Reversing Guitar Water Damage With Tung-Oil Finish
The concept of before and after shots has been used by craftsmen, including people who work on stringed musical instruments, for years to help illustrate the true labor of love devoted to their art. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you need to instill a customer's confidence in your ability. A good example of before and after shots is an autobody shop. many shops will show a picture of the worst wreck on their lot as a before shot. Then, after many hours of work, they will snap a couple of shots illustrating the beautiful result of their efforts.
Hopefully, this before and after approach will become a regular feature of Guitarmaker and will offer quite a few benefits to all our members. The most important advantage is learning from each other's experiences and techniques. ASIA members are invited to submit their own (be)fore and aft(er) projects, no matter how basic or how advanced. As a reader, if you think a certain repair or restoration would be of interest, chances are it would appeal to most of us. So many of us know the great satisfaction in taking a damaged instrument and in restoring it as close to its original condition as possible. Let's make this a column for the membership and by the membership. Because photos are so informative, please include black and white or color to explain your project.
In the first of what I hope will be a series, I have selected a repair that is quite difficult to illustrate with pictures. Specifically, the entire instrument was damaged by water. This repair came to my shop as a result of my doing subcontracting work for a local music shop. As luck would have it, the store went under, leaving me with an unpaid account and a gold Top Les Paul that belonged to an unknown patron of the now-defunct music shop. I held onto it for two years before locating its distraught owner. He was so happy to get his pride and joy back that he gave me his submerged Ken Smith bass to restore as somewhat of a reward for not selling his Gold Top.
It turns out that he left his bass lying flat in its case in his basement when the worst thing that could happen, aside from fire damage, occurred. His basement flooded, a disaster he didn't notice until next morning. But the serious damage had already been done, from top to bottom: a severely damaged finish, a badly warped neck, electronic failure in the pre-amp, a peeling and cracked headstock veneer, and oxidation on the springs, screws and bridge saddles. Believe me, at this point I would have been happy to receive payment for the fret job on the Les Paul and be done with it. But after the customer told me about Ken Smith's reaction tot his disaster and the present condition of this poor instrument, I accepted the challenge to make this bass happy again. (While reviewing my notes for this article, my customer's remarks motivated me to call ken Smith and get the whole story, which resulted in an invitation to Ken's factory in Pennsylvania - the silver lining...)
Ken gave a very informative and interesting personal tour to my wife, Kathy, and me. At the close of an informative Saturday morning tour of Ken's facility, we went to his office to study the before and after photos of this instrument. To my amazement, Ken produced a photo file of all of his earlier basses. Within minutes, he found a picture of the exact same bass taken well before its christening by its latter owner! Recognizing the wood lot which was used at the time of fabrication he went to work. As accurate as an FBI fingerprint expert, Ken matched the wood grain pattern from his original picture and my after shots. This provided us with the serial number and sate of August l986. Ken remembered the bass and customer almost immediately, referring to it as, "The guy who took his bass for a swim." As a manufacturer, he did not encourage repairing the sunken treasure. As an independent repair technician, I got the job. The restoration started off by removing the hardware and electronics. Next, off with the finish, using a l00 grit wetdry paper and lost of elbow grease. No Zip-Strip type paint removers used in my shop; completely toxic is not appealing to my senses.
At this point, the entire instrument had been rough sanded, paying extra detail to all the tight corners. With all of the finish removed it allowed the wood to breathe and this case dry out. While still at the l00-grit stage, the neck and body was scrubbed down with Isopropanol alcohol on a rag to help evaporate moisture. The instrument was left hanging in my shop for two weeks to dry out completely. I believe the integrity and strength of all joints and laminated areas were not affected due to the craftsmanship of this instrument. After this dry-out-period, it was time to check out the flatness of the neck and fingerboard in relationship with the neck angle to the bridge. It was way out, bowed and twisted in at least three different areas of the fingerboard. The first two frets were twisted low on the "E" string verses being high on the "G" string side. The middle of the neck between the seventh and tenth frets were badly bowed downward, and the neck contour to the body was raised, almost swollen. So let the fun begin. All frets were removed at this time. The frets looked like the tracks on a roller coaster ride. With the frets removed, I had to heat treat the neck by clamping it to produce a very flat fingerboard. I shimmed the middle of the neck to be a little higher. Once the heat was evenly dispersed to the neck, the glue under the fingerboard was pliable.
Then power was shut off and the glue reset in its new position. It was left under clamp for three days. With very favorable tests results on my custom made laser beam powered neck jig/work station, it was time to continue the sanding process. The back of the neck had to be shaved back to shape with a spokeshave removing all uneven areas. The headstock was block sanded removing most of the veneer which had lifted up around the edges. The fingerboard needed to be compound radius sanded, using radius blocks inside a makeshift track, maintaining an even cut without shifting around. Once the proper radius was achieved, the fingerboard was immediately treated with 70% boiled linseed oil/30% mineral spirits mixture. (Note: the fingerboard was sanded to a 220 grit prior to first oiling) Followed by a sanding schedule starting with 325,400 to a 600 wet grit paper. It may seem strange, but I like to wet sand using presoaked sandpaper, utilizing the linseed oil/mineral oil mixture. The neck and body was initially sanded to a 220-grit, except using a water based wet sanding. This helped to raise the grain and keep the dust down.
One by one, the headstock being next, was sprayed with a total of six coats of enamel, which required water based 600 wet grit sanding between coats to get an even matte finish. Before any finishing was started, I shielded the pick-up and control cavities with conductive paint and reran all the ground wires to one central point creating perfect continuity between the cavities and the bridge. At this point, new frets were installed, leveled, dressed and inspected on my laser neck jig. With the instrument prepped and sanded to a natural condition, it was time for the first coat of tung oil, which soaks in as fast as it goes on. The excess was wiped off with a clean lint free cloth and left to dry overnight. The next day, I repeated three light coats over the course of the day, wiped off the excess and left to cure overnight. At this stage, I only used fresh tung oil which was filtered for purity, to be followed by one very light coat per day using a tacky cloth to apply the oil to achieve a high gloss from the tung oil. After an overnight cure, then follow by a 400 wet oil sanding, I alternated between a tacky cloth and a clean cloth for a buff in between coats. Then I covered all areas evenly with one coat without marks or streaks from the cloth, following with a 600 grit oil sanding between coats after a 24-hour cure time. A high glossed hand rubbed finishes based on the amount of application, the purity of oil and the cleanliness of the lint free cloth. Extended cure times and a clean environment produced a non-sticky brilliant finish. The bass received 20 coats of tung oil with a 600-grit very light oil based sanding in between coats. The finishing touch was a thorough buff out by hand. After completion of the finish, I gave the fingerboard and frets a minor cleanup, including a light dressing. Whenever I do a heat treatment on a neck, I always sweat it out when it goes back together especially with the amount of sanding and shaving that went on with this amphibious beast. As the bass went back together, I replaced all of the controls and removed all of the oxidation from the saddles, springs, and screw heads with a light oil and soft brass brush.
Luckily, the nut was brass, requiring minimal work. I was able to save the printed circuit board for the preamp with minimal clean-up. Although, a light reflow of solder combined with a couple of jumpers were required to patch extreme areas of oxidation. All the hardware was installed along with new strings. With tension on the neck, it took about two weeks for the truss rod to settle. The action was very low without rattle. I played it for about two weeks performing minor truss rod and intonation adjustments prior to returning it to my customer. Upon delivery to his home, he was so pleased with the resurrection of his bass, that he pulled a fretless Jazz Bass from out of his closet. It had to the lowest action I had ever seen. What was his complaint? "Strings rattle against fingerboard, can you get rid of the rattle, and get the action low like it use to be"?
Another day in the life! Remember, ASIA and Guitarmaker are here to help our members shine as well as your best finish, so if you have some good before and after material, please send it along to me.
Bass Guitar Amp
