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Private member DiscussionDiscussions

Finishing over Signatures

I was approached by a local music venue about finishing over the signatures on this Dean guitar. I have finished over signatures before, but never an entire guitar. The main challenges, as I see it, with this endeavor is prepping the existing finish. Cleaning the existing finish without disturbing the signatures will be time consuming enough, but abraiding/sanding the finish will be cost prohibitive. I have already experimented on a test…

councilyesfinishsignatures
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Why do you think they faded? Sunlight, chemical issue, abrasion?
Private member DiscussionShop Organisation

Lessons Learned from building out a workspace

Hi all. I'm in the process of working with a landlord to customize a space for my growing repair and building business. The space is approximately 800 square feet and broken into a major space (around 400 square feet), and 2nd large space (around 300 square feet) that I'm thinking of as a machine/sawdust room, and 2 smaller areas that I'm considering as a spray booth and a wood/guitar storage closet. I'd love to hear about lessons learn…

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Here's some more tips. I recently remodeled my shop so this is all very fresh. I've been in this shop for almost 15 years and I have rented benches to other luthiers and apprentices in the shop so it…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Builds

Temp Dovetail Holder for Finishing

Has anyone developed, or know of for sale, a fixture that can be installed in an acoustic body (dovetail neck) during finishing? I'm approaching the spraying stage of my build and would like to be able to have a "handle" on the body that I can use to hold & hang the body during that process. Regards,

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If you haven't settled in on anything yet, I might suggest the Total Vise Small-Shop Finishing Station https://dev2.loothgroup.com/sponsor-post/the-small-shop-luthier-finishing-station/ Its much more v…
Ian Davlin DiscussionJob Postings

Eady Guitars Hiring - $16–$19 per hour

Finish Sander Location: Athens, Georgia Schedule: Flexible, Monday–Friday Pay: $16–$19 per hour (depending on experience) We are seeking a Finish Sander to join our small shop in Athens, Georgia. This role focuses primarily on dry scuff sanding and wet sanding as part of our finishing process. Buffing training will be provided as needed. This position is centered on learning the intricacies of sanding and surface preparation. Spraying is n…

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I worked for Matt for about 2 years. He's a wizard and I love him to death. Just being in that shop changed the way I will look at surfaces for the rest of my life. And his attention to detail is as h…
Private member DiscussionElectric Repair

Spot spraying versus refinish whole neck?

Hey guys, Up until now I've always tried to blend any repairs into the surrounding area when it comes to finishing and avoid refinishing as much as possible. However, im yet to be fully satisfied with the results or hit the elusive "invisible repair" So my question is, for this headstock fix in the image, would you simplly refinish over the splines or consider refinishing the whole neck to avoid the blending battle? For what its worth, its…

finish repairheadstock repair
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+1000 on Ian's comments. To add to that - I tend to avoid blending as much as possible. I underquote and takes "3 forever's" worth of effort to get a result that I AM HAPPY with. Now I quote a price f…