| The lacquer on the top of this guitar has a few chips and checks. |
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| I started to remove the hardware and found this -definitely not a happy guitar! |
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| With the hardware removed and stored safely I can mask up the neck and break out the sandpaper. |
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| Using a random orbit sander and 60 grit paper I remove the old lacquer. |
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| The sander makes for a quick job - I then use 120 and 180 grit paper. |
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| The areas the power sander won't reach are completed by hand and I then sand the whole guitar through to 320 grit paper. |
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| I stain the top with van dyke crystals - a walnut dye mixed with water. |
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| When it dries (not long on this sunny day) I lightly sand the top with 320 grit paper to even out the colour. |
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| A second coat deepens the colour. Next the lacquer... |
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| I screw an eyehook into the
bottom of the guitar and suspend it from the ceiling while I work on
it. The guitar gets two or three coats of lacquer to seal the
surface. I am using an Earlex HV5000 HVLP spray gun system - you don't need a separate compressor. I adjust the gun to give a wet enough coat of lacquer but without runs - always test the gun setting by spraying on a convenient test piece. I have a piece of cardboard next the gun that I use for this purpose.
(For this guitar I'm using Chestnut Products Melamine Lacquer) |
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| You can see in this photo the
finish I am getting from the gun - not orange-peel wet, but enough
lacquer to cover without it going "dusty" - when you spray too
little material it tends to dry instantly leaving a dusty looking
surface.
I leave this first application to dry for fifteen minutes then wet sand it with 600 grit paper to level out the surface and fill the pores. Using water while you sand stops the lacquer from loading up the paper and also keeps it cool so it doesn't "ball up" on the paper - it is still pretty soft even though it is dry enough to handle. |
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| Here you can see the guitar after wet sanding - a pretty good start! Normally I would spray a few more coats of clear to complete the guitar, but I want to darken the top with a black tinted coat of lacquer then apply a sunburst around the perimeter, again in black. So I mask up the sides and back of the guitar and mix up some lacquer - a few drops of black spirit stain are added and I shoot some to test its strength. |
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| Here we are after the top is completed - I have removed the masking tape from around the edges as soon as the lacquer is dry enough (usually five minutes) I let it cure for a while before the next step. |
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| I decide to spray the sides and
back black, so the fake binding (actually the side of the maple top
of the guitar) is masked and I spray a few coats of black tinted
lacquer. Here it is after I remove the masking tape - looking good. I let her cure for half an hour before scraping the binding clean using a stanley knife blade. Then I gently wet sand the sides with 1000 grit paper to soften the transition and the corner. |
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| To finish I spray five coats of clear lacquer over the whole guitar. |
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| In this shot you can see the
final texture - a fairly heavy application with a wet finish, no dry
or dusty looking areas remain. The texture is also slightly grainy -
do not be worried by this. Once the lacquer cures it will sink down
considerably and then we will level the surface with more wet
sanding.
Now for the hard part - leaving it to cure for a couple of weeks!
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