Hello.
My darling wife bought me a Crimson guitars Telecaster kit for my birthday back in April. It's a lovely ash body with a maple neck and ebony fingerboard. A really nice piece of kit.
I have claimed to be too busy with work to apply the finish and put it together. In truth I am scared in case I screw it up.
I have to drill the holes through the body for the strings, the neck screws, and for the tuners. I have bought a device that clamps my cordless drill and should give me holes perpendicular to the body. I guess I will just have to measure carefully and go for it, hoping that any mistake can be intonated out!
Anyway, that is not the point of my post but if anyone has any tips or kind words of encouragement, they would be very much appreciated.
I want to apply a solid finish (there is some nice grain in the wood but I'm not that confident in applying stains to bring it out. I understand I ought to apply black, sand it off and apply a couloured stain, but maybe next time). I will be sanding the body to 320 grit and applying a grain filler. Beyond those two things, do I need to do anything else before painting?
I have seen the perfect colour (a darkish red colour called 'Monarch' by Dulux if anyone is interested) and because l have no confidence in my spraying and in any case I don't really have the facilities, I think I will paint it on using a good quality brush. I am prepared to put some elbow grease in between coats to sand it down and add multiple coats. After that I will go up through the grades to two- or three-thousand grit before buffing to a final - hopefully - mirror finish.
The questions I have are (a) would this give me a good quality finish? I am prepared to spend time on this so it's not as if I have a deadline, and (b) given the paint is gloss to start with, would I need to finish with a lacquer? If so what is the best sort for this kind of paint given that again I will be applying by brush or cloth and sanding to a glossy finish?
On a more general question with reference to lacquer, what is it applied for? Is it to protect the paint or to add glossiness? If a body was painted with matt emulsion and then a gloss lacquer added and polished, would the effect be the same as just using gloss paint? I'm confused over the role of lacquer, and even whether lacquer CAN be used over matt emulsion or gloss paints.
Are there any gotcha's that people can think of? As far as the neck goes, I wan't to apply a stain (either to the wood or using a tinted lacquer) to give an antique maple type of finish, with a satin feel to aid playability. Again to be applied by brush or cloth. Any thoughts or recommendations as to products?
Thanks for any help you can give.
Comments
I'm not sure that type of enamel can be fltted and polished, enamels cure in the outer skin and very slowly deeper through. Once you're through the very thin hard outer it gets messy. Could do a tester pot first I guess. Definitely can't put a solvent based lacquer over an emamel, until it's old, it will react, there's about 50% solvent in it.
Basically I just wouldn't use an oil-based enamel of any kind on a guitar though.
How about getting a colour mixed in celly, Steve Robinson could sort that out I'd think. No need for lacquer with a solid colour. Just flat & polish away. Celly (nitro) dries fast, solvent evaporates fast - less change of bugs & crap landing, DIY friendly.
Ash has deep grain so bear that in mind re filling, if you want a flat/even shiney finish.
spend some time looking at other DIY finishes. you won;t get a deep burgundy red like that from a stain. you might be able to do it with a brushing lacquer like rustins plastic coating, although that would work best as a trans finish rather than solid.
if you could get some nitro mixed in a can, that would be the best way forward.
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as for drilling string holes. Use the bridge as a guide to make a thicker template, at least 1/2" thick. when drilling the body drill the outer string holes all the way through using your thick template. drill the inner 4 half way through. flip over the body and re-align your template on the back, using those outer screw holes. Now drill the inner 4 holes from the back.
Use your thick string hole template with 2-3mm string holes to make a ferrule template with 8mm string holes (depending on ferrule choice. Use this template to ensure the ferrules line up perfectly even if the string holes don't
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*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
if you have a useable grain pattern you can forgo the grain filling as the grain will take more stain and appear darker, unfilled ash grain can be beautiful with a simple stain/oil finish, texture is everything
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Stain isn't that difficult to do, you can darken up lighter areas. Endgrain soaks it up more. I wouldn't say either ash or maple is harder to stain as such and individual pieces of each vary anyway.
Translucent lacquers have their own issues. Certainly not easier than staining but if you're going for a dark/heavy tint, that's more forgiving vs no hiding a problem in a light tint.
Your spraying has to be decent, avoiding tiger stripes, light vs heavy areas. Runs & dog hairs and big fat flies taking a swim are a problem and game over with a light tint.
As with everything there's techniques and things to learn your way around,
In terms of easy, stain + oil with grain texture followed by stain + cleacoat, grainy texture. Hardest by a good bit is flat glassy gloss. Choosing a way depends what finish you want, and praps what you fancy in terms of figuring out finishing stuff along the way.
How do I do it?
There is talk on the internet of grain fillers, tinted grain fillers, sanding sealer, dyes or stains, water-based or alcohol-based stains and dyes, dark stains or dyes that are sanded back, coloured dyes or stains added over the dark sanded back stain, tinted lacquers, and clear lacquers. The processes people describe use some of these in varying combinations, but there is no consistency. It seems that folk generally slap things on in pretty much any order! It is confusing for people like me who just want to know what steps to take to achieve the end result.
At some point you've got to choose an initial approach and get stuck in using the knowledge that you've gleaned from the various sources that you've seen and read. You might make some mistakes but you will learn from them and move on.
A transparent high gloss finish is certainly not the easiest if you have no prior experience but FWIW, here's how I'd go about it:
- Ensure that your wood is well sanded
- grain filler
- sanding sealer
- transparent red lacquer until you achieve the desired shade
- lots and lots of clear gloss. Yes lots. Several cans.
- allow to harden for a couple of weeks
- flat sand, buff and polish
It's important that each step is right before you move to the next.You'll need time, patience and somewhere warm, dry and well ventilated to spray. Unless you have access to suitable premises then outside is probably best, lets hope for some nice weather.
How many commercial guitars use stained ash as opposed to a coloured lacquer over ash?
There is a Stewart Macdonald book but IIRC it just focuses on lacquer finishes because that's what most high end guitars use.
Grainfilling ash is a challenge in itself. be prepared to do it 3 times before the sealer if you want a glass finish and its your first time... then you may find you need to do it again when you spray your sealer and it shows the bits you missed or s
That issue goes away with alder, but the grain is comparatively boring. there are loads of different finishing processes you can follow. they vary based on the wood and finish used as much as anything else. As long as your filler, sealer and paint are all compatible you can change the order or some of the early stages.
I would agree that trans lacquer sounds like a better option for what you want to achieve, mainly for consistency.
Be aware more nitro finishes do show marks easily. Where an oil finish would simply dent, brittle nitro will crack
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My last few were done using Rustins Plastic Coat brushed on over stain, there is a little leeching of the stain into the RPC jar but not noticeable on thee body itself, RPC gives a pretty tough high gloss finish but like the old Imron (catalysed polyester) finishes of the 80's it can be brittle if hit hard enough, though I've not experienced that myself........yet
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1