olddog

Hi. I just started french polishing a few months ago. I have a few questions about grain filling and glazing. I'm currently doing a mohogany sg body, and some areas just seem to resist grain filling, no matter how much I keep sanding back the body coats and then grain filling again. The glazing question I have is that I can't seem to get the staight lines out of the final result. Before I glaze, the finish seems almost perfect, the glazing is like a step backward. I end up having to use polishing compouns to get back to the shine I had. Any ideas?

The flake I use is from House of Kolor, and I beleive they make a couple of different size flakes. A jar costed about 38 bucks, and it mixes with the clear and goes over a color coat. There's enough flake for a whole bunch of guitars. I have a good gun with a 1.4 tip, and acrappy one with a 1.8, and I couldn't get any material out of the 1.4 tip. The bigger tip worked, but had to be cleared out a lot. The tecnique I used was to give the gun a lot of pressure, a lot of material, then stay about a foot or so away and blast away, moving fast. That seemed to spread the flake on evenly.

It was a while back on e-bay that I saw someone selling aluminum neck pocket and pickup jigs. Does anyone remember the name? Or someone who produces them? Thanks

I have to agree with GodBless Texas. You can sand a neck down to sawdust in an afternoon with a strong arm and 40 grit. But do you REALLY want to sand down a stock Les Paul?

A while back my brother bought some pre-bent frets on e-bay. I only make about 2 or 3 fret boards a year, so I don't want to buy a bender, and bending by hand I just can't do well. Does anyone know of the guy who bends frets for sale on e-bay? They worked really well, they were pre-cut and pre-bent and it made it easy. Thanks for any info. ( I'm buying the circle saw blade from stew-mac, it's .023, so I hope that helps)

I was just wondering about silver maple as a tonewood. I have a huge silver maple I have to cut down, and before I give it away for firewood, I was wondering if it had any qualities for a tone wood. Any ideas? If it's just marginal or experimental I won't even bother. It takes too much work if the ax doesn't sound any good. Thanks.

My brother brought me a mohogany sg body that he finished in tung oil. He now want to paint it with a solid color. Do I have to sand all the remnants of tung oil out, or can I just lay a grain filler on it and go from there?

Hey, doc. I put a couple coats of behlin vinyl sealer over a behlin solar lux red stain. At least to me, it doesn't seem like a compatability issue, because the mohogany is fine. All the cracks are radiating from mounting points, the bridge, the pickup rings, all radiating toward the neck pocket. I think I know what you're saying about the cracks following the glue joints, and the grain of the wood, but these cracks seem to be going from screw to screw, with no respect for grain. Kind of like a crack in a windshield. But all that being said, I got to ask you this , doc; what kind of clear would YOU put on a bare mohogany guitar . I respect your expertise. ( Just don't say french polishing, I learned enough about it to find that I can't do it. ) Thanks, d

Hey, Doc. These are like spiderwebs covering about a 5 inch swath down the middle. Hey, you're good. It is a Velspar, clear laquer, 7 bucks a quart. I didn't think it was nitro, but I just looked at the ingredients on the the can, and sure enough, it has nitro in it.

In an attempt to avoid nitro fumes, I painted an all mohogany guitar with generic hardware store clear laquer. That worked very well, so I suggested that to my brother as a finish for his hollow tele, which was mohogany with a 1/4 inch maple cap. It went well, but when he put it together, the maple developed several long stress cracks down the center of the body. Not really the maple, but the finish over it. He's a player, so it doesn't bother him much, but it bothers me. Is the laquer just to brittle for a guitar, too cheap, or possibly too thick. ( I thought I sanded enough off between coats, though ). For a fix, would it be possible to sand, and then lay another coat to fill the cracks, or must all the cheap laquer be removed and reshot with something more flexible?

After seeing the replies about Srv's and Clapton's guitars, I'm curious about a few things. I'm sure most builders would give Clapton any ax he wanted, maybe major manufacturers too. I'm just wondering , are those crappy looking axes they play just tweaked to perfection, refretted and rewhatever every once in a while, and why wouldn't they just grab one of the million axes that are thrown at them? So I guess that bring me to my question; are those crappy looking axes the ultimate in tone and playability?

Hey, Idch, I guess the normal tendency is to stay and admire your paint job for a while, even though there's nothing you can do until it dries anyway. I have a huge exhaust fan in my booth, but I still get in and out as fast as I can. I'm sure my paint jobs may suffer from that, but c'est domage. ( Was that the right words? ) I guess I look at paint like cigarettes, no cigarettes are good for you, but two a day is better than two packs a day.

My only experience with auto paint on guitars has been with acrylic enamal that was then clearcoated. If you're good with the gun, with a solid color, you can get a darn shiny finish with a wet sand-rubout without the clear. It's been a long time since I painted a car with laquer, so I really can't say. About the only thing I can add about the basecoat-clearcoat auto paint is that it is HARD. I don't mean hard to apply, I mean hard, like a rock. So I'm just assuming you're talking about acrylic enamal or laquer. You would need clearcoat for the basecoat-clearcoat system. Anyway, I can paint a tele body with a pint of paint, and have a quarter to a third of the pint left. You'll have to do the math. You may get a little more out of it, I always mix a buttload of paint so my gun doesn't run dry on the bottom of the guitar when I have to tilt it. Hope that helps. But I've been finding out on this site that there is a lot more knowledgeable painters than I.

Thanks again doc, for your advice. Especially the part where you said that it is made out of wood. The damn ax sounds outstanding. That's the main thing, right? Take care of yourself. later, d

I have a few questions about the Behlin nitro instument laquer over mohogany. I used the Behlin Pore-O-Pac grain filler, followed by the vinyl sealer, and then the laquer. After a few months, the pores started to show through the finish. I've seen threads about the epoxy type filler, would that alleviate the problem? Or is it just the nature of the wood? Or am I doing something wrong, like not taking enough time between coats (usually 2 days) or the wood maybe not being dry enough? Also, is the epoxy filler compatable with the laquer? Also, after reading the thread about fumes, how do the water based clears work? Thanks.

About the only good thing I can say about ammonia systems is that if you have a leak in the system, you KNOW it. Hey, Southpa, my grand pa was a French Canadian southpaw. Claimed that he knocked out the Canadian middleweight champ in a barfight in 1919. I guess he never expected the left hook.

I was sad to read about your medical condition, Doc. When I first started working 35 years ago, ( I am also 52 ), part of what I did was remove asbestos insulation to repair steam leaks. I know what you mean about thinking you're immortal when you're 18. The older journeymen blew off the warnings that were just coming out. Now, asbestos is right there with nuclear waste. I will heed your advice about ventalation and respirators.

Hey. I can't rip stew-mac. They ship fast, they always ship what you order, and in my limited experience, I was always better off ordering from them. I tried to save some money buying screws and spring from a local hardware store, but in the end the stuff wasn't exactly the look I wanted. I'm sure the economies of scale could be a factor, if you're making a lot of guitars, I could see where that would enter into the equation. Myself, I kind of like to go out to the mailbox, and get all the right hardware for whatever I'm building.

Hey. Thanks for the honest advice. Man, I hope it doesn't take me 10 years, I may not have that much time left. I did try a few of the things you suggested, I donated a guitar to a public tv aution, and I gave one to my instructor. He's in 3 bands, and does sound for a bunch more. I did try the e-bay thing with one ax, and what you said about that makes perfect sense. I wondered myself if I would buy a guitar without plugging it in and trying it. My brother buys a lot of parts on e-bay, and it seems he gets a lot of junk along with the gems. I really can't give up building guitars, my latest creation is a mohogany toilet seat cover, with purpleheart stripes, and 18 coats of nitro laquer, and all I can think about is how it would sound as a neckthrough. Thanks again for the input.

I've been painting my solid color guitars with automotive paint ( mainly for the availablity of any color), and my clear coated ones with nitrocellulose instrument laquer. However, the nitro kicks my butt with the fumes, and from all I've seen on this site, the auto enamal plus a clear coat is probably messing with the tone of the guitar. I would like to go with a water based clear coat that I can get from Stew-Mac, but it seems like there's not a lot of different colors to choose from. I guess what I'm asking is; what is the prefered system to use with custom guitars, and where can you find a wider selection of colors for that system?

Hi Devon. I don't know if we're talking about the same paint, there's a base coat-claer coat system that most cars went to in the late 80's. What I'm talking about is an acrylic urethane enamal, which is the kind of finish found on early Mustangs. The catalist that you add, is just something to make the paint harden faster, like a couple of days instead of months. I can't really speak for the base coat- clear coat system, I've never used it. The clear that is compatable with the enamal base coat can be mixed with flake or pearl, and can make for a real different look. I don't know if the auto paints are guitar acceptabe, as far as tone and such, but there is a buttload of colors availiable. As far as cost, you can get a pint on almost any color you disire for about 30 to 40 a pint. Which is more than enough for a neck through, with a little left over. The hardener is about 16, and the clear is about 35. The hardener is enough for 3 or 4 guitars. As far as fumes, yeah, I think the hardener in the paint is the bad thing, get a good resperator, paint, and get the hell out to fresh air. Nitro seems to be even worse, you'll see God after shooting that. Still, if you're only shooting one ax, it's not like a car, or a huge object. Take a deep breath, shoot, and then get the hell out of the booth.

Hey, doc, enough already. I get the picture. I appeciate the input. I'll bet that 67 Walkman would be priceless. I envy the guys who are getting it done. They're my heroes.

Thanks, Devon. I have shot the auto primer over bare wood, and over the Merit Pore-o-pac, but never over expoxy sealer. So thanks again for the info. To idch: There are all different kinds of automotive clear coats. The kind that I am familiar with is made by PPG, and it's called DAU 75. It's an acrylic urethane clear. I've never tried it over bare wood, although the tech sheets say it can. Kind of pricey though, especially when you add in the hardener.

I saw the reply to the grain filler question, and the stew-mac epoxy filler looks interesting. I can't seem to find it on the stew-mac site. Also, can it be topcoated with nitro laquer? How about automotive primer-sufacer? ( For solid colors) Thanks

It almost sounds like the jokes I heard last night on public radio last night; ( They substituted musician for guitar builder.) What do you call the guitar builder at your table? Your waiter. What do you call the guitar builder at your door? The pizza guy. I will stick around and talk axes though, this is pretty cool. I told you I was naive, when I put together the first ax, ( a mighty mite tele ), I thought I was the first guy on the planet with this idea. I had no idea a site like this existed. One of the guitars I thought up later was a double cut Les Paul neck-through, with a releived neck area for easier access to the top frets. Then someone told me about some Paul Reed Smith guy who came up with it first. Darn it! Now I will look at the guitars on this site before I make another "original".