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Musiclogic

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  1. Musiclogic
    Nogal(peruvian walnut) is very similar in properties to American Walnut, the biggest difference is where the tree grew. In the moister areas the wood is soft as stated above, in the hills it is more dense. It is easy to work, and fills and finishes to a nioce dark brown color without much character. You won't find many examples of it as yet, it has only become readilly available in the states for about the past 20 years. I am sure you will find examples as time goes on.
  2. Musiclogic
    It"s actually quite easy, the FB is sprayed with 3 coats of finish, and radius sanded to 600, the board is fretted, and then the frets are trimmed, beveled, leveled. re-crowned, taped off and then 2-3 coats of finish are applied. The FB is wetsanded with 600, 800, and 1000, then buffed with the frets still taped. The final product looks as if the finish was completely done before fretting, but it is really a combination.
  3. Musiclogic
    most likely it's a resist of some kind, either oil or wax based, generally, since you are using Lacquer, you can sand back this area, fill or dewax, then do an area recoat up to the amount you have on the rest of the guitar, block sand the complete face with 400, and go from there. With the burn in Characteristics of Lacquer, you will not even have a witness area.
  4. Musiclogic
    Carvin Kits are definately very good quality, as are the kits from Grizzly(yes the machine company...the owner is a Luthier...Grizzly.com) The Saga Kits you can get on Ebay for around $110, and have a pretty good reputation. They do not feel like a $1500 instrument when finished, but they do play as good as a $350 mexi strat. I have played a few, and was really surprised after a good set-up, how well they played. With any kit, the main thing is to inspect the components first, make sure of fit and straightness, after that, have a ball.
  5. Musiclogic
    by hand, Finish leveling is a relatively quick process when you know what you are doing, there are usually 2-8 people in the buffing area doing block sanding and buffing. Buffing only takes about 3-5 minutes per instrument, and there are independant wheels for each compound at each buffing station. Just depends on how many buffing stations they run in Nashville.
  6. Musiclogic
    When I was with Gibson, it was block sand (Dry) with 600 to level, and straight to the buffing wheel, Rottenstone, hard and soft rouge, wax, and done, the custom Shop went to 1200 wet, before buffing wheel.
  7. Musiclogic
    If you are not removing all of the deeper scratches from the previous grit, you will never get it scratch free. The idea with each successive grit is to remove all of the abrasion from the previous grit, generally by aide of a styrofoam block, you should not have visible scratches after going to 2500. This was done to 1200 by hand, and polished with Carnauba wax and a terrycloth towel. Zero swirl, Zero scratches, this is what you should be able to get with proper wetsanding technique.
  8. Musiclogic
    Fret files(crowning files if you will) are something you must know something about before buying. I use Gaurian Fret files,(Now sold under the Dunlop name) most people hate these files, and it's because they put the burr in backwards and get no result. If you are new to buying specialty items like fret files, stick with Stew Mac and LMI. Maybe a little pricey, but you will always get a good quality, and well proven tool.
  9. Musiclogic
    I guess I come from the really old school where you wash your hands frequently. Gloves can be a great help for many, but when you block the feeling in your hands, you miss imperfections you cannot see.This being said, I would agree with Nitrile and thin tight cotton would probably be your best bets.
  10. Musiclogic
    situations such as these are when you do double tape work, to even out the tape line with clear, it's a pain, but sometimes you have to tape off everything else and just shoot some clear over the binding to get it close to level with the paint, then block sand it all out, and shoot your finish coats.
  11. Musiclogic
    Yeah, I am not big on sealer either, it's probably the sealer blushing, not humidity. Sealers were basically used to seal in grain fill and color to prevent color lift and sand through, giving a good surface to spray finish coats on. Try your finish coats and see how it works out.
  12. Musiclogic
    Lacquer burns into itself, so you don't have to worry about witness lines with lacquer, one of the reasons we have used it in this industry for so many years. I like Deft stuff for doing a mild vintage tint, as it has a slight Amber color to it as most lacquers do, and it dries very hard. You should be fine as long as you don't build the finish to 1/8" thick....LOLj/k that is where cracking starts.
  13. Musiclogic
    I spent 4 years with Gibson, and have many friends that went to Nashville when they moved from Kalamazoo, MI. Gibson drysands to 600 with foam blocks to level the finish, then buff with hard rouge, rottenstone, and soft rouge for final polish. this has not changed in 70 years, and my last visit was to the custom shop 6 months ago, and they still sand to 1200 in there before buffing.
  14. Musiclogic
    Are you talking Jar or Tube Acrylics as in for Artists??? Yes you can use these IF you make sure of their compatibility with whatever primer type you are using, or the compatibility with wood if going straight onto the wood. It will just take more time to dry, and you will have to wetsand everything, as Acrylics will gum up sandpaper so quick you will go through a box of each grit.
  15. Musiclogic
    There is an old trick with binding, and that is to leave it a couple of thousandths above the surface of the guitar so you can scrape away finish and leave a nice smooth surface. If not, you must take your time and carefully tape it off. Good luck with it.
  16. Musiclogic
    The blush is occurring because you are getting heavy with your coats, and even with the low humidity, you are still trapping some vapor in the lacquer. Try to make your coats more even and a little lighter, and in 75/32% you should have no problems. As for grain filling, it will take you more time and material to fill, but should be fine as you continue to sand back to see how much fill has occurred. If you are really pressed for material, you can take a toothpick and drop fill the big voids to limit material waste, but either way you will be fine, just spray light, even, and overlap at least 1/3 per pass and you are good to go.
  17. Musiclogic
    I apologize, I was reading it a different way. Yes, no wood filler really takes stain well if at all, I was just stressing the base of the elmers product as useable due to the fact Punk already had it, and many woodworkers use it in this way as a quick fill for grain, and that it works well.
  18. Musiclogic
    Yes, it's going to be difficult, and require a lot of hand sanding after you remove the finish. You can remove it with stripper such as strip-eze or Red Devil, and this will also take some time. So if you are looking for something easy, stripping and re-finishing probably isn't in your ballpark.
  19. Musiclogic
    I am not going to make this an arguement, Just state that guitars and exhibition grade furniture are finished to much higher standards than cars these days. I do car shows, I do dash, door, and decorative panels for show cars, and high end stereo cars in my off time, I also have been a Luthier for 26 years. (Not a guitar builder, a luthier...yes there is a difference.) If you have not worked with a product, do not comment, you are making a blanket statement about products that are different. Elmers filler is NOT wood dough, it is NOT Plastic wood, and it is not a solvent based acrylic filler. You CAN NOT lump all of these products together, as they all have different properties. BTW, check out some exhibition grade furniture sometime if you want to see finishing that is beyond anything in Luthierie.
  20. Musiclogic
    climb cuts are a bit unnerving until you get used to them, one thing I have found for Mahogany, Walnut, Ash, and such woods that like to splinter, is when you are making the transition around a corner from up/down grain to cross grain, to angle into it. Don't just make the turn, take little bits at angles, make the ture into 4 thin angular cuts, this will help to tame the splitting. Also, you can cut the cross grain cuts first, then work the up and down grain, if you get splinters, doing the up/down grain cuts will remove the splintered corner after, thus saving a bit of annoyance.
  21. Musiclogic
    Just take your time, and if it doesn't feel right, trust your gut. Bandsaws are always comming up, ebay, Craigs List, Newspaper, Woodworkers sites. Google " bandsaw used" you will get links for woodworker sites with classifieds, these are great sources also. Good Luck
  22. Musiclogic
    Just to help ihocky2 and Quarter out, Elmers filler is Alaphatic resin glue based filler with wood dust and resin mixed in to make the putty, on the large packs, it gives this method for thinning, this is not some seat of the pants method, this is actually manufacturer reccommendation, and used/written about in many woodworkers sites and magazines. It is simple and effective, this is why I reccommended it, and this is what he had on hand. It's practical, and it works. PUNK....glad it is working out for you....Mustard, good analogy, I should have thought of that...LOL Thanks
  23. Musiclogic
    My favorite sander is my rockwell jitterbug(pneumatic RO sander) you can do bevels in White Ash with it....LMAO I use electric RO's for most of my large surface sanding, I have 2 pad sanders that work fine for getting scuffs and sanding marks out, but my RO's are the goto sanders for any pre hand work.
  24. Musiclogic
    First thing, turn it on and make sure the blade runs without falling off the wheels(making sure tension is correct) Second, look for rust on the wheels, guides, table, table carraige, inside cabinet. Minor surface rust is not too much worry, but heavy rest is tell tale, depending on where. Make sure when running the machine sounds like it's running smoothly, no scraping or chatter from the motor or wheels. Make sure the guides function properly, loosen both sides and back, Top and bottom, to make sure of moving freely(adjustability) and check wear on guides, you can always buy new Carter guides at worst. From there it's just common sense.
  25. Musiclogic
    The general idea with Waterslide decals is to mist the decal a few times with the finish before soaking and applying. This helps to avoid the crinkling effect when the clear hits the decal. If you use spray, you want to lightly mist the decal 5 or 6 times before shooting finish coats in an attempt to not effect the decal. Use a spray enamel or low VOC poly as to further aid in this. The earlier poster used Rustins plasticote, this may also be a good choice. When you purchase decals, find out if they are Nitrocellulose/Polyurethane compatible, this will give you a distinct advantage in the future.
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