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I need some suggestions from the many great repair senseis out there.The customer is fine with a structural repair and not concerned about making it invisible. I told him you will see anything I do. He was fine with that and has a budget of between $700-1000. It's a clean break. nothing missing, It closes tightly.. I was thinking either 1) the generic double splines one on either side of truss rod and touchup as best I can. Or 2) the ab…

*Photo added* Ding repair on spruce top, 2015 Collings 0002HE #23701. What are y’all reaching for when repairing dents in nitro? GlueBoost fill & finish or drop filling with nitrocellulose? This is a well-used guitar; not pristine and the owner has reasonable expectations that the repair will not be “like it never happened” Bonus question: If there is bare wood, should I seal it with shellac to preserve the color before proceeding to fil…

Hi friends, I just stumbled upon a 1966 P-Bass, nearly completely original. The owner bought it in 1971 and it had already been stripped of its original finish. That was a thing back then. You can guess that 55 years of gigging had the wood absorb much of the owner’s DNA and sweat. Maybe a few beers as well. Surface was quite tacky as you can expect. I cleaned it with naphta and StewMac’c brand-new cleaner (quite a great product I'd say…

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…

First, I’m new at this so thanks for any advice. I’m re-topping my Mom’s first guitar (it’s own story). My plan is to finish the top with lacquer and in preparation I sprayed shellac out of a can and then pore sealed with crystalac. I thought I had it all sanded evenly but when I sprayed the first coat of lacquer, there were blotches everywhere. Do I just need to sand down to bare wood and start over or is there a way to fix this?

I'm finishing up a dreadnought with a wood pickguard (ebonized mesquite) that I need to glue to a French polish finish. Wondering what glue to use and whether I need to scrape off the shellac or just glue it to the finish. Thoughts??

Searched a bit but didnt see anything on this I have some chipped finish on the soundboard - was a satin burst finish of sorts on a torrefied spruce top. I was thinking of putting down some shellac and then either black fill n finish or black lacquer on top. Then some scotch brite or 0000 steel wool to make it satin. Is this a reasonable approach? Anything others have to add?

This is probably a usual discussion, but I'm interested to hear what the more experienced people in french polishing think about it.I use dewaxed shellac for finishing, but some luthiers swear that waxed shellac (button lac) makes a harder finish. Is that right? I always read everywhere that waxed shellac should be avoided. Thanks! Jorge

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…

After watching Jeff Jewitt's Touch Up for Builders video, I began looking for a source with a selection of pigments like he has. I started by looking at Mohawk Blendal powder stains, but they only had 6 of the 12 pigment colors I was looking for. I widened my search, and exchanged e-mail with a couple of Etsy vendors. I was fortunate enough to find KonstantasShop which offers 24 pigment colors. While I suspect this collection is targete…

Hi everyone,I'm kind of new to this and I don't have a lot of experience in finish work so I just wanted to ask for some very basic advice on repairing shellac. I'm working on a violin for my neighbor (it was made by her grandfather in the 1970s) and I think the only structural work it needs done is a new soundpost, but also the finish has a LOT of checking and some parts where it's uneven and looks kind of dirty, as well as a few place…

Had to replace the bridge, new one was modeled to the original specs, however the footprint is a little forward and showing some bare wood. I don't really want to pay for another rosewood bridge. After regluing the bridge, I was thinking of a shellac fill and trying to do some like very light color work to blend around the bridge wings. Interested in how y'all would approach such an issue.

I repaired this double neck SG geetar with mahogany splints. Sealed the new hog with shellac, pore filled with ca, more shellac, then a thin layer of Stewmac white color tone in nitro, then a few coats of poly, then Mohawk ultra flo (cuz I can’t buff the neck) . I seem to be getting strange bleed through into the white (it wasn’t there before). Tannins??? Ideas? Thanks