Refinishing acoustic guitar

munckee

I realise this is a mugs game if you know what you are doing and I don't so bare with me.

When miss munckee started playing guitar more than just the school lessons I took her to PMT and we tried every single acoustic under £300; the best sounding by some clear distance was washburn harvest solid top.  Probably the worst looking as well.  Miss munckee loves playing it, hates how it looks.  

I have offered to give her my all solid guild to take to uni but she is attached to the washburn but continues to dislike the look of it.  I've read people online saying you can just sand the top by hand and wax but I'm concerned about the binding and getting the finish off evenly, and what about the decoration around the soundhole, I assume thats paint and will come off with the finish?

Would only be talking about the top leaving the sides, neck as is just to make it a plain top as a) apparently burst acoustics are like crocs (to the yoof of today) and b) this is the worst of all bursts

https://i.imgur.com/QJ76Ci3.jpg ;

Anyone been stupid enough to try it and what were the results like?

Tannin

It's an astonishingly bad burst. I dislike sunbursts at the best of times but this is one of the worst I have ever seen. best described with that charming old Ozzie expression "a chunderscape".

Good luck with the refinish.

SteveRobinson

Don't do it, you'll regret spoiling the guitar.

Jez6345789

Theoretically you could sand it all back scrape off some of what I presume is a poly finish, hot gun used carefully is probably the best bet.

now the reality check you have a good chance of screwing it up and it then looks total crap.

Removing the top and sanding out what won’t scrape will most likely thin the top and change the tone.

refinish needs to be clear nitro or French polish see little point-in hand waxing as it will fill the grain and add weight people have used light coats of tru oil but shellac or nitro are good value.

BillDL

I've seen some old Gibson acoustics with a worse sunburst finish than that guitar.  It's certainly not the most "blended" gradient I have seen, but I think what is making it look a bit worse is the odd perspective in the photo.  I assume the top bout is slightly narrower than the bottom bout, but the perspective in the photo makes it look as though the top bout is wider than the bottom one.  One thing that exaggerates the apparently odd dimensions is that the darker colours of the sunburst is normally brought in closer to the fretboard in the upper bout rather than it being the same width around the entire circumference of the body.

The soundhole rosette is undoubtedly a sticker under the lacquer, and it's made to try and look like the kind of contrasting wood marquetry/parquetry rosettes you often find on smaller bodied "folky" type guitars.  Unfortunately it doesn't really look very good and is a bit too large for the size of the body and doesn't really match in with sunburst very well.

It MIGHT be possible to selectively sand through only the area covered by the rosette, find a rosette decal that covers roughly the same area (or two separate concentric ones) that suits the guitar better, and then apply lacquer over the new rosette sticker.

Personally I wouldn't even start sanding down the soundboard to try and refinish it.  Even if they used a clear sealer coat before spraying tinted lacquer (i.e. the tint may not have penetrated the wood), sanding consistently all over the top down to that sealer coat would be pretty hard to execute neatly and I am sure I would make an arse of it even with a reasonable amount of experience at doing refinishes.

munckee said:

..... apparently burst acoustics are like crocs (to the yoof of today) ....

How old is Miss Munckee?  Obviously you can't be buying new guitars for her on a regular basis depending on what is in vogue with the yoof of today, but maybe there is a Washburn Harvest of the same model but with a plain top out there 2nd-hand that might be affordable enough for her to chip in with you on the price.

[EDIT] I've just looked at the currently available Washurn Harvest guitars and none of them have a bound fretboard and the only sunburst is a "tobacco" one.  The range has obviously changed.  A close-up of the rosette sticker actually makes it look a lot nicer than your photo from further away, but then again it's not on a dark sunburst.
https://www.washburn.com/instrument-series/harvest/

Sarge

Whatever you do DO NOT use heat to remove the top, doing so is likely to loosen the glue on the bracings underneath, leading to odd "sympathetic vibrations" at best and loss of structural integrity and bowing of the top at worst. 

munckee

BillDL said:

The soundhole rosette is undoubtedly a sticker under the lacquer, and it's made to try and look like the kind of contrasting wood marquetry/parquetry rosettes you often find on smaller bodied "folky" type guitars.  Unfortunately it doesn't really look very good and is a bit too large for the size of the body and doesn't really match in with sunburst very well.

It MIGHT be possible to selectively sand through only the area covered by the rosette, find a rosette decal that covers roughly the same area (or two separate concentric ones) that suits the guitar better, and then apply lacquer over the new rosette sticker.

Personally I wouldn't even start sanding down the soundboard to try and refinish it.  Even if they used a clear sealer coat before spraying tinted lacquer (i.e. the tint may not have penetrated the wood), sanding consistently all over the top down to that sealer coat would be pretty hard to execute neatly and I am sure I would make an arse of it even with a reasonable amount of experience at doing refinishes.

munckee said:

..... apparently burst acoustics are like crocs (to the yoof of today) ....

How old is Miss Munckee?  Obviously you can't be buying new guitars for her on a regular basis depending on what is in vogue with the yoof of today, but maybe there is a Washburn Harvest of the same model but with a plain top out there 2nd-hand that might be affordable enough for her to chip in with you on the price.

Miss munckee is 18, the issue is she doesn't want to sell it because of sentimental attachment but doesn't like the look of it.  If I make it look worse but it still plays as well not such a disaster, if it ruins the sound it would be a big disaster.

WezV

I wouldn't strip it.

At most I would do a light overspray in a solid colour.  You can either mask the rosette or get a new transfer one made . 

It might add a little weight to the top, but if it's already thickly finished I doubt it will be a difference you can hear

WezV

Jez6345789 said:

refinish needs to be clear nitro or French polish see little point-in hand waxing as it will fill the grain and add weight people have used light coats of tru oil but shellac or nitro are good value.

Agreed about shellac or nitro if going back to wood.

having done a couple of acoustic tops in oil (danish and tru), I wouldn't recommend it,.  I find it kills the tone for at least 6 months.  Just makes them sound really dull. 

Eventually they open up again and can sound great,  but the finish offers too little protection for the softness of the wood 

Devil#20

Tannin said:

It's an astonishingly bad burst. I dislike sunbursts at the best of times but this is one of the worst I have ever seen. best described with that charming old Ozzie expression "a chunderscape".

Good luck with the refinish.

Really? What's bad about it, or rather, why is it the 'worst' you've ever seen?

munckee

Devil#20 said:

Tannin said:

It's an astonishingly bad burst. I dislike sunbursts at the best of times but this is one of the worst I have ever seen. best described with that charming old Ozzie expression "a chunderscape".

Good luck with the refinish.

Really? What's bad about it, or rather, why is it the 'worst' you've ever seen?

It looks worse in real life. 

victorludorum

Would she be happy with a solid colour?

HerrMetal

Loads of Stickers !!!

Tannin

Devil#20 said:

Tannin said:

It's an astonishingly bad burst. I dislike sunbursts at the best of times but this is one of the worst I have ever seen. best described with that charming old Ozzie expression "a chunderscape".

Good luck with the refinish.

Really? What's bad about it, or rather, why is it the 'worst' you've ever seen?

Good point. It is very crude and ugly, but those  awful black Gibson bursts (J-45 and similar) are uglier still. But they are at least better faded from dark to light. This one looks as if it was done by an apprentice on his first day just before they told him that, unfortunately, there had been an administrative error and his actual planned career path was washing down concrete paths with a hosepipe and a broom, not helping make guitars.

WezV

it's not that crude.  I just expect the colour scheme isn't very popular.

These are crude bursts, and I would own them in a second if i could afford it!

chickenbonejohn

Leave it alone, you can't see it when you are playing it. Once you start on a job like sanding off that finish you'll regret it and you'll be kicking yourself for even thinking about it.