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Staining a guitar body? PHIL GET IN HERE


alybella

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Yeah, that color you posted isn't a stain, it's a nitrocellulose lacquer.

 

Staining a guitar can be relatively easy, or fairly hard, depending on a lot of variables. Wood type and condition (sanding smoothness, grain-filled or not, sealed or unsealed) If it's ash, you have big wood pores to worry about - you pretty much have to use grain filler on it first. On alder, it should be much easier. Getting the stain applied evenly can be tricky. Once it's done, I'd still suggest a nitrocellulose lacquer clear coat, and you'll need to test the two for compatibility, unless Stew-Mac guarantees it as nitro compatible stain.

 

As with all finishing jobs, the single most crucial thing is getting the body prepwork done, and done well. Any flaws (scratches, dents, etc.) in the body will be magnified once you get the finish on there.

 

From there, just think it through first, follow the instructions, and work slowly and cautiously until you have a feel for it. Practice on some scrap wood first if you can. That always helps. And then give it a ton of time to dry. I'm not sure how long the stain will need to completely dry, but I'd probably give it a week before clear coating it... and then I'd give the lacquer a couple of weeks to a month to set up before you buff it out and put the guitar together.

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It's an alder body. I was showing the pic because that's the color i'm after. I think the stain will be nice for that transparent wood grain look. So, get nitrocellulose laquer, stain, and clear coat. What brans would you recommend O'Keefe?

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If you want that exact color, you are probably going to have a hard time finding it in a stain... and the original color (looks like Ocean Turquoise to me) is a metallic and too opaque to spray "lightly" so you can "see through" it and see the grain. Plus alder isn't a super heavily grained wood anyway. Most "see through" Fender finishes were over ash bodies for that reason - there's a lot more visible grain in ash, making it easier to see it through the thinned out color coats.

 

If you've already found a stain color you like, I'd follow their instructions in terms of the prepwork and stain application. Then, once that's completely dry, you would cover it with the clear nitrocellulose lacquer. A can should be plenty, but get and use two to be on the safe side - since this is your first finishing job, you'll tend to take a lot off when wet sanding it down to polish it out once the paint's dry.

 

You can get Deft nitrocellulose lacquer at any Home Depot or Lowe's. Make sure you get the NITRO and not the acrylic lacquer. It's also available in gloss and satin - if you want a glossy, shiny finish, get the gloss.

 

Guitar ReRanch is a good supplier of all the finishing products you might need, including accurate recreations of the original Fender Custom Colors. They have a ton of tips on refinishing on their site and forums - definitely recommended reading:

 

http://reranch.com/

 

Their online sales site is at:

 

http://reranchstore.stores.yahoo.net/fencuscol.html

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In my opinion, the amount of time I've spent researching finishing a guitar body alone is more than enough to warrant the costs of finished by someone else. time is money.

 

add to that a few more factors.

 

-you need to be patient, multiple coats spread over multiple weeks. From time spent with you on this forum, I know that you are not patient. Your like me. Impulsive. TWO PEAS IN A POD.

 

-its still not going to look as good as someone with a proper paint booth. far higher margin for error.

 

-wood dust, primer dust, paint fumes. All bad for you.

 

I know from experience working at a car body/paint that painting just plain sucks. its monotonous, yet requires you to be meticulous and at full attention. then the paint gets on your hands, your clothes, in your nose. it sucks.

 

part of being in such an awesome place where we are, NORTH {censored}IN AMERICA, is paying people to do the {censored}ty {censored}. while we sip on our long island iced teas and slap dem titties.

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In my opinion, the amount of time I've spent researching finishing a guitar body
alone
is more than enough to warrant the costs of finished by someone else. time is money.


add to that a few more factors.


-you need to be
patient
, multiple coats spread over multiple weeks. From time spent with you on this forum, I know that you are not patient. Your like me. Impulsive. TWO PEAS IN A POD.


-its still not going to look as good as someone with a proper paint booth. far higher margin for error.


-wood dust, primer dust, paint fumes. All bad for you.


I know from experience working at a car body/paint that painting just plain sucks. its monotonous, yet requires you to be meticulous and at full attention. then the paint gets on your hands, your clothes, in your nose. it sucks.


part of being in such an awesome place like we are, is paying people to do the shitty shit.

 

Dammit. am i that easy to read?! Truths all around in this shit. I already know what's going to happen

"Paint arrives"

aight now i just wipe this shit on there and wait

Alyssa- "WTF ARE YOU DOING"

Me-"I'M PAINTING THIS SHIT"

Alyssa-"YOUR DOING IT ALL WRONG. GTFO OUT I'LL DO IT"

Okay2.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=129

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I won't lie to you - (re)finishing a guitar is a LOT of work. It's easier if you're starting off with a fresh, pristine and prepped new body, but it's still a lot of work. If you use nitro for the color instead of stain, the schedule should go something like this:

 

Apply primer. You're better off with primer unless it's a stain or clear finish. Wait an hour and do the second coat of primer. wait a few hours, dry sand with 600 and hit it with more primer. Let it dry overnight.

 

Dry sand with 600, hit it with a tack cloth to clean it off, wipe it down with naphtha, let it dry for 30 minutes and then hit it with the first color coat. Two or three light "passes" per coat. Let that dry for 3 hours or so, then hit it with the second color coat. Repeat one more time for the third color coat. Let dry overnight... and then for THREE days, minimum.

 

Now you can (optionally) lightly wet sand the color coats. 600, then 800 should be enough. GO EASY - you don't want to "sand through" your color coats, or you'll need to redo it, or at least touch it up. Get it smooth, then wipe it down with a tack cloth, and then with naphtha again and let that evaporate / dry completely.

 

Now you're ready for the clear coats. Same basic schedule as the color coats. Do two to three light "passes" per coat, and let it dry for 2-3 hours between coats, with two to three coats per day. Once the clear coats are on there (and I'd recommend 3-5 clear coats - again, you'll sand a lot of it off in the buffing process), you need to let it sit and dry for at least a couple of weeks. A month is even better. Make sure the humidity is near 50% when spraying, and the temps are "comfortable" - if it's too cold or too humid, you can get clouding in the finish, and it will take forever to gas out and dry.

 

Once that 2-4 weeks of dry time is done, you're ready for the wet sanding. You start coarse (600 grit) and go to progressively finer grits until it shines like chrome. Usually it's 600 / 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1500... some folks like to use 2000 grit after the 1500. Then you buff it out with 3M Finesse It II, which is a finishing polish.

 

Then you can assemble and play it. Total time needed? Roughly 15-30 days.

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It's an alder body. I was showing the pic because that's the color i'm after. I think the stain will be nice for that transparent wood grain look. So, get nitrocellulose laquer, stain, and clear coat. What brans would you recommend O'Keefe?

 

 

my tele is made out of Alder. This is how using stain and oil to do the finish on it turned out.

 

IMG_6402.jpg

 

My buddy who built it did a great job. I could ask him what he used unless you already got the info you needed.

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That Tele looks hot; kind of like a Costello Jazzmaster type finish.
:cool:

If you are going for a stained wood type effect like that, there are other options for the clear coats - Tru-Oil is popular with a lot of builders, but it's more often used on necks I think...

 

Yeah it's usually used for necks, however a friend of mine from school Tru-oil'ed a Jerrycaster clone on Cocobolo and it's really neat looking on the body. It's obviously not a gloss finish like nitro or French polish, but flat, smooth and has a sheen to it. You could use micromesh and steel wool to give it more of a gloss though.

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