Hello, Apologies if this has been answered before, I couldn’t find any posts covering it. I’m looking to get started with an airbrush for small finish repairs. AI is telling me to get a Fengda 186 with 3L tank and a Harder & Steenbeck brush (not cheap!). But would appreciate recommendations for a budget setup from actual human people also. Thanks!
most cheap ones will do you fine, what medium are you using? Nitro? 2k? Water based? 1k? you probably don't need to view more expensive options unless you're looking to get into detailed work. Iwata…
Hi -- I am planning to have a maple Thinline Tele top painted by an automotive paint shop. They've made a glossy and a matt sample for me and it looks great. I wonder if anyone has any experience with this, and specifically:
- if I bind the top first, will the paint stand very proud above the binding once I scrape the paint off the binding?
- the matt looks terrific, but it looks like it will burnish and get shiny in spots or line…
Hey, I've just had a go at repairing a cracked Epiphone Hummingbird and it all went well except burning through the colour of the finish when sanding it up to a gloss. Any ideas for patching this up?
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I had another pass over the micromesh pads on some particularly rough spots and did manage to get to a good state. It would make sense that Rogue Grit has paid me a visit on some of the lower grit san…
A customer recently brought in a Gibson J-185-EC for some setup work, and also wanted me to address some leakage from a humidity pack the was apparently left in the guitar before he bought it, and it leaked in a number of places. I was wondering what the best way to clean this up from the inside? There's also finish lifting on the back of the guitar where it's leaked through the wood. I'm curious to know the approach here. I believe it…
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We had dozens of those come back to Taylor. We tried everything under the sun with very little success. The salt impregnates itself into the wood and is impossible to remove. We stripped and refinishe…
I'm replacing the top on an old Stella with white painted "binding." Wondering what kind of paint I should use to come close to the original and be stable under finish.
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+1 to what Erik said about mixol. You can dirty it up by adding a little brown (lightly) pigment here and there and some dye ambered lacquer to simulate the aged clear coat.
Finish SanderLocation: 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…
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…
+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…
Hi, I have a 1950's Gibson LG-3 that's had some poor work done to the spruce under the area of the bridge where the spruce has pulled away and or been sanded excessively. It's missing about .020-0.30 thou of spruce and I'm wondering/looking for advice about how to go about splicing in a thin piece of spruce before I re-glue the bridge. Please see pictures attached. My main questions are: glues for the patch, should the patch be mitered…
When faced with a similar job recently, I chose to glue the patch in place with epoxy, then used hide glue to reset the bridge. The logic being that 20 years from now when someone needs to reset the…
Just wondering, anyone doing Ken Parker finishing on an acoustic with the bridge glued on? I've been using the finish for a while but I'd like to start glueing the bridge on before I finish so I can acoustic test everything in its final state. I can't see a reason why I couldn't wipe the epoxy and oil up into the bridge joint and then remove it by rubbing but I was wondering if anyone has done it already. It would mean finishing the…
Does anyone have experience and advice for touching up the color of a Les Paul Goldtop? It looks to be a light sparkle. Not looking to finish the entire top. Thanks!
Hi everyone - I recently ran into trouble making new nut for one of my necks that needed to be trued and re-fretted. I roughed in the nut as usual and then, with the bass guitar fully assembled and strung up, I started cutting the slots to depth. I use the StewMac digital nut slot depth gauge and have had good results in the past. I marked the nut's lowest points (radiused) using the guitar nut scribe tool (first time using this!) and c…
That's actually not how that tool was intended to be used. That is essentially plotting a like to the top of the fret. With a bass, you would need much more than that. When James and I came up with th…
So this 310 came into the shop and had a pretty gnarly crack that splinters some toward the lower left bout. Going to do a crack repair with the TJ Thompson crack corrector and some hide glue. The issue I'm inquiring about is the finish is delaminating around the area. I'm curious as to what type of finish it is. Seems a bit flexible and spongy to be a nitro alone. There's shards of finish missing, and dirt has found its way underneath…
So, I made a modular clamp based on the split clamp idea. Started on a prototype about two months ago and finished it. What I was aiming for was a clamp that I could use on the BOTTOM of acoustic guitars as well as tops to clamp cracks, cleats, braces, patches etc. Especially a clamp that would access small openings like "F" holes, small sound holes etc. Essentially a way to get a clamp to areas not accessible to jacks, wedges etc.,…
Hello. I am interested in the luthiers opinions about using Osmo oil as a finish on acoustic guitars? Advantages vs disadvantages. I am a new builder with small home workshop, mostly using hand tools to build my first acoustic guitar, an OM pre war style. Thank you all.
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Hi Matthew- I have been using Osmo on Guitars and other woodworking for about 15 years. I love the stuff, and it is still a bit confusing at times to understand their products. They have oils with less…
In Michael Baskin's on-line video, he uses a frequency test of a guitar in the white to determine whether to thin the lower bout before finishing. The guitar in the video has a bridge attached. I'm wondering if this is the final bridge or something temporary. If the latter, how do the results compare to the final frequency analysis? I've used a bolt-on bridge to do the same, but don't have enough data points to draw a firm conclusion…
I ordered a guitar from Reverb, and when (RedNex) delivered it, it was obvious they had dropped it in transit. The seller filed a claim, and got reimbursed for the instrument, then told me I could just keep it. Now for my question: how would you repair the sunken strap button and ugly gouge on the back of the guitar? My finish repair skills are not the greatest (aka - non-existent) so any opinions are welcome.
A customer brought this Gibson songwriter deluxe in, it’s approximately 20 years old to his recollection. It needs a few things done including fret work and a bridge re glue. At some point the guitar was lent out to a friend who dropped it then tried to fix the finish themselves. It looks like they used some kind of cleaner or something that didn’t get along with the lacquer at all. I’ll attach pictures but it’s kinda hard to get a pic…
I agree with this. Just Novus probably wasn't going to be enough. It kind of looks like someone accidentally used alcohol instead of naptha. It's a very subtle boo boo. Use some 2000 grit sanding pape…
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