm pretty sure if it doesn't get traded off, I will repaint it instead of natural. Probably white or something


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 27, 2011)

Burn it...


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 27, 2011)

No seriously...


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 27, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> No seriously...


Dude that is sexy, how did you do that??
And how does it effect the tone and the dexterity/weight/solidity of the wood

^ couldn't think of a good word lol


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2011)

I stripped it, burned it with a heat gun, stained, steel wool'd/rinse repeat until satisfied.


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> I stripped it, burned it with a heat gun, stained, steel wool'd/rinse repeat until satisfied. [/QUOTE
> The finished result is bad ass. I really want to try it, but I am a little scared I would do it wrong, and I might end up with no guitar.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2011)

You can't really fuck it up too bad with a heat gun. Just make sure you get through the sand sealer or you'll end up burning that instead. That ends up... Interesting...


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## Mordacain (Oct 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> You can't really fuck it up too bad with a heat gun. Just make sure you get through the sand sealer or you'll end up burning that instead. That ends up... Interesting...



I actually used my heat gun to get through the sanding sealer. I actually got some cool patterns as the wood burned under the sealer before the sealer layer peeled away so it spread in an interesting pattern:


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 28, 2011)

So, basically you just burned the hell out of it? 
It seems pretty interesting......


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2011)

Here's what happened when I attempted to burn through sand sealer... It just burnt up and began to form a shell... But it looks like a sunburst I guess bc of the angle I was holding the gun at...?


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 28, 2011)

Sooooo, what did you do about the sand sealer, and how do I know when I've gotten it off?


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2011)

The dust you get off the guitar as you start to sand actual wood is different. The sand sealer seems more powder-like and it's more pale in color I think. You can definitely tell the difference between sand sealer dust and wood shavings once the wood shavings start coming off.


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> The dust you get off the guitar as you start to sand actual wood is different. The sand sealer seems more powder-like and it's more pale in color I think. You can definitely tell the difference between sand sealer dust and wood shavings once the wood shavings start coming off.


 Definately going to have to read up on this method, I REALLY like the look. Thanks for the idea!


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2011)

No prob. It looks a lot better with ash bodies, but this helped to dress up the usual boring look of basswood for me.


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## SammerX (Oct 28, 2011)

otisct20 said:


> ehhh i would leave it as just basswood, basswood is usually very plain and quite ugly. is it a flat or arched top body? (i cant remember which it is right now) if you want it nice you may want to try a veneer. either way post up some pics!!! i gotta see how this goes! good luck dude



Not all basswood is ugly... Kind of have to sand it to find out what is going on under there. I stained my RG550 (I've got a NGD thread somewhere on here) and the grain turned out quite nicely. Of course some basswood bodies end up being pretty tame. 

One suggestion I have though, if you stain, is that you should definitely use some sort of prestain. The basswood will really soak up the stain a ton, possibly more than you want, otherwise. 

The sanding sealer that Ibanez uses is like concrete; it can be hard to sand through it all. Have to be fairly careful, making sure you get it all if you want to do a natural finish.


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## Stealthtastic (Oct 29, 2011)

I definately want some help with this...... haha


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