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Howdy folks, I'm a 2026 graduate of the two year guitar program at Red Wing (Minnesota State College Southeast). Between my two years at Red Wing I worked at Collings Guitars in Austin, TX for two years in the acoustic neck department, shaping and finish sanding ~2000 necks, radiusing and gluing ~750 fingerboards, and pressing ~100 sets of frets. I also spent a couple months in the finishing department level sanding and pore filling ~300…

Hello — I would like to finish a mahogany electric neck and body with wipe on poly (probably Minwax satin) and would like to pore fill with Z-Poxy. I can’t find a definitive word on their compatibility. - Can I just wipe on the poly coats after block sanding the 2-3 Z-Poxy coats? - Should the Z-Poxy be sanded all the way back to wood or just smoothed/flattened? - Is a coat of unwaxed shellac between the Z-Poxy and the wipe in…

I would really appreciate some advice on this repair that I need to do. I've built a number of (classical) guitars so far, but this is my first repair job. I have already set the expectations with the customer that I can probably fix it structurally but the repair will be visible. The guitar is modestly priced and of no historical significance so it seems like an ideal project to take on as a first one. The guitar suffered a blow on the…

Hello fellow looths! I recently had a customer come in with a '71 Fender neck that is a fusion of the 60s and 70s style. It has a veneer fretboard, no skunkstripe, 4 screwholes, 70s style tuners, 70s headstock logo, and it seems like it has a poly finish on the back of the neck, and nitro (with cracking) on the front of the headstock. Can anyone tell me if this combination is possible or could it be fake? Another thing is, even without th…

I have a client who is going to paint a ES-335 kit guitar (Maple top and Back, Mahogany sides and neck). She will be using an Acrylic (Jesso) matte primer and then painting the entire guitar with Liquitex Acrylic water based paints. Poly finish on top of that. What steps do I need to take to prep the neck and body for painting? Sealer then grain fill then seal again? What products would you use? I have never done this before and am looki…

I had a wild idea, and I would love to be talked off the ledge before I try it. I've seen some acetone vaporizers used in headlight repair, and the thought occurred to me that the concept could possibly work for blending poly finish with Ca (fill and finish) to lessen witness lines without sanding. The idea would be to fill the finish chips as usual and scrape flush with a razor blade, then use the vaporizer to blend the edges before…

Ok. Did a refret on a MIM Fender Strat maple neck. Some of the finish came off (was careful AF but....) It is not lacquer but I assume a poly finish. New lacquer did not meld. Can/should I use a tinted CA fix? Any tips, color recipes? Any help would be appreciated. VERY appreciated. Thanks -Mike

The neck on this Epiphone Les Paul was repaired by the local Guitar Center, but they left it ragged and the customer asked me to fix the finish. It appears to be very thick poly (not lacquer) and the crack has some glue left over from the repair. I would love to be able to just fill and finish the cracks, but I'm afraid it will be near impossible to match, so I'm inclined to strip and refinish the whole neck. Advice??

Hi -- I built my first two guitars and finished them with Minwax wipe-on poly. I came to order Rothko & Frost waterslide decals and noticed their website says they won't work on wipe-on poly (or maybe any poly). Anyone have advice on how to add a decal to the headstock in this situation? FYI, the builds are over two years old so the poly is pretty well set. Thanks!

I'm still working on this 1958 Country Gent and I am getting closer to getting past the structural stuff and on to the finish work. The entire body appears to have been resprayed with what I'm guessing is some sort of poly a long time ago. It's very yellowed, has multiple big drips across the entire body and flakes right off in big pieces. My plan is to remove it all, clean it up a bit and then respray with nitro. Anyone have great advi…

Any tips on matching this fingerboard up to the headstock with some type of stain before frets then looking to spray a gloss poly on after fretting. The original finish seems to have reacted with a moisturizing lotion the customer uses.

Hey there folks - putting together a couple of StewMac ukulele kits and my partner asked a great question about whether to apply finish to the inside surfaces like we do the outside. We will be staining and applying wipe on poly for protection. The logic seems reasonable - protect from moisture inside and out. Only concern I could think of was trapping moisture between the layers but that was it. Anybody have experience with applying a…

I'd like to start a discussion about guitar polishes. We have always been careful to use only non-silicone products on nitro finishes. We previously used Stewmac Preservation polish for years, but they don't offer that product anymore. We recently had maybe what was a bad batch of Stewmac "Clean and Shine" that was softening nitro finishes so we trashed it and haven't purchased anymore. The first bottle we got worked great, but the s…

I'm trying to touch up a finish ding and a couple of sand through spots on a black, mid-2010s MIM Fender Telecaster Deluxe, and I'm having a really hard time doing it well. I did a previous touch up on a black Squier Jaguar using Stew Mac's black nitrocellulose rattle can, and it blended so well I can't see the repair, but in this case the contrast between the original finish and the touch up paint is super obvious. I've since learned h…

I’m serious here, maybe crazy or funny, but please forgive me should it be obvious, because I don’t know shellac good enough to really know by experience if that’s doable or not would it be stupid to use some recipe on shellac for an electric Bass fingerboard finish? Would it be a good “filler” or way of giving some body in preparation for a finish like nitro or poly? Would it scratch like hell sooner than later? Could it be easily rebuilt…