Phil Mailloux Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 Well I sure learned a lot today. 1. Don’t rent a compressor to spray your instrument, especially if it’s your first attempt at finishing an instrument. It cost me 50 Euros for a week’s rental and my guitar is not EVEN CLOSE to being finished. I could have bought a cheap compressor for 80€!! (and will do, since I still have to finish the damn thing) 2.Sunbursting IS difficult, especially if it’s your first experience finishing… 3.Dan Erlewine’s Guitar finishing step-by-step book IS a great book. I bought it originally because I tought it would help me to finish my first instrument better. After reading it the first time I thought: “What’s this crap, I learned as much just reading the reranch documents”. Well, while I was finishing the bass, this book was the best reference to go through at any steps and saved my ass more than once. 4.Nitro cellulose thinner eats through plastic, especially the surgical gloves I happen to have. I must have changed gloves about a dozen times while I was wiping off the dyes from the body. 5.Colortone dyes are damn hard to get off your fingers. While wiping the dyes off the body I got my fingers totally colored by the dye (see point #4) I tried industrial cleaners, thinners and acetone and my fingers are still black. My boss didn’t really appreciate my black fingers while I was playing in customers’ food tonight. (I hope the color will eventually go away) 6. 2-component sealers are a godsend. At least I didn’t have to sand everything back to wood, refill and reseal both times I screwed up my finish. I only had to wipe the dyes off with towels and lots of thinner. 7.When you copy an instrument after another, make sure you’re got a picture of what you’re copying or you might have some surprises in the end. (see the two pictures below) So here goes, I decided I wanted to burst my first instrument, a 5-string bass. Here’s what it’s modeled after, Warrior instruments’ signature series bass. Here’s what mine ended up like. Needless to say I wasn’t too happy with the burst. After I did this I had a look at the photo of the original warrior bass. I was pretty pissed off at my attempt. It looks like a big blotch of black paint that someone dropped on it. So thanks to mister Erlewine, I found out I didn’t have to sand the whole thing back but just wipe off the color with thinner. I wiped the front of the body reburst and it still was ****. I wiped again and reburst again and this time the burst was a lot more like I wanted it. I was really happy with it, only problem was that the body now looked like the Niagara falls. Runs all over the place. That also brought me to the end of my week’s rental of the compressor. So after spending an hour wiping off ALL of the color away I found myself back to where I was a week earlier. Minus 25€ lacquer and thinner, 55€ rental and around 20 hours of work. I’m disgusted at myself. Well, I’m finished now. Should this be in the rant section? Or is it fine here in the work in progess? After all I still got lots more progress to do after all of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 There is a price to learning, your time, patience and sometimes alot of money. But your on the right track, don't get discouraged, read up more on the subject and practice on scrap wood the next time. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 ^ What he said^ As long as it doesn't drive you to a cold dark corner and a crack pipe, your just learning, so try to have fun while learning and enjoy the process as best you can. PS, I think your progress is completely normal. Practice on scrap next time. Take a scrap piece of wood about the size and shape of your axe and just shoot bloody hell on it until you finally get your groove thang on. ...not like 'I' ever actually -DID- that... ...but I threw a LOT of my early projects away too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 I bought a box of vinyl rubber gloves and realized they are not impervious to laquers, acetone etc. They are only good for house painting, so thankfully, they will still get used. Buy the REAL surgical LATEX rubber gloves for messing with these chemicals. I've learned to keep my hands clean by wearing them whenever I touch my project during those "in between" periods. As far as bursts go, sorry, I have never been there and have no particular advice on how to do it properly. As mentioned, using scrap can't be stressed enough in this forum before doing it on the real thing. Sometimes getting info from a book is nice but its up to you to make it real. Brian posted a nice little "how to" on bursting in the tutorial section. I always like to read up on more than one source before I attempt something new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 Hmmm...well depending on what you were aiming for the front doesn't look too bad burst wise...it looks like the 2 color LP type bursts... Sanding could possibly save it... The back isn't looking so hot though....but nobody sees that anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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