Need to finish mahogony and vaneer

[manmac]

Hello all and thanks for allowing me to join your forum.

I am building a guitar which will be the last one I ever own and would like it to be special so rather than painting I would like to finish it in wood.

The body I have is one piece mahogany with a birds eye maple vaneere top bonded to it.

Obviously this is going to need finishing and my dilemma is what to use and how to use it, I don't know much about working with wood.

I have spent many years doing custom paint jobs on motorcycles but the art of finishing wood has always eluded me, my attempts, in the past, have not been too good around the house and usually ended with the items being painted instead, or binned.

I had thought of oiling the maple neck and am still quite happy to do that because of all the friction rubbing it will get in normal use, any kind of gloss laquer will make the hand stick and impede the playability ... unless there is something else I can use?

The body.... I was going to use some kind of wax (?) to fill the grain and achieve the smoothe finish but they do tend to get knocked from time to time and don't want chips knocking out of it, also I think I need to cover the edges where the maple vaneer meets the mahogany ? So some kind of easy to apply laquer (?) I really have no idea on this and am hoping some one can "turn on a light" with me so I can get this done with some degree of confidence to achieve a beautiful and practical finish.

Thanks, in anticipation, for any help you can give me

 

[r896neo]

If your into touching up and spraying bikes then a good quality spray apllied laquer followed by a few coats of paste wax well buffed in would give a great result.

For ultimate beauty french polish and wax would be the nicest finish in my opinion but much less resistant to a dings and scrapes.

 

[manmac]

a good quality spray apllied laquer followed by a few coats of paste wax well buffed in would give a great result.

Thanks for that, is there a particular laquer you have in mind, provided it is thin enough it will go through my spray gun,, would you then flat it back with something like 2000 wet n dry before applying the wax paste? or apply on the gun finish ?, I do have an air polisher and usually use a very fine grade compound and soapy water to finish, will I be able to do that with wood laquer?

cheers

 

[joinerjohn]

Before you spray your guitar with anything, you need to fill the grain of the mahogany. I used some Rustin's woodfiller for mine. Rub the woodfiller across the grain so it fills up all of the pores in the wood. Leave it to go hard then sand it down with something like 320 grit paper.

I considered a spray lacquer for my guitar, but not having the confidence to do a good job, looked at the cost of a professional job. (Way too expensive)

I settled on a hard oil finish. My guitar received around 8 or 9 coats of danish oil. It was left for about a week or so between coats. Given a very light rub over with 1000 grade wet&dry paper. Then had 4 coats of Colron , Antique Oil

Untitled

• joinerjohn
• 5 Sep 2010
• 1

Guitar made of Brazilian Mahogany with Rosewood Fretboard and Ebony head face Neck is glued on to body (no screws or bolts !!!!)
The fretboard just gets cleaned a couple of times a year and receives a light coat of olive oil rubber into it.

 

[manmac]

Made a good job there John, looks way too cool, it obviously makes a great job but would two-pack laquer take to wood if sprayed in several coats?

If it does.. would I still have to fill the grain in the mahogany, tne reason is that although I am now retired from the music business, a bunch of old musician mates and I have decided to form a fun band and so the guitar is likely to get 'gigged'.
As a player I'm sure you know yourself 'that' is a dangerous place for unprotected wood to be !!

 

[r896neo]

After spraying the laquer i would go for i would 0000 exra fine wire wool to rub the wax in. This will roughen the surface ever so slightly and remove the shine from the laquer. leaving a more dull glow to it.

As far as the laquer goes, i'm not sure but i think they use nitro-cellulose on guitar bodies?

 

[manmac]

Thanks guys, the normal finish is indeed 'nitro cellulose' but it comes with its own downfalls too, unless another alternative comes along I think I am going down John's route with the oils etc and will just have to refrain from taking it out anywhere, my lead player has a guitar that is valued at just over £10,000 and he calls all the dents and chips "character" ...I still call them "looking like sh*te".... oh well upwards and onward.

 

[joinerjohn]

You'd still have to fill the grain of the mahogany, otherwise the finish will never be nice and smooth. It doesn't take long to fill the grain though. The maple is probably fine grained enough to not require filling. The mahogany on mine was filled using a coloured filler.
As for your mate's guitar having the chips and dings etc. Some of the major manufacturers now make copies of famous guitar players guitars, right down to the chips. scratches etc

You could try KTM-9 water based gloss finish. It can be brushed on then sanded and polished.
http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies....TM-9-Gloss-Lacquer-0.5-Litre/flypage.tpl.html

 

[Deluks]

Some of the major manufacturers now make copies of famous guitar players guitars, right down to the chips. scratches etc

I wonder if Dean snap the headstock of their Dimebag lightning and get a roadie to glue it back on again

 

[joinerjohn]

Dunno about that Delux, But Gibson and Fender now make almost exact replicas of guitars right down to the dings etc and charge a fortune for making it look secondhand.