Guitar Finishing

I have been very busy learning about finishes and how to effectively apply them to guitars. 

For a few years, I had a Warmoth Jazzmaster body hanging over my bed.  I used a can of Rustoleum enamel spray paint in seafoam green.  Aside from already having a guitar in seafoam green, I decided I wanted to try lacquer. 

I tried an all natural paint remover that looked like the slime river under New York City in Ghostbusters 2.  What a messy mistake.  In the end, I used Rustoleum's Aircraft Remover (found in the automotive section of Walmart).  The Aircraft Remover is nasty hazardous stuff.  I always read the warnings on all chemicals and any that promise neurological damage with repeated exposure should be taken seriously.  This means absolutely no indoor use and avoid breathing this crap in if you can.

With the warnings out of the way, it works really damned well!  I wish I had started off using it instead of making the mess with the natural pinkish orange crap. 

In the mean time, I had another Jazzcaster (Jazzmaster body + Telecaster function) that I had ordered and a neck that also needed to be painted.  I set up a small paint booth (and it begs to be expanded upon).  I sprayed the neck with a bunch of clear lacquer spray cans.  Any time there was a run I wet sanded it out with 400-600 grit paper.  I also sprayed the fretboard which is some sort of dark exotic wood (I don't recall which at the moment). 

I have been fascinated by sprayed fretboards ever since I noticed that Rickenbacker has sprayed fretboards. 

Finishing the neck is seemingly easier since I chose not to tint it.  This means that I only applied clear finish. 

The body on the other hand required more attention. 

I "sealed" the wood with a quick shot of lacquer and then sprayed aerosol lacquer sander/sealer.  That stuff stinks!  And in retrospect I would have skipped this step and used either more lacquer or shellac.  Sanding sealer is used because it is easy to sand but in actuality it is a weaker finish than regular lacquer (hence it being easier to sand). 

Then I used an aerosol (noticing a trend?) can of white shellac based primer.  I shook the can well but that stuff comes out gloppy and has some sort of agent in it to stop it from drying quickly.  This is another can that stinks terribly and not just of alcohol.  I made an absolute mess with the shellac primer so I had a lot of sanding to do. 

Fortunately the primer dries very fast and pretty hard.  It was also in this ghostly white which I was half tempted to leave the finish in.  I actually liked the color.

I started applying the color coats in a spray can.  Spray can lacquer from Home Depot or Lowes only comes in 3 colors (white, black, and clear) so I went with white.  The color coats went on easy and again any runs were handled after a 24 hours with some sandpaper. 

After I wet sanded the finish so that it was flat and would shine really nicely under a clear coat. 

One problem with white finishes is that they show absolutely every piece of dust or dirt in the air on your guitar.  The clear finish managed to attract damned near everything it could.  There were blue pieces of dust in the air!!  BLUE!!!  Why?  How!? 

They seem to be pretty well in the finish.  And of course during touch ups I managed to sand through the finish on a place.  I may just buff the finish out and kind of call it what it is...A low budget spray job and next time use the HVLP gun I bought (after I started) or the disposable spray unit sold at Home Depot and Stew Mac and mix my own lacquer so I have a bit more control over it (the canned stuff is orange peel city!).  Even the clear dries with a nasty orange peel unless you spray too much at which point it runs. 

I also purchased an air filter for use when I spray to remove dust from the air.  I figure I'll just run it for an hour before I start painting and see if that helps.  It certainly cannot hurt. 

I also have another guitar that I've been having a try at french polishing...but more on that in another post. 

Floyd Rose Speed Loader

It's been a few months since I updated my blog and a lot has been happening in my guitar gear world and virtually nothing with regard to firearms. 

As I mentioned in another post, I was given a Floyd Rose guitar with the speedloader system to work on.  Fortunately, the guitar had a fresh pack of strings with it because the strings are no longer made and are becoming increasingly pricey. 

According to Floyd Rose's website they are looking for a new manufacturer, but until that happens, ebay if you best bet and even there the strings range in prices wildly depending on how many auctions are listed and how many people need strings that week. 

Anyway...The guitar needed to be set up and the owner wanted it set up floating instead of blocked with the supplied blocking device. 

The Floyd Rose site actually has pretty clear instructions on how to do this and they work exactly like they are supposed to.  You set the guitar up blocked and then remove the block and loosen the springs until the guitar is in tune.  Done.  Simple, right? 

Some things I liked about the guitar were the ease of string changes.  Hmm...Well that is about it. 

The guitar felt...cheap.  It was made in china and while the finish looked really good, the fret job was not impressive.  The guitar is not an expensive instrument, but their are better options in the same price range in my opinion (and not just because of the string availability).

The neck also required a stubby allen key.  For those of you who don't know, a stubby key is a normal allen key that has been ground down on a grinding wheel so that the allen key can slip into the truss rod channel between the nut and the string retainer.  Otherwise you have to remove the string retainer to adjust the truss rod which requires you to do a whole lot of guessing since you ideally want to adjust the truss rod while the neck is under normal string tension.

Fortunately, I have access to a grinding wheel and a load of spare allen keys.  I made a couple of stubby keys in various sizes for use later. 

Another quirk that I wasn't too fond of was the fine tuning range adjustments for the strings.  It is cumbersome.  You have to keep adjusting this silly little set screw on the side of the saddle until the string is in tune.  Granted, you only have to do this once if you buy the same gauge strings every time (although good luck with that - beggars can't be choosers).