Is Wudtone suitable for re-finishing?

andypwudtone

Hi there, need to clarify some options / confusion to help those thinking about re-finishing  with Wudtone. 

It seems that there are some general comments along the lines of "that it may prove rather difficult applying Wudtone on a guitar body that has been stripped rather than a raw body. "

Well it won't prove any more difficult to actually apply,  I can assure you of that. The key is ( as usual) the prep.

Using the dye and pigment based kits ( which will solid colour with enough coats) will be effective even if you haven't got back to completely bare wood. see tip on that here http://www.wudtone.com/forum/?topic=new-lady-teal-colour-plus-tip-when-using-pigment-based-kits .

The area to take care with is when you want the dye only ( eg deep colour coats) to colour as intensely as they can. If you have not stripped back enough ( to bare porous wood), there is a risk there may still be some barrier, sealer and so the colour will not be as intense as it can be. Don't use anything finer that 240 grit either to sand back, always use a fresh piece to do a final cut along the grain. 

Here is an example of how Wudtone can be used to re-finish / transform a high end guitar with relatively little effort or cost. The customer chose to just do the maple cap of this guitar and that was a good decision. 

It isn't just the look that is different , this guitar feels different to play , has more dynamic and natural voice. Customer feedback ""It was a lot of fun! The top coat feels amazing great products! Fancy doing another one now."  It is more satisfying to play and it is going to age nicely now, because the polymer based shit has been removed off the top. In fact if anyone has such a pale, insipid looking yet nicely flamed LP they don't want , let me know. kind regards

after ( see before pic below)

before 

ThePrettyDamned

Nice. I've tested a refin on a piece of scrap and it does work - but I needed to sand right back, with quite a coarse grit (maybe 100?) and finished at 240. This ensured a 'fresh' work surface. Not good if you have a thin veneer top! Great for solid wood.

Also, @ttony routed 0.5mm off one of his to ensure bare wood! Which is a neat way of doing things.

andypwudtone

agreed use wudtone on nice wood for best results ( new or re-finish) 

What is interesting about the guitar above is the transformation from an plain ordinary, but good Gibson LP, that no one gave a second glance to, to one that folks on vintage LP forums drool over. Was a decent guitar, now its a much more desirable guitar, being used more, appreciated more etc. The cost of the Wudtone to do it was £14.80 +p&p.

Cheap paint grade, poor, veneered, laminated bodies etc that really needs to be covered up with spray on primers and paints, leave those for others or the mass producers who are better set up to hide it especially when refinishing! 

 

littlethoughts

I always love the look of a well finished wudtone guitar. A few people on these forums use it a lot and it usually looks great! having said that, I actually prefer the "before" shot - that light maple is quite lovely. But obviously if it's covered in crap it might not sound/age as well.