How Do I Get This Finish on Roasted Swamp Ash?

[Loiner91]

First time poster to the forum. Bought a roasted swamp ash P-Bass body and planning on pairing with a roasted maple Musikraft neck (i like that they have profile options and truss rod adjustment at the head). Pickguard will be either red tort or black bakelite. Pickups are going to be either Montys Retro wind or Lindys. Cream covers.
The body is chambered and raw, not DIY Paint ready (which i now regret a bit as the prep work would have been nice not to have to worry about!)
After lots of back and forth, I’ve settled on a natural finish. Was going to do Tru Oil but think I prefer a nitro finish that could age/be refinned in years to come. Favourite finish I could find is the Fender Custom Shop RSA 61 Stratocaster. So my question is, how do I get that finish? Im not interested in relic’ing it but love the colour of the body and neck.

 

[ragamuffin]

That looks like clear (or a slight amber tint) on roasted swamp ash to me. You'll definitely want to grain fill if you want a smooth finish. Nitro is a lot of work, but gives beautiful results. You can find lots of nitro finish tutorials on Youtube.

Here's a Tru-oil-ed roasted swamp ash build that I did on a particularly straight-grained roasted ash body

 

[Loiner91]

That looks like clear (or a slight amber tint) on roasted swamp ash to me. You'll definitely want to grain fill if you want a smooth finish. Nitro is a lot of work, but gives beautiful results. You can find lots of nitro finish tutorials on Youtube.

Here's a Tru-oil-ed roasted swamp ash build that I did on a particularly straight-grained roasted ash body

View attachment 63646

Wow that grain is straight! I’ll try take a pic of mine tonight; the lam top grain kind of radiates outwards from the centre. That finish you have here is exactly what I want if I end up doing TO. Did you grain fill that? It looks smooth. How many coats?
I know what you mean with the lacquer, i couldnt tell if it was clear or Amber. Fender seem to get more golden finishes on their roasted bodies and I dont know how when everything darkens them.

 

[ragamuffin]

Wow that grain is straight! I’ll try take a pic of mine tonight; the lam top grain kind of radiates outwards from the centre. That finish you have here is exactly what I want if I end up doing TO. Did you grain fill that? It looks smooth. How many coats?
I know what you mean with the lacquer, i couldnt tell if it was clear or Amber. Fender seem to get more golden finishes on their roasted bodies and I dont know how when everything darkens them.

My process with Tru-oil is:
-Apply two heavy coats about an hour apart, the wood will suck up a lot of it, and let dry for a day
-Apply 3-4 more light/regular coats over a few days
-Slurry coat: apply Tru-oil with 400-600 grit sandpaper and rub it in to fill the grain. You may need to repeat once or twice if you want to completely fill the grain, I think I did two slurry coats on this guitar. Your finish will look a little messy but that's ok for now
-Let fully dry and sand with 400-600 grit sandpaper on a sanding block to sand out any inconsistencies.
-Apply 3-4 more thin coats
-Optional: buff down with Birchwood Casey "Stock Sheen" to to knock the gloss down to semi-gloss or satin

Oh and for an applicator cut up pieces of shop towels work great; those blue, heavy duty paper towels from the hardware store. I've heard other people use coffee filters. Regular paper towels will leave fibers in your finish.

 

[Loiner91]

My process with Tru-oil is:
-Apply two heavy coats about an hour minutes apart, the wood will suck up a lot of it, and let dry for a day
-Apply 3-4 more light/regular coats over a few days
-Slurry coat: apply Tru-oil with 400-600 grit sandpaper and rub it in to fill the grain. You may need to repeat once or twice if you want to completely fill the grain, I think I did two slurry coats on this guitar. Your finish will look a little messy but that's ok for now
-Let fully dry and sand with 400-600 grit sandpaper on a sanding block to sand out any inconsistencies.
-Apply 3-4 more thin coats
-Optional: buff down with Birchwood Casey "Stock Sheen" to to knock the gloss down to semi-gloss or satin

Oh and for an applicator cut up pieces of shop towels work great; those blue, heavy duty paper towels from the hardware store. I've heard other people use coffee filters. Regular paper towels will leave fibers in your finish.

Thanks for the process mate. Thats a clear and straightforward way to do the TO. Im certainly tempted to go that way as it looks gorgeous. Also much more attainable as well. Maybe I need to chill out with the lacquer aspirations…
How does the TO feel to the touch as you’ve finished it? Does it get tacky under a sweaty forearm like Poly?

 

[ragamuffin]

Thanks for the process mate. Thats a clear and straightforward way to do the TO. Im certainly tempted to go that way as it looks gorgeous. Also much more attainable as well. Maybe I need to chill out with the lacquer aspirations…
How does the TO feel to the touch as you’ve finished it? Does it get tacky under a sweaty forearm like Poly?

No problem! I'd say Tru oil feels closer to nitro than poly

 

[Loiner91]

No problem! I'd say Tru oil feels closer to nitro than poly

Nice. I guess while applying the TO i can also home in on a tone I like as it layers up. Does it discolour or wear over time? Yours looks mint.

 

[ragamuffin]

Nice. I guess while applying the TO i can also home in on a tone I like as it layers up. Does it discolour or wear over time? Yours looks mint.

It has a slight amber tint to it and it will get slightly more tinted over time. So far mine have worn well, but I'm pretty gentle with my guitars. It's definitely not as heavy duty of a finish as polyurethane, maybe closer in durability to nitro

 

[rauchman]

I'm not as familiar with a pre roasted body, but to me, from the pic shown, it kinda looks like the grain is darker than it normally would be?

I've done a couple of swamp ash bodies (avatar). In both cases, I "popped" the grain by putting a light layer of sealer on the body, and then hitting the whole body with black (insert color of choice) dye which gets deep into the grain, and then sanding off the sealer. The dye gets into the grain but doesn't color the body itself. This really contrasts the grain to the wood tone.

Past that, I'd guess something like TruOil would be a good finish for this project.

 

[Loiner91]

I'm not as familiar with a pre roasted body, but to me, from the pic shown, it kinda looks like the grain is darker than it normally would be?

I've done a couple of swamp ash bodies (avatar). In both cases, I "popped" the grain by putting a light layer of sealer on the body, and then hitting the whole body with black (insert color of choice) dye which gets deep into the grain, and then sanding off the sealer. The dye gets into the grain but doesn't color the body itself. This really contrasts the grain to the wood tone.

Past that, I'd guess something like TruOil would be a good finish for this project.

I agree-I think the body and the grain look darker than others ive seen. I wonder of the sealer darkened it like that, prior to the amber/clear coat. Regarding the top coat colour, perhaps the fact that its nitro is the key. It goes on thinner than Poly so it doesnt get as dark as the poly clear coats. Then they age it with Custom Shop magic (I saw an interesting example somewhere where a guy did it with Oly White and used a makeshift tanning bed with UV lights and it definitely yellowed it. Tru Oil seems the less risky application. Im not super gentle with my basses and worry the TO might end up looking the wrong kind of knackered…

 

[Loiner91]

I agree-I think the body and the grain look darker than others ive seen. I wonder of the sealer darkened it like that, prior to the amber/clear coat. Regarding the top coat colour, perhaps the fact that its nitro is the key. It goes on thinner than Poly so it doesnt get as dark as the poly clear coats. Then they age it with Custom Shop magic (I saw an interesting example somewhere where a guy did it with Oly White and used a makeshift tanning bed with UV lights and it definitely yellowed it. Tru Oil seems the less risky application. Im not super gentle with my basses and worry the TO might end up looking the wrong kind of knackered…

Also, im not looking to relic it but would be nice to have something that pics up character. Unlike my Am Series P which has picked up some unsightly and sharp gouges over its lifetime.

 

[TBurst Std]

To me it seams that body not roasted, was grain filled in brown, sanded back and finished in an amber tinted satin finished nitro.

For a roasted body, any finish results in a darker color. To approach it I would grain fill in brown. Then either use non tinted Tru oil or wipe on poly.

 

[TBurst Std]

To offer an idea, a roasted ash body finished in the W’s amber finish results in a finish darker than that. More like Ragamuffins pic.