Mark - It's pretty common now a days to see a 4001 or 4003 that was finished white at the factory that has severely yellowed over time.
Is there a way to restore the finish back to its original white finish without stripping the entire instrument down to the wood and starting from scratch?
If so, how do you go about this and what cleaners would you use?
Finally if you are able to return the finish to the original white, how do you keep it from yellowing again?
I appreciate your thoughts on this.
Cheers,
Jon
How do you turn a yellowed finish back to white?
Moderator: jingle_jangle
Yellowing is from a variety of reasons .
The two most common are ;
1-Ultra Violet light
and 2-smoke from clubs.
Smoke residue is generally easy to deal with .
The instruments needs to be completely taken apart and washed using a de-greaser.
I use NAPTHA or VM&P thinner
Use gloves and have plenty of ventilation.This is FLAMMABLE!!!
Then I polish it .At this point a good overall look at the condition can be made of the clear outer coating and a possible , wetsanding and then polishing done .That may remove some of the UV yellowing ...but not much ! and here is the really bad news ....you might make it look like it has a disease by doing this .
You may inadvertantly sand islands of yellow away , only to find the clear is of various thicknesses ...oops! a sand through! now what do I do? UURRRGGGHH!!!
My personal feelings to white turning to "PUSS",
Keep it clean , get used to it as much as possible (I own a couple of Fenders in PUSS white-al are over 30 years old ).
Try a compound as a last measure .This will scratch the clear coat , but will also remove some of that nasty 'yellow' look .Unfortunately ...there is no ultimate answer , short of stripp it ...and respray it with out a clear coat .
The clear is the trouble .
Next bad thing......ALL clear yellows.
The two most common are ;
1-Ultra Violet light
and 2-smoke from clubs.
Smoke residue is generally easy to deal with .
The instruments needs to be completely taken apart and washed using a de-greaser.
I use NAPTHA or VM&P thinner
Use gloves and have plenty of ventilation.This is FLAMMABLE!!!
Then I polish it .At this point a good overall look at the condition can be made of the clear outer coating and a possible , wetsanding and then polishing done .That may remove some of the UV yellowing ...but not much ! and here is the really bad news ....you might make it look like it has a disease by doing this .
You may inadvertantly sand islands of yellow away , only to find the clear is of various thicknesses ...oops! a sand through! now what do I do? UURRRGGGHH!!!
My personal feelings to white turning to "PUSS",
Keep it clean , get used to it as much as possible (I own a couple of Fenders in PUSS white-al are over 30 years old ).
Try a compound as a last measure .This will scratch the clear coat , but will also remove some of that nasty 'yellow' look .Unfortunately ...there is no ultimate answer , short of stripp it ...and respray it with out a clear coat .
The clear is the trouble .
Next bad thing......ALL clear yellows.
So you too want yours "ALAPWOB"?!?!
-
ricnvolved
If I had a white finished instrument (which I don't), this predilection of turning yellow would be extremely irritating to me. I've said this in another thread, but I would want my white bass/guitar to stay WHITE!
It's mystifying why no one has yet discovered a way to prevent white finishes from yellowing. The cigarette smoke thing is understandable, and perhaps a thorough cleaning after the gig can eliminate the yellowing from that source. But as for the UV factor, I guess I would just have to resign myself to having the instrument re-finished as often as necessary to get rid of that godawful discoloration.
If it is ever my lot to acquire a quality clone of a Fender Jazz bass in Olympic White, then I can promise you one thing: Friends, that bass will ALWAYS be Olympic White as long as I own it.
It's mystifying why no one has yet discovered a way to prevent white finishes from yellowing. The cigarette smoke thing is understandable, and perhaps a thorough cleaning after the gig can eliminate the yellowing from that source. But as for the UV factor, I guess I would just have to resign myself to having the instrument re-finished as often as necessary to get rid of that godawful discoloration.
If it is ever my lot to acquire a quality clone of a Fender Jazz bass in Olympic White, then I can promise you one thing: Friends, that bass will ALWAYS be Olympic White as long as I own it.
I have had two white guitars over the years. One was a cheap Vantage with a hard epoxy style finish at least a 16th of an inch thick. That would NEVER yellow it would however chip if dropped on hard surfaces, but in normal use essentially bulletproof. The other was a gibson les paul, which after this guitar I will never buy again. That guitar yellowed everywhere my skin touched it, neck, upper body bout etc the gold hardware flaked and looked pathetic, the toggle switch broke in a way that my tech had never heard of and the g tuner poped off by itself one day. All within one year of buying it new. Sold it to get my Rick which has given me 8 years with little problem.