al heeley

Being new to this, I thought the lower end of the spectrum was the best place to start playing with finishing a cheap strat copy body. I'm going for a sort of nicotined-cream faded effect which is starting to build reasonably well. My question is, how much finishing does the paint layer need before starting with the clear topcoat? Do I need to wet sand to 600/800/1000?

Rub out with T-cut for a glassy finish before lacquering?

Smooth off with a scotchbrite pad?

Can I just go straight onto the sanded surface of the paint with the lacquer, build up about 5 coats, then fine wet sand and rub from there once fully dried?

its the green sample from prs guitars (right click on image, look at properties).

I'd be interested to know more about bleaching, Maiden, if you can point me in the right direction.

Not easy to find in the uk, there's a few US sites selling 'aniline' wood dyes (chemically they are no longer really 'alinile'; its a generic term that has grown up and stuck since they first started tanning leather out of coal extracts).

I can suggest a good place to start- though not ready-to use in bottles on a DIY shelf, get in touch with the good people at Keystone Europe, they are based on Leeds Road in Huddersfield. They may be able to help point you in the right direction. Good luck!

Never seen a 9 string, but Martin (or is it Taylor?) have just brought out a new 7-string acoustic where the G string is twinned an octave higher to add a touch of the characteristic jangle.

Neat idea if you like that sort of gimmick, but $61?!? I'd give it a go for $15 maybe. It's just a thin self-adhesive strip as Mattia says, you stick down to the top edge of the fretboard and run off a battery stuck to the rear of the guitar headstock. Maybe they can get one to play christmas tunes next.

You can try John Myland or Rustins - both are london-based paint and woodstain manufacturers in the older traditional sense. A lot of DIY outlets carry their products. Mylands make a lot of high end waxes/french polish stiuff as well as stains.

Another hint is to look on the specialist forums dealing with furniture manufacture - a lot of similarities in nicely finishing good pieces of wood.

A decent quality car polish will do the same thing. Very mild abrasive (carbonate or talc filler in the polish) and a little mild solvent to open up the coating.

My own secret recipe is brasso, really does a great job.

the rear numbers towards the back of the guitar if the switch was in place go to the tone pots; 3 for taking bridge to tone, 2 for mid and 1 for neck.

If you solder a jumper across 1 and 2 then take that to the 1st of the tone pots, then you can control neck and mid pups with that tone pot, leaving the second tone pot free to control the bridge pickup.

Lacquer - never again

It's like saying; "Food, never again" because you ate something you didn't like, in my case, sprouts or celery.

To me a lacquer is a non-opaque protective coating. It is misleading to say so many of the generic statements in this thread because the danger is (especially between different countries) that what you accept as lacquer can mean something totally differnt to someone else. We should be aware this is an international forum with life existing well and unaided outside of the USA.

That way with more accuracy we avoid giving people bum info or steers that may get them into trouble.

Phew, I'm glad to get that off my chest.

Now, do you mean solvent-based nitrocellulose? Polyurethane or polyester(1 or 2-pack)?

Acrylic (water-based or solvent-based)?

Also people who say "I won't use poly(-urethane or -ester?) because of the 'health risks', are you still happy to spray on solvent-based nitrocelluloses or acrylics? They still have the same health risks, it's just a case of being sensible with the ventilation.

It's certainly not the good way to get a stain in. You should stain the wood, get the pores to soak in the colour, then lacquer over the top, but I guess you know that. Tru oil will stain up if you use the right solvent-based stain, but over 3 or 4 existing coats the stain has nowhere to go, so all you will get is the weak shade of the colour in a dried film of tru-oil. It will work but it may look streaked and weak. If you only add a little stain, there should be no problems with adhesion of the coat to the existing coats.

thanks for the help on this, really appreciate it. I have the book ordered off Amazon. The neck looks straight but it obviously isn't. Looks like there's no quick fix for this - the perils of a cheap strat copy neck from ebay - but you have to start learning somewhere.

Thx Swed!

Pity these links are still invalid on the front page under Tutorials.

Fret Level and Crown: Author Steven Kersting

Photographic tutorial on fret leveling and crowning

Refretting a complete neck: Author Steven Kersting

Photographic tutorial on refretting a complete neck

Pull out and replace the low ones.

Oo-errr, I was afraid you'd say that. I'm toying with the idea of ripping the lot out and putting some fatter ones in, only I'm now way out of my depth when it comes to guitar tweakery. I have no tools for refretting, only the advice and tutorials on this great forum.

Hi gurus,

I'm doing a strat copy project with a nice maple neck, dead straight but poor frets. Up around frets 12 to 15 there are a lot of dead and buzzing spots even though the action is high. Looks like a couple of frets are too low for me to be able to get an acceptable action. Is there a way of actually easing up a couple of frets to be in line with the others? I've already smoothed and levelled them all off, and don't want to take any more off the rest of them, they are already looking a bit flat on top.

Agreed. I used a can of Krylon Crystal Clear on a Squire neck, who's headstock I reshaped (hatethe big headstocks), and it came out rather nice.

Thx guys, sorry forgot to mention its blonde maple. So SOme light coats of crystal clear, leave to cure, buff up, then 3 or 4 more light coats, right?

HI,

I'm looking to finish a replacement strat neck for a partscaster project. Not looking for glorious cosmetics, just seal to protect from grease, dirt, water, etc.

I have an aerosol can of clear acrylic lacquer, and a tin of Tru-oil from a previous project.

Would either be ok for finishing the neck? What about the fretboard?

Thx guys!