framus 360 now pith pics! (pro/con of oil finish)

[haesslich]

i found a guitar that i quite liked, but the seller told me that the former owner completely stripped it except for the binding and it's now free of any finish.
since this happened the guitar was probably oiled.
i have no clue about what's the pros and cons of oil instead of a real finish.
i know that the body has to be oiled from time to time, and i can imagine that it's more easy to hurt the wood by collisions etc.
but what else?
this could really be the main point for my decision whether to buy it or not.

[OffYourFace]

I guess it depends on what kind of wood the guitar is made from....  some woods have a natural oiliness to them and will perform just fine without a hard finish, they'll never dry out & crack.  Most people only oil the neck whereas they stain the body.
Find out the wood type or post pictures of it here. 

[spacecadet]

I think you've pretty much got it; it's just more maintenance.  There's not much that can happen to wood that's worse than losing moisture (or alternatively, getting excessively wet).  So that's all you've gotta protect it from.

I mean, unless something really dumb happens and it gets infested by termites or something.  But a little common sense will prevent that.  Hang it on a metal hanger above ground level.

I don't think sealing a guitar is all that difficult if you want to keep the natural look but make it so you don't need to oil it anymore.  I mean, I've sealed plenty of wood in general, and you just wipe the finish on and then either wipe or sand off the excess.  If you want a more traditional guitar finish, then you'll probably be spraying it on, but it still doesn't seem too difficult.

[haesslich]

guys, that sounds good.
i phoned the seller yesterday and made a good price (i hope so).
it's a framus S-360 from the early 70th, with changed pickups, bridge and tuners. no offset for my first guitar but i played it, liked it and so what? :-)
my goal is to get it maybe someday back to nearly original (that means only the finish ;-) ). but i have to spare some money first and find a luthier for this job.
i'll post some pictures next week (i'll grab it at the weekend).
maybe i'll ask some questions about sealing this axe in near future in the diy section.

[ohm-men]

Hmmmm, I'd leave the neck as it is. Just get some Tung oil and redo the neck. Gun Stock oil works juast as good. Oiled necks are pretty nice and easy to play.
As for the body. All depends on just how deep the oil has penetrated. But given this, some Denatrued alcohol, Lighter fluid might be able to take the top layer of the oil out.
If this is not enough, there is still the "iron-ing" trick. Take a normal clothes iron, and a damped cloth (water) and put it on the body and iron the cloth while on the body, by doing this, you raise the woods fiber, so you can lightly sand it afterwards.
Indeed Nitro won't work, but an oild based paint might work, since oils tend to mix. I saw that the original was black, so black paint would be a good idea as long as it is oil bases, i guess a laquer based paint might work as well. Oil tends to bleed trough the paint, but I guess gloss black will keep it minimal visible.

I recently experimented with oils on a cheap guitar and these are my findings. I sprayed a laquer based semi glos black over an oiled headstock, even though the oil did bleed trough a bit, it isn't that visible. Should I put a gloss clean on it and finish it to mirror like finish, it wouldn't be visible at all. I used a cheap paint and "airbrushed" the headstock. Did some wet sanding between coats and even aplied some more oil just to see what the result would be between painting layers.....

[missionguitars]

If you're looking to paint it, and it has been oiled, a light sanding and a wipe-down with naphtha (lighter fluid) will get rid off the top layer.  You will need to spray a shellac-based sealer on it after that though (ala Zinser) before you lacquer to seal the body, which I would recommend anyway in case there are any other nasties that have soaked into the wood along the way that you don't want to show 2-3 years down the line...other than that, you shouldn't have a problem with lacquer adhesion...

[ohm-men]

You will need to spray a shellac-based sealer on it after that though (ala Zinser) before you lacquer to seal the body, which I would recommend anyway in case there are any other nasties that have soaked into the wood along the way that you don't want to show 2-3 years down the line...other than that, you shouldn't have a problem with lacquer adhesion...

Intersting, I guess that' the step I forgot to mention.

[haesslich]

wohoooo it's here!
played the whole evening, lowered the action a little bit and played even more ;-)
but i am so stupid, i did not check everything out before i bought. i checked two weeks ago.. well damn: one tone pot does not work, and there are some grounding issues. noise until i touch the plug, the pu or the metal-poti-knobs. i hope it's easy to fix! i'll check this out as soon as i'm back in my flat (i'm at my parents right now), and make some pictures then too!

here are the promised pics:
headstock:

guitar in ooold poo brown case (sorry, unsharp. bad light in my room :-( ) :

here you can see the former position of the stop tail and the (roller?)bridge. one saddle is kind of loose :-( maybe i should switch to a plain&simple tune-o-matic?

[haesslich]

ha.
in a few minutes i'll be finished with oil&wax on my beauty!
i'll curious how it will tomorrow, when it soaked all in. :-D

having it finished with lacquer or something was too expensive so i choose to wax the body. the neck is still untouched. i want to see how the body feels before deciding whether to oil&wax the neck too.