About Varnish, Patina and natural beauty.

There is a school of thought that says a maker's varnish is sacrosanct and that it must not be altered in any way; that the maker's original intent should always be respected and the instrument should be allowed to acquire its own patina with age, and natural wear and tear. 

I am not in that school of thought. 

Of course, IF every instrument started out with a beautiful varnish and was allowed to age gracefully, then I'd agree. But basses are not like violins, which in a velvet case for 90% of their lives. 

Basses are big, cumbersome, heavy objects that despite the best intentions, scrape on the floor, against music stands, inside bags, cars, stairwells, and get regularly hit with rings, fingernails, bow frogs, bow tips, drumsticks, belt-buckles, tuxedo buttons, wristwatches, and the list goes on ...

The result is, more often than not, basses get unattractive fresh white scratches, chips, broken bits, dings. Not to mention shrinkage cracks, F hole cracks, bridge foot damage, chipped scroll ...

Now there is no denying that with time, these may eventually fill with dirt, polish etc and become part of the character if the instrument. But in the meantime, the damage is just plain ugly. 

A varnish retouch - to match the surrounding varnish and make the damage disappear completely, is possible. However a great job is both time consuming and expensive. While this is sometimes worthwhile on a valuable handmade bass, or a classic old beauty in top condition, in the vast majority of cases there is just no budget, nor need, for this level of restoration cost. The bass is often a factory bass of low to moderate value, and in this case, a restoration to as new is not practical. Moreover, on many occasions I have retouched a scratched bass only to have the scratches re-applied by the user a short time later! 

There has to be a practical solution, and there is. Accelerating the patination process makes no pretence that the damage is not there. The damage gets filled and sealed, some lost varnish may be replaced or resurfaced, and the texture of the surface matched to the surrounding area.

On the other hand, some varnish is just downright ugly - or at the very least, boring - from the outset! This does an otherwise decent instrument no favours whatsoever. And this, combined with the everyday incidental damage mentioned above - well, it just results in an uncomfortable situation that can so easily be remedied.

Talk to me about how I can transform the look of your weathered bass or cello into something that has character, charm - and is easier to maintain that way.