Thanks for the link hyperfish, I watched the videos - a bit long-winded but definitely useful.
I've read that car paint isn't as hard as nitrocellulose, and I'd also prefer a finish where I can see the wood - although I'll wait first to see whether the wood is worth seeing or not! If it needs a lot of filling then I may have to cover it up. I'm going to get hold of some of the super-fine sandpaper too. However, this will all take some time since suppliers don't like sending nitrocellulose products abroad so I'll probably have to get them delivered to my mum's address in the UK and then pick them up over the summer when I visit.
My order was despatched yesterday so with a bit of luck it will arrive this week while my daughter is at home. As soon as I get it, I'll take some photos and post them. I'm also wondering whether to do some videos of this, but it seems a bit narcissistic!
Nitro is the varnish, rather than the paint. You paint or dye the wood then add layers of varnish. Nitro needs a build up of coats to get a hard finish. The more coats the harder it is, same with lacquer
You can add paint, dye to the nitro/lacquer but I think but i think it's easier to do separately.
To see the wood through the paint I think works best with a spray gun as you can thin the paint. One coat may do it but it's hard to get an even coat from memory. Dye works much better, but any filler in the wood may show through. Recommend checking the wudtone kits as it can start to add up.
I'll provide a link when I get to my PC but on the mylespaul website there is an excellent luthier section which covers almost everything from builds, repairs and finishes in detail.
It's all arrived and looks pretty good. The edges of the frets could do with smoothing a little, which isn't unexpected, and the neck is a bit loose in the joint of the body, so I'll paint the inside of the joint as well and see if that helps. The Joe Satriani Planet Waves strap that I ordered to go with it is very nice too.
Pictures to follow when I can get them off my camera - at the moment we're hunting for the adapter for the camera battery charger!
OK here are the first few pictures. I have another couple but they are on my other PC, and will follow tomorrow.
You can probably see that there's a little V-shaped mark on the back which I'll try to sand out. Otherwise, the finish is not too bad - some parts are a bit rough in the cavities but they won't show, and I'll file / sand them smooth anyway, plus I'm planning on buying some copper insulation tape to put inside there which will cover any rough bits.
The first job is to get some very fine sandpaper and go over the body to prepare it for finishing. I'm afraid that after that it will go very slowly because I'll have to order the lacquers. Having seen the body, I'm fairly happy to use a lacquer that will be partly transparent, as there aren't any big holes or gouges that need to be filled.
Have you considered putting your personal logo on the headstock before you lacquer?
Also if you intend shielding the control and pickup cavities you may get to do a bit of soldering. The proper
thing to do is to link the shielded cavities together with a wire and connect through to ground.
Author: GloopyJon
Author
25-11-2019 21:27:12
