Does anybody know what this finish is?

[thedonutman]

My bass has lots of dings on it and from what I've read oil finishes are easy to touch up. So I was thinking of sanding down the damaged areas and then reapplying some oil. The body is made of alder and has a slight satin sheen to it. The manufacturer recommends regularly applying lemon oil to the body as well as waxing it. Does it look like a lemon oil finish from the pictures?

 

[Argee]

It's not that easy, tdm - although from what you say about the wood, it's obvious that, whatever the finish was, it's not imparted much of a colour change to it. Practically any clear finishing oil could be responsible, although lemon oil does have a distinctive smell, as you'd imagine.

What I think I'd do would be to get all the wax off first and see what you're left with, before reaching for any sanding material - you might be lucky enough that most of the "dings" discolouration disappears with the wax. If you do resort to sanding, then only along the grain and test on the back first.

Ray

 

[thedonutman]

I'm not sure if there's any wax on it right now. I certainly didn't put any on myself but I suppose it might have come from the factory with wax+oil.

How would you go about getting the wax off?

 

[Argee]

There are products available to do it (like this one), but Nitromors followed by turps can also be effective.

Ray

 

[Derek Willis.]

Being a commercial finish it could well be sprayed cellulose or shellac I certainly think that shellac is the way to go after you have done some mild preparation though.

 

[yetloh]

Shellac will give you more of a sheen than you have at the moment, if that is what you want, and has the advantage that it will take to pretty much any other finish.

Nitromors is very drastic and will certainly take off any finish that is there, not just any wax. I would guess that you are really only wanting to repair the finish in which case, I would just clean it with white spirit which will get rid of wax and dirt and the then assess it. Shellac can be cut back to reduce the sheen then lightly waxed. An alternative is something like Organoil (got mine from Axminster but don't know if they still sell it). This has a strong citrus smell and is very low sheen, rather as you describe the current finish.

Jim