Cleaning Streamer body

[frank]

Bought a streamer stage 1 last saturday
Have spent most of the week setting it up how i like it, put on a new nut set the action ect ect
and have waxed it a few times
but some of the dirt on the body seems to be engrained into the wood and discoloured
can i do anything about this. Its a maple body by the way.
This dirt is probably only something i would notice.

In some places if i rub my fingernail on the dirt it will come off so im wondering could i sand it off.
Also im wondering as Warwick do oil coloured finishes could i do an oil coloured finish on the Bass
myself if i cant live with the dirt.


Cheers

[warwickhunt]

You can sand the dirt off the bass but it 'could' be quite deeply ingrained; you can also apply a coloured/stained wax to your bass BUT you'd likely as not want to sand back the ingrained dirt first as it would still be noticeable if you applied a coloured wax over the top. Not a major job to do but be aware it'll all need to be done by hand as the contouring on the SSI means that using an electric sander is a no-no!

[hillbilly deluxe]

Most of the dirt is proberbly from wax polish,when i cleaned my Vintage 5 that has a natural Bubinga body,i gently cleaned it by rubbing lightly with lighter fluid and a bit of old T-shirt,the ammount of dirt it lifted was unbelievable,and it did'nt even look dirty beforehand.I used a tiny ammount of furniture wax and the transformation was amazing.This may work for you.I've added before and after pics.

[rjb]

Rather than using sanding paper, you could try using some green "scotch-brite" scouring pads - they are a bit more easy going. After that just re-wax.

Worked a treat to get thumb resting marks out of a Thumb BO I once owned.

Edited December 6, 2009 by rjb

[frank]

Thanks for the help lads

will probably tackle this over the holidays not sure what way to go, if i sand it or rub it with scotch brite
will it leave sanding marks (suppose it depends what i use)

will the lighter fluid soak into the body or is it just a few drops on a rag if i go with that method

This is probably one of these if its not broke dont fix it things

but if i have to wax this bass quite often then id like the effort put in to look really good
not just waxing over dirt

Cheers

[frank]

"you can also apply a coloured/stained wax to your bass "



Is this a one time thing or would it also need to be reapplied every so often



I can see where im going with this ill probably just leave the dirt and not bother waxing to often (never)

How bad can it go has anyone got a really krusty example ( Bass i mean! ) they can show

[hillbilly deluxe]

Just a few drops on a rag to lift the dirt.The Vintage 5 in my pics was done this way 6 ? years ago,then clear waxed using,again,a tiny bit on a bit of T-shirt,then buffed using a clean bit of T-shirt.I have not waxed it since,just wipe it sometimes.

[frank]

Thanks hillbilly i may give this a try

[frank]

Went with the Scotch Brite idea and it worked great

Very hard to show in a photo were the dirt was and how well it looks now

Have a half way shot which shows how much stuff came off, most of this was probably wax but the dirt came off as well

and some finished shots
cant show in photos how well it looks but you get the idea
[attachment=38209:DSC01540.JPG]