Alembic in Oil or Satin Finish??

[edwardofhuncote]

Got an odd question for the Club here...

Anyone here have an Alembic finished in Satin poly? How about an Oil finish? Anybody done that?

Recently I've fallen head-over-heels for the satin-y look/feel of the finish on this older Distillate, and been giving some thought to it for the Custom fretless currently in progress. Of course we all know whatever they do will look awesome... just wondering if anyone would share any pro/con experience with either.

If it helps visualize, it'll be an Anniversary Omega body, (a bit smaller than Standard Omega) with a mahogany core, birds-eye maple top and back, maple neck with three purpleheart laminates. The headstock is "straight-pull" Elan 3+2, with cocobolo faces front and back, and finally, a sidelined ebony fingerboard.   

Thanks, in advance.

[StephenR]

My opinion, which doesn't count for much , is that Satin Poly is going to look better on a maple top. I tend to like oil finishes better on darker woods. Agree that whatever finish is applied to your bass it is going to look amazing.

[adriaan]

I've heard that satin finishes on darker woods will start to look a little dirty with use. That suggests you should be fine with maple. I can tell you the satin finish to the back of the neck does feel fabulous, though.

[keith_h]

One thing to keep in mind is the satin poly will buff up to shiny over time where your body rubs against it. This might or might not be a concern for you. I have a brown bass which has a polymerized  oil finish. It is not as hard as poly and you can see some wear near the pickups where my thumbnail has hit over the years. On the otherhand if I ever decide to, it is easy to touch up with a bit of Watco Danish oil. Personally I would go with oil again if I wanted a satin finish and stick with poly for the gloss finishes. 

[jazzyvee]

I have a satin finish on my maple topped Orion guitar and after a year or so of touring with it a lot of the top half of the body has buffed up to a nice shiny finish.

[mica]

So yeah, the satin polyester looks best on lighter color woods like Maple. That being said, the gloss brings out the most in the wood. Satin polyester on dark woods shows trapped skin oils in the fine scratches that form the satin rubout. The manual buffing process on this finish takes decades - it's really hard stuff but it will get shiny where you touch it the most.

The Orion guitar (and Epic, Orion, and Excel basses) originally had a polyurethane "Satin Natural" finish that sort of mimicked an oil finish. As Vince stated, it does buff up over time where you touch it most frequently, and we no longer offer this finish (actually the manufacturer discontinued it shortly after we stopped buying it so nobody uses it anymore).

Like Keith said, oil also shines up where you touch it a lot, but you can wax it or even reoil if needed to restore the original look. With an oil finish, you don't have much protection for scuffs and scratches to the wood.

We use our classic polyester finish which is the same since 1981. The standard is for glossy body with a satin neck feel, kinda best of both worlds. If you want the satin all over or the gloss all over no problem and no charge.

[edwardofhuncote]

Thank You All... it's something to think about.

I'll scan through the Showcase threads in search of a couple examples. I also wonder if there's any difference in how quickly the maple ages and darkens, between oil or polyester finish?

[edwardofhuncote]

Been digging around in the Customs and Signature Showcase threads. So, I seem to remember reading somewhere Brown Basses are typically oil finished... (may be way off with that assumption)

Whatever it is, I really like the look of this one; http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8763.0 though I was specifically looking for a maple topped example.

[mica]

Brown basses are oil finish - so are the Retros. I don't have any sort of a recent picture of an oil finished Maple instrument, sorry.

[keith_h]

Just thinking of proxies. How close of a look would one of your maple cutting boards be to an oil finish on a bass? I know they use salad bowl oil but was thinking it might work. How about any of the work by your Uncle Bob? I know I've seen a number of things he's made over the years that used maple.

[edwardofhuncote]

Thanks Mica.

We'll catch up on it sometime... I may be over-thinking things, and prematurely at that. Although I haven't seen it, I'm told your Mom picked out a spectacular piece of birdseye maple... so there's a good argument for high gloss to maximize the effect. On the other hand, you know I'm a sucker for vintage minutiae, and I honestly love the feel of satin finish.

Anyway, if I'm paddling a little to far from shore, you may have to reel me back in.

[bigredbass]

I understand the appeal of the satin finish, but I also seem to remember seeing several white-wood satin instruments that actually started getting dirty.  Would not be a concern with a gloss finish rubbed to a satin finish by ALEMBIC's laborious work, but even still, it's gonna get shiny where the rubber meets the road over time.  Really primo birdseye would just ZING with their level of clear coat, but that's my two cents.

Joey

[lbpesq]

My first Alembic was an Electrum with a birds-eye top in Satin finish.  I thought it looked sweet. Here's some pics (though the first one appears to have been eaten by the site transition Gremlin )


http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=9005.msg105827;topicseen#msg105827

Bill, tgo

[hammer]

Personally I prefer the high gloss finish on most woods, especially on the newer basses. Still debating, however as to whether I want tu use it for the Series 1 refurbish I'm going to have done. Maybe use satin on that one.

[edwardofhuncote]

Updated - Now that I've seen my bass for the first time (Thanks Mica!) the birdseye maple in Bill's Electrum is very similar. Jazzyvee's recently acquired Series I short-scale bass also has a maple top, and looks (in pictures at least) to have been refinished in satin. That look really appeals to me.

http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8329.0 (newest pictures near bottom of the thread)

I'm going to think on it for a couple more days, but will need to make a call soon, as it's almost time for finish. I may end up flipping a coin... there's just no bad call to be made here.