al heeley

Nope, chambered guitars with small resonant areas are nowhere near as prone to feedback as a semi-acoustic or archtop type.

Yep, sorry I'm a chemical nerd, bet you earn more money than me though....

It's just the fumes/solvents you should avoid. When its fully cured it is inert.

I doubt you'd hear much difference if you cut an f-hole into a chambered guitar. But a full arch-top with f-hole is a totally different instrument to a chambered solid body, and this is where internal resonance really starts to make a big sound difference and can lead to feedback problems with louder amplification volumes.

Polyester has not got any cyanoacrylate in it. It is a 2-part which is cured off with a peroxide hardener. It is polyester monomer resin dissolved up in styrene, which is not good to drink.

Nitrocellulose is solvent-based and all solvent fumes are not exactly beneficial to health.

Acrylic spray (aerosol can stuff) is also resin in a solvent carrier (+ propellant) again breathing the fumes is never recommended. It is essentially a 1-part system.

Polyurethane is a different 2-part system and has typically an isocyanate hardener in it, not cyanoacrylate. Isocyanates are nasty but it only uses a tiny bit in it as a hardener to cure it off, so on the whole I would say there's not much more significant health risk using any of the popular finishes as long as common sense on ventilation is opbserved.

You have to be a bit careful when so many people just refer to 'Poly' coatings and they all may mean something different. As a generic term it is inaccurate and causes confusion.

Just to add a little note: Danish oil will feel greasy for days. When it's dry a little buffing with a good quality furniture wax will take that greasy feeling off it.

Aren't sanding sealers clear shellac or nitro? These should be brush or wipe-on, doing this with an aerosol seemas wasteful and expensive, although it should do a similar thing, which is basically to go into the wood pores and set off so the wood does not act like a sponge when the paint is applied.

It does, but if its old or out of condition the oil does not last forever. Too much solvent cleaning can leach the valuable oils out of the wood. A good condition rosewood board should not really need treating more than a few times a year.

No! Don't do it, it will never look right, and it won't even look like a cool peavey any more. A crying shame. If you really dislike it, sell it on ebay and buy a squier strat with that awful ugly fat '70's headstock. Ugg. I'd take the Peavey any time.

I used a good coating of linseed oil on an old rosewood board once, left on thick overnight then wiped off and buffed up. It felt a bit oily for the next few days but seemed to do the trick.

I think if the wood was contaminated you'd have seen problems before the final coat. There must be some chemical incompatibility with the metallic and the lacquer layers. Sorry to see, otherwise stunning finish.

Yup.

Halfords carry 2000grt.

Not round my way they don't. But 1500 is fine enough for this project.

Yep, it has.

What is the non conductive paint in the cavity called?

Conductive shielding paint.

Brilliant.

You should not apply a 'finish' to rosewood. It should not need it. You can clean it with a very mild abrasive like wire wool 0000 gauge but only in the longitudinal direction of the neck, not across the grain, or buff it up with some proper lemon oil fretboard conditioner, not the bogus naphtha stuff with lemon scent added (Naphtha is basically lighter fluid, and a good degreaser) it sounds like your board needs a little oil back in it.

For the back of your neck, I'd suggest a good rub down with a scotchbrite finishing pad to 'satin' the finish. See how that feels, I did this to my maple Tele neck (which bears no comparison to your exotic wood sandwich) but I love the feel of it.

On a standard 6 string guitar, I would assume (and I hope to be corrected) the bottom e is exerting far more pull than the top E. So on a normal neck the bass side is always going to be under more force and the necks seem to cope fine with it. By putting extra strings on the treble side you are actually balancing out the pull more so than on a standard 6 string. If this is correct, then a 9-string ought to be actually more stable. No?

Thx, got some 1500 from my local Halfords!

The most thorough forum I have come across on guitar electrics is Gutar-Nutz, quite scary how much specific knowledge exists there, for me it is the holy grail of any wiring query.

http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?

Does Halfords qualify as a decent automotive supplier?

I'm having trouble buffing out the swirl marks on my strat project, the finest wet'n'dry paper I can find is 600 grit, then I'm switching to a scotchbrite pad before buffing with T-Cut. Still the swilr marks are staying. (This is an automotive aerosol paint app.)

I cannot find any finer grade paper anywhere. I'd be happy with a couple of sheets of 2000 grit to finish the job off.

Does anyone have any contacts for UK-based suppliers of really fine grit wet'n'dry? Do I really have to buy this from the U.S.?

Maple or rosewood? Treated/lacquered?

SOme people recommend wet sanding to help raise the grain then knock it off with the fine sandpaper for a really smooth finish, then a couple of coats of sanding sealer. This is probably more important for a really good transparent or translucent grain-effect finish. For an opaque colour, sanding sealer plus undercoat depending on final colour/finish.

Aah. Is it that thick protective coat of polyester that looks slightly milky when rubbed with fine sandpaper? You will not get much of a coloured grain effect unless you remove the lot, I'm afraid. And if it's what I think it is, there's a lot of effort involved in getting that coating off.

You should get a far better finish by using an aniline-type dye to stain the wood and then clear-coating over the top, than by colouring the lacquer. Better in terms of getting grain-effect and colour depth/density.

You can get both solvent-soluble and water-soluble dyes that can be rubbed on to the wood. Stewmac's book is a good recommedation from johnsilver.

Hope I'm not being rude, but a saga kit is not likely to have a really nice grain or figure to show off, it may be better suited to a less transparent finish.