Spalted Gold

[daveq]

I'm really glad some of you like it as much as I do. I love the look of the guitar and am really happy with the way the colors came together.

I got the top from Larry at GalleryHardwoods. He actually recommended it to me when I was asking about something else. He's got some very high quality wood. It's not a "usual" piece of spalt in that it was actually very hard throughout. That's one of the things that Larry mentioned to me over the phone. I didn't really believe it until it got here.

The finish is about as simple as it gets. Many extremely thin coats of Tru-Oil:

1. Wipe it on and wipe off the excess.

2. Check for any streaking left behind using a bright light and wipe it out before it begins to harden.

3. Wait the recommended time between coats (I got away with 3 hrs on avg.).

4. Repeate 1-3 for about 20-30 coats? ( I never actually count).

5. Let cure and buff.

With "usual" (I don't know if that's a good term to be using with something like spalt) spalted wood, you'd probably have to seal it with something first (I'm guessing).

This is just my way of using the stuff - not THE way, I'm sure. Finishing remains my biggest struggle and probably always will. I'll get a chance to get back into spraying again this summer. Who knows, maybe I'll get the hang of it.

Thanks again,

DaveQ

[Drak]

If the spalt was hard wood with no punk, then I understand why you didn't have to do anything special to it and Tru-Oil would have worked just fine. I mean, after all, hard Maple is hard Maple, and Tru-Oil works great on hard Maple..

Chalk a big one up to Larry for knowing what to recommend, he saved you a lot of work. Great guy he is.

I'm -really- digging looking at that guitar.

Over.

and over.

and over.

hehehe...