Using Oil To Finish a Guitar (Crimson Guitars Guitar Finishing Oil) 

Awesome! Glad you found the video helpful. Be sure to come back and let me know if you have any questions :) or to tell how awesome the axe turned out🤘🏻

Essentially you can either go with a matte or satin spray finish, or then an oil finish and build it up until you're happy with it (because oil finishes are naturally more satin than anything else) :) You can even leave out applying the first layer with 1200-1500 sandpaper and just apply with a cloth/paper.

@@IPGuitars Thanks a lot man!!! 🙏 You've been super helpful! ❤️❤️❤️🎸 Maybe this type of finish isn't that appreciated because I couldn't find anything searching online.

Really? That's odd :D should be fairly common. Anyway, give it a crack and do come back if you have any questions :) I'm happy to help

This was before they had the two different ones, but the one I used is pretty much the equivalent of their "Penetrating Oil"

@@IPGuitars Thanks very much. My guitar body is Ash, would the product be ok for this type of wood?

@@davidsayles470 Definitely. With ash, as it is pretty open-pored, the grain will kind of "bleed" oil after you wipe excess off and leave it to dry between layers. Be sure to keep an eye on it and wipe away those little droplets that appear on the surface as those are a nightmare to get rid of if they cure completely.

@@IPGuitars would a heat source or heat gun help the wood bleed that oil to speed up the process?

I haven't tried that with oil to be honest, especially when oils can be easily combustible, but it could technically work. I've only tried heating up wax/rag with wax before application to polish up a surface.

Quite honestly you can add as many layers of oil as you like until you feel it is where you want it :) I would still personally do at the very least 2-3 sessions (days) of 3 layers. You can also get some higher building oils that need less and are "thicker" in a way. And some that build up to a "glossier" sheen. As for "sealing" oil isn't the product. It doesn't seal in the grain as a lacquer or varnish, but the oil more penetrates into the wood instead of merely going on top of it. Once again, this differs with what kind of oil you use.

Now that I have more up to date plugins by comparison, I do have a noise gate in the chain :) (twas much needed with my playing)

Thanks for checking it out! And at least in my case, I do feel like there is the constant internal monologue going on, so I guess that half counts then? :D

Thanks :) And by sanding you're sort of creating a sealer.

@@IPGuitars True, remind me again of what grit to use please. ..Thank you

I always use 1200 for this part :)

@@IPGuitars Awesome...Thanks Cheers from Ohio

No problem!

HAVE TO really depends on the oil in question as well. Usually I would not do anything less than 6-8 coats. So that's 3 coats per session (one layer every 20 minutes) and then the next session the following day. So bare minimum I would do is two sessions. But different oil build up differently :) of course the more layers you have, the more of a sheen and depth you get to your finish.

@@IPGuitars Great, thank you! Probably also depending a bit on the sort of wood - harder type, softer type...

In a way yes. If the wood is more porous and dry it might suck up much more oil until it starts to build up on the surface. Basically I'd advise just to try it and do it until you are satisfied with how it looks yourself :)

This Daedalus prototype has a birch body, oak top, holm oak fretboard, and mahogany/merbau 5-piece neck.

Depends on what you're going for. There are differences of course with each, but you can use the same technique. In the video I used Crimson Guitars' "Guitar Finishing Oil" there's a few companies that make similar products, I just had this at hand. It's very similar in a way to Tru Oil. Then you could easily use, Danish, or Tung oil as well. You can google the differences, but essentially it boils down to how thick/how many coats you will need.

The High Build Guitar Finishing Oil from CG is actually based on Tru Oil and is a refined formula of gun stock oil. I don't know much of the newer stuff, but the oil was essentially planned as "Tru Oil, but without nasty chemicals"

@@IPGuitars Thank you very much

The product was designed to work much the same way as Tru Oil, just made up of slightly different stuff. Butyeah, you can feel it build up as you go :)

@@IPGuitars thank you a lot!

Honestly a good penetrative oil would be best for cedar. So for instance Tung or linseed oil.

In this example I used Crimson Guitars Guitar Finishing Oil

Also on it the bass has a primer that was sprayed in the factory. Do I need to sand it away?

It will definitely work, but yes you do need to sand away the primer first.

@@IPGuitars thank you so much!

Also what type of sandpaper would you recommend to sand away the primer?

I have a video on sanding down old finish in preparation for refinishing. But you can first see how thick the primer is with 120. If it takes a lot of effort to remove it then start with lower, but essentially move through the grits: 120-180-240-320 and going to 400 is also a great idea to get a really good and smooth finish.

Yeah, definitely :)

Finnish actually😁