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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…

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…

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,

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…

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…

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 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…

Hey all! Anyone know what lacquer pigment might better match the deep black colour of this tele body? It’s an American tele deluxe with a nitro finish. Photos show: Finish damage was the size of a quarter. I’ve filled and levelled the area and sprayed on coat of Oxford black nitro. I poured a puddle of naphtha on to check the match and unfortunately no dice. I’ve used Oxford black many times for overspray during repairs and have always fo…

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?

Hello everyone! I'm having quite a lot of issues with a Jackson Warrior I'm refinishing in 2K Spraymax. After a week, it is still not completely cured and it dents whenever I do the "fingernail-test". This is already the second time this happened. My process is: Sanded the body completely to bare wood, up to 320 grit. Filled with Z-Poxy, let cure for 24h. Sanded back to 400 grit Sprayed 1K primer, let dry for ~2 hours Sprayed 2x 1k color coats…

Hi all, I'm experiencing a problem with finishing a steel string guitar. After spraying a sunburst with Colortone liquid stains diluted in thinner (which I left curing overnight), I sprayed a very thin coat of SprayMax 2K Clear coat (https://www.spraymax.com/en/products/product/clear-coats-and-spot-blender/2k-clear-coat/) and, to my horror, saw some of the black paint disappear. The amount of SprayMax I sprayed was very little, yet some o…

So this 46' J-45 came to me at a very very low price as it needs extensive repair. Much that I am confident in, cracks, bridge/bridge plate issues, loose braces and the like. There are however a few points that id like the groups opinions on. The neck angle is pretty great and theres a good amount of fret, however, at some point in its past, someone shaved down the neck to a dangerous point, and the back of the neck has toms cracks along…

Just curious on some thoughts if this fan would work to prevent me from poisoning myself and my family from spraying in my basement shop: https://a.co/d/8UPeRwk I have a basement shop with a door that goes outside. I don’t have a sprayer system, so am currently using rattle cans. Wondering if I set this up with a big 25 foot hose going outside, and put my workpiece right in front of it, if I could get away with spraying in my shop to acc…

Has anyone here sprayed a Martin-Style Ambertone top? Curious how you approach it color wise....seems to me the amber base coat is a very orange/red color, then a very light and warm feathered in brown

Hi Everyone. I am planning to finish my latest electric build which has a Zircote top. I am going to spray Nitro Lacquer. Is there anything I need to watch out for in spraying over such an oily wood? Thanks!

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.