How to turn a Gloss finish into Satin?

[hbombgraphics]

There are two ways to get a satin finish. The first one is done while spraying the instrument. A flatting paste is added to the finish which difuses the light differently so it will never acheive a high gloss.
The other method (that I use) is to just knock the sheen down with 0000 steel wool. You can use a little lemon oil as a lubricant if needed.
0000 steel wool is approx the equiv of 600 grit sandpaper. So if you want the same result but with less visible scratches do some wetsanding with a higher grit (1000 or 1500 would work nicely)

This just flashed me back to a music store I used to work at. This kid had an american fender 57 reissue strat and he wanted to show me his relic job. He had always wanted a custom shop relic strat (and for what he paid for the guitar he had when new he could have found a used custom shop...but whatever I guess)

So he pulled it out of the case and I am horrified to see deep scratches that go in all directions.
I grab the guitar and notice the scratches on the back of the neck. The scratched weren't going in the long direction of the shaft of the neck (as they should.) but went with the curvature of the neck....so he basically put speed bumps in the neck.
I said "you did this yourself eh?"
he replied "yes"

"what grit sandpaper did you use?"
..........."60 grit" was the answer.
ouch!!!!! With a wave of his hand his guitar was worthless. Hahahaha

this story made me cringe and I do terrible things to guitars on a regular basis
I may try getting one down to a satin that I just got back from a friend

my first step though will be to get it to stop smelling like an ash tray, huge smoker!

[grokostimpy]

Nice work on that Agile too. The satin looks very even!

I'm curious, do you sand in one direction on the body as well as the neck, or are circular motions better for a uniform finish?.

[Mike]

Nice work on that Agile too. The satin looks very even!

I'm curious, do you sand in one direction on the body as well as the neck, or are circular motions better for a uniform finish?.

Thanks.

I used a random orbital sander that I got from Harbor Freight for ~$20.It has velcro on the bottom, and I stuck the plastic wool (Home Depot #570872) right to it. I used no pressure-- just the weight of the sander. The plastic wool is so fine that it really doesn't matter which direction you move it. The guitar, of course, has to have all the hardware removed.

The idea isn't to remove any finish-- you want a ton of scratches that are big enough to cloud the finish, but not so big that you can actually see them. In theory, you could polish the guitar back up nearly to the original shine.

When I did the hand polishing, I went with the grain as much as I could. I also polished a little bit extra in the direction your hand/pick would touch when playing.

I never would have tried it had I not seen this topic.

I don't consider this relicing, since it isn't intended to artificially age the instrument. I really think it improves the instrument. Not only does it look better, but it feels more comfortable.

Mike

[Holy Schnikes]

Nice work on that Agile too. The satin looks very even!

I'm curious, do you sand in one direction on the body as well as the neck, or are circular motions better for a uniform finish?.

Thanks.

I used a random orbital sander that I got from Harbor Freight for ~$20.It has velcro on the bottom, and I stuck the plastic wool (Home Depot #570872) right to it. I used no pressure-- just the weight of the sander. The plastic wool is so fine that it really doesn't matter which direction you move it. The guitar, of course, has to have all the hardware removed.

The idea isn't to remove any finish-- you want a ton of scratches that are big enough to cloud the finish, but not so big that you can actually see them. In theory, you could polish the guitar back up nearly to the original shine.

When I did the hand polishing, I went with the grain as much as I could. I also polished a little bit extra in the direction your hand/pick would touch when playing.

I never would have tried it had I not seen this topic.

I don't consider this relicing, since it isn't intended to artificially age the instrument. I really think it improves the instrument. Not only does it look better, but it feels more comfortable.

Mike

Thanks for the link Mike! I just spent an hour reading through that massive thread, lots of great info and pics and only a few horror stories peppered in there. If I get up the nerve, gonna try this out on my Fender Reverse Jag Bass because the poly layer on that 2-Tone Sunburst is way too goddamn shiny!

If done right, those end results are stunningly awesome!

[grokostimpy]

Nice thread over at the les paul group! Those guitars all look SO MUCH NICER after being satin-ized. Okay, I'm DEFINITELY buying an orbital sander and giving this a go!!!

[the Life Aquatic]

I did a relic job on a squire strat over thanksgiving weekend. Ill post pics when I finish puttin in new pups. Used #0000 steal wool to dull the finish. Worked good

[Holy Schnikes]

Okay, I'm DEFINITELY buying an orbital sander and giving this a go!!!

Likewise!

I did a relic job on a squire strat over thanksgiving weekend. Ill post pics when I finish puttin in new pups. Used #0000 steal wool to dull the finish. Worked good

Did you do it by hand or use a steel wool pad on an orbital sander?

[benjuro]

Holy crap, all those axes look soooooo much better satin-ized...hmm, which one of my own to apply this to...

[the Life Aquatic]

Okay, I'm DEFINITELY buying an orbital sander and giving this a go!!!

Likewise!

I did a relic job on a squire strat over thanksgiving weekend. Ill post pics when I finish puttin in new pups. Used #0000 steal wool to dull the finish. Worked good

Did you do it by hand or use a steel wool pad on an orbital sander?

I did it by hand. Would have liked to use an orbital,sander to speed things ups. It's not a very heavy relic because I got tired. Sander would have been sooooooo nice to have at that time.

[Mike]

You guys should definitely check out Home Depot #570872. It's $3, sticks to the bottom of the sander, won't leave little metal bits to stick to your pickups, is easier on your hands, is almost as fine as 0000, and leaves no residue.

[Holy Schnikes]

You guys should definitely check out Home Depot #570872. It's $3, sticks to the bottom of the sander, won't leave little metal bits to stick to your pickups, is easier on your hands, is almost as fine as 0000, and leaves no residue.

Thanks for the specifics dude! Much appreciated.

[one bad monkey]

I just satin'd the back of my Jack Bruce sig neck. Used 400grit with light pressure, a tack cloth to pull the excess dust off and then applied a thin coat of wax to smooth out any imperfections. It's hard picking this bass up by the neck now, because it's so damn slick.

[John Lyons]

Be very careful with power sanding. You can do some damage to a finish etc etc.
I use #0000 steel wool (by hand) to break up the gloss and then a fresh bit of steel wool with
paste wax to get some sheen back. You can go further and wax with a cloth to get
it a bit glosier as well. It will still be semi gloss for the most part even with the cloth/wax.
Car wax with carnuba wax will be a bit better at keeping the sheen.
It will take some elbow grease but it will look and feel a LOT better than stock.

[Holy Schnikes]

So I grabbed a Mouse Sander and some #000 and #0000 synthetic steel wool similar to what Mike posted above, cut those pads to fit the Mouse, then I got started on my Reverse Jag Bass. Shit looks FANTASTIC thus far. All I've done is the initial sanding on the neck and back with the #000, no polish or anything, but it's soooooooooo much better. Not just cosmetically either, the feel is the BEST! Will finish it off with the #0000, then polish.

One thing I learned using the sander, total first-timer here, is this piece of valuable info. Like everyone mentioned, you don't wanna put MUCH pressure on it, let the sander do the work. BUT, you need to have a firm grip on the back of the sander and apply minimum pressure just to ensure the sanding pad produces uniform results and doesn't hop around on you. Too little pressure and you'll get INSANE swirl marks because it'll hop slightly or only certain portions of the pad will really dig in. The sanding is so light tho you can generally undo any mistakes if you don't go too deep and unless you're extremely careless or impatient, you won't go too deep.

Also, I got the best results running the sander slowly in straight lines up and down the body WITH the grain. Of course, all hardware has to be removed to pull this off. Edges and contours can be tricky and my turn out better with hand sanding, I used a combo of sander/manual on mine. Be patient and don't sweat it, easy as pie and the results are unbelievable. I'll post before and after pics as soon as I finish up!

[Mike]

Whew. I saw the semi-long post, and immediately thought disaster.

It's kind of freaky at first, taking a sander to a perfectly good (and expensive) guitar. Once you get past the initial nerves, it is a really fun, rewarding project.

I can't wait to see some pics!

Mike