Does alder need to be grain filled?

[ThePlague]

i'm gonna have a friend paint on an alder guitar body when i get it some time next week. i'll prime it first, and then he'll use acrylic paint, and i'll clear coat over it.

should i fill the grain before i prime it?

[Scott Rosenberger]

Yes, if you dont the finish will sink into the wood and the grain will show

[westhemann]

my books say that alder doesn't need to have the pores filled.it is tight grained like maple...it does however need to be sealed

[BLS]

If you dont fill the grain it makes a cool effect... might not work well on alder though.

[westhemann]

If you dont fill the grain it makes a cool effect... might not work well on alder though.

you are thinking of ash...

you can just use sealer to fill alder...or maple

[ThePlague]

what would a good sealer be?

[Scott Rosenberger]

even with sealer the finish will eventually sink into the wood. Kramer used to put a thin veneer of basswood over their alder bodies to keep this from happening. If you look very closely at an old alder bodied Kramer look at the belly cut or the forearm contour and you'll see what I'm talking about. those are the only parts of the body not covered with the veneer.

iirc Ibanez does this on the white Jems too

[westhemann]

Alder is a little less porous than maple and depending on the particular piece of wood may require differing degrees of preparation. If the grain appears open to your eye it will need a grain filler. Some alder is tighter grained and may not.

appears that we are both right...i guess it would be safer to fill it

oh the quote is from reranch

[ThePlague]

alright i guess i'll fill it then. thanks for the help.

[erikbojerik]

Just this week I started finishing an alder body, I didn't fill the grain, just 3 coats of Minwax sanding sealer (sanding flat with 220 grit in between). I've got on one coat of black and 2 coats of polyU, so far so good, no grain showing through.

[Im not good at this]

I dont understand what it means when you say the grain is open, what does that mean? and how can you tell if you need to seal the grain, or use a pore sealer? is there a difference between the two?

Sorry i never took woodworking, welding was more fun.... back then

Regards,

Tim

[Curtis P]

an open grain is when the grain is really...heavy you can say, that when your run your fingers accross it, you can feel the grain, so you fill it and this covers that up so the finish (solid colour) does not let the grain show through

hope that helps

Curtis

[Im not good at this]

ah, i see, kind of like a different texture? maybe texture isnt the right word, but from going around for the past 20 minutes and rubbing all the wood in my house i could find, i think i might have gotten the gist

thank you,

tim