Members tedmich Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 I've had a Rogue LX406 for a couple years, quite a well made cheap 6 string bass I use as an octave guitar with ~350lbs of string tension. The bass has a decent maple neck and some soft rainforest body with a super thin figured bubinga veneer on the body and peghead. After having a good time oil finishing my 8 string guitar I decided I'd like to strip the horrid matte polyester finish and see the grain on the Rogue. before: maple neck is natural finish and stands out too much versus darker red stain thick polyester matte finish is DEAD (peghead finish was so thick I could do a rough cut with my Wagner safety planer before hitting it with the chemical stripper!) Tried heat gun but dark wood made it too hard to see darkening with overheating, and overheating made a few "bubbles" in veneer which I'll need to hit with a hypodermic filled with a bit of glue and clamp flat. I sanded a ton until I realized it was like +1/16" of plastic...I then hit body with methylene chloride/ammonia stripper ("aircraft" type) and gently scraped. Stripper after a rough sanding worked best. And remove ALL plastic as this stuff eats plastic, nitrile gloves and skin! White vinegar is a good wash to neutralize skin! Sanding or scraping near edges is DANGEROUS as you can tear thin veneer or sand to light base wood, which will require a dark fill to hide. Maple neck responded MUCH better to heat gun/scraping as I could heat until color just started to brown up, then scrape off with razor blade. Although maple looked clean I had to knock it down with 100-220-320 grit to give a surface which would stain evenly. Pretreated with 2 coats Varathane stain sealer and then used a mixture of Varathane Espresso/Cabernet to get it closer to body color. 4 coats made it plenty dark and fairly even, and I then waxed surface 4X. Many strippers have a wax component which MUST come off after stripping, so for body I washed with naptha and then chloro brake cleaner, let dry and then hit it with 4 coats of Libron Finishing oil with 1500 grit sanding in between, and then 3 coats of Renaissance Wax. I like it, and learned a bit too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted July 4, 2012 Members Share Posted July 4, 2012 Wow! Amazing all that nice grain was hiding in there. Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alan Roberts Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I would have never believed that's what it would look like when stripped. Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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