Manchester Guitar Tech - tips, trick, pros, cons, ideas

OzzyLister

Hello everyone, I thought it might be a good idea to have something on here we where we could share our experiences (good and bad) and pool the knowledge base on MGT. I’m here to answer questions and as Steve is on here too he might share some of his wisdom. Also, feel free to share any of your projects, I’d love to see what people are doing. Thanks. 

davros

No questions and I know this isn't what you meant by experiences, but here are 6 of my 10 builds (the LP shaped ones), all finished with MGT lacquer. Well, except for the blue one in the middle that has MGT Pelham Blue with Montana blue Glitter over the top and clear coated with MGT Clear.

Colours are:
TV Yellow
Dakota Red
Pelham blue (old darker shade) with Montana Cosmos
Olympic white (not "New" Olympic White)
Shell Pink with light amber tint over
Pelham blue (new lighter shade) with light amber tint over

Always had great results, typically using
1-2 cans of sanding sealer
1 can of colour
4 cans of clear

OzzyLister

This is exactly what I meant, thanks. These look great. 

As a side note I’m currently stocking the old darker Pelham Blue again. 

BillDL

Steve created some very good guides under the "blog" section of the website, but there is one that would be particularly useful for people thinking about spraying a guitar with metallic lacquer:

https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2011/09/01/finishing-an-alder-telecaster-body-in-metallic-lacquer/

Pay attention to the "misting" technique for the last coat of metallic lacquer being applied before the clear coats are sprayed.

OzzyLister

That’s great, thanks for the pointer. 

roberty

@davros mate this is flipping epic. Colour me impressed (pun intended)

digitalkettle

roberty said:

@davros mate this is flipping epic. Colour me impressed (pun intended)

I know...such a lovely carpet!

davros

Wife calls it the jizz rug - lovely

matone

Only used clear and tinted MGT but its always great stuff to spray !!! The best.

BillDL

Here's a tip that I feel is sufficiently important to share.

DO NOT hang a spray-lacquered body or neck in direct sunlight either by mistake or in an effort to try and "force dry" the lacquer.  Lacquer needs to "off-gas" or "gas off", i.e. the solvent in which the lacquer is suspended needs to evaporate.  If the surface of the lacquer is rapidly dried, as happens when exposed to direct sun and perhaps also in a place that's been made deliberately hot, the outside of the top layer hardens faster than the escaping solvent gas can evaporate and this can then form bubbles underneath the hardening outside layer.  Even though you may have waited quite a while for a layer of lacquer to harden into being "touch dry", solvent gas is still escaping from it.  You can smell the difference the more hours you leave it to dry.

If you were using a spray gun and the bubbles were small enough, you might be able to rescue it by spraying on a layer of lacquer containing a LOT more thinners in order to melt / dissolve the bubbled top layer of lacquer and allow it to flow and bed down flat enough again whereby just a very light sanding would prepare it for more coats.  With aerosol lacquers, however, the lacquer and solvent percentages are fixed and you will just make it worse by trying to spray more and hoping it will melt the layer below.  In this case it is best to allow the bubbled lacquer to dry out for longer than you would between coats and then sand out the bubbles.  Unfortunately if the bubbles are between the first of the clear coats and underlying colour coats, you may have to sand through into the colour coats to completely flatten out the bubbles.

I had this experience here:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/3953671/

Through carelessness and distraction I inadvertently left a guitar body hanging in a place where the sun changed direction and shone right onto it.

OzzyLister

In case anyone is interested google is currently showing MGT as “permanently closed” but this is not true. I’m struggling to verify as there is no shop front to show in a video (the only option I’m being given) and google is awful when it comes to support. Anyone else had issues with google business? Apologies I know this isn’t strictly a top tip…

SteveRobinson

How do other online businesses handle this? It might be worth posting in Traders Only. If you don't have access, ask one of the mods to add you.

Google must have changed the criteria as I never had a problem?

OzzyLister

Good idea Steve, I’m rubbish at forums…
I didn’t have any issues with my repair business, I think they’ve upped the criteria or something?

OzzyLister

Hi everyone, not been on here lately as the workshop has been very busy. I have a new colour available and some other stuff happening behind the scenes! Just wondered what everyone’s opinion was on guitar shows? Would you like to see Manchester Guitar Tech at one?

BillDL

I haven't been to a guitar show in decades, but if I do manage to one in the near future it would be really good to see you at one.  Spray lacquering is the one area that I think a lot of first time kit builders and modders are worried about, and I think it's one of the reasons many people assembling a bare wood kit or sanding down an existing body often go for an oiled or similar finish that's applied by hand with a rag.  After all the hard work of sanding, a lot of people will be worried about messing up at that final stage.  One of the other reasons I'm sure is that a lot of people don't have the facilities to do spray lacquering without choking themselves to death or overspraying things by accident, and this is also something that obviously couldn't be demonstrated at a guitar show without a spray booth.

I suppose it might seem like being at a guitar show with cans of lacquer that you can't demonstrate might be a very static and boring thing, but one of the things that I think might also worry some potential customers is the colour of the lacquers and whether the shades that show on their computer or hand-held screens is representative of the real shade.  It would cost money to do, but having "swatches" (I think that's the right word) for people to take away might work in your favour.  If you sprayed several large sheets of paper in your various shades then sliced them up into small squares it would be cheaper and more accurate than printing.  You could get several hundred small squares from one can of lacquer.  Having some physical wood samples sprayed in the various shades so they could be held up against peoples' smartphones to compare the sample against the shades shown on your website might be a good idea so they can go home and use their phone displays confidently to decide on the shade to buy.

Because of the specialist carriers that have to be used for extremely flammable goods the carriage cost is higher than for standard goods, so it would make sense to take along some stock of every available shade and sell some cans at the show to people that grudge the additional carriage costs.

davros

There was a company selling nitorlack at last year's Birmingham show. Looked like the number of cans diminished through the day, but I didn't see much on the booth other than a table of cans. I think it would be good for awareness of the brand, and you could setup the booth with exhibits, etc, to show how to spray guitars and get a great result, encouraging people to buy lacquer and try it themselves. Plenty of hobbyists in attendance. The Crimson guitars folks always have a big booth, and sell oil and stains. Maybe a collab for nitro finishing could be an option.

Personally, as a long time MGT user, I'd pick up some paint just to avoid the postage!!

OzzyLister

Thanks guys, good points. 

Penn

That was painted with paint from Steve. I was pleased with it. 

OzzyLister

Ocean turquoise? Looks great. 

Penn

OzzyLister said:

Ocean turquoise? Looks great. 

Sherwood Green. The best green. 

OzzyLister

Ah yes, it was a close call. I’m torn between doing an Ocean Turquoises or Sherwood Green example, this is tipping the scales…