Members FarToMany Posted December 12, 2007 Members Posted December 12, 2007 Just like the tittle says, i have a cheap Alveraz acoustic im thinking about refinishing--its been kicking around here for 15+ years, and i have no sentimental value to it. I have done a few solidbodies in the past, but am a little leary about trying my hand at an acoustic. Basically im thinking of mainly just doing the top, but have been pondering about also doing the sides/neck in a satin finish.
Members Samilyn Posted December 12, 2007 Members Posted December 12, 2007 Just a thought..... If the top is not severely gouged or discolored, maybe just cut down the existing finish with ultra-fine grit sandpaper and follow with a good buffing.
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 12, 2007 Members Posted December 12, 2007 I refinished a 1932 Dobro that was spray painted black, as well as finished from scratch the 4 that I have built. To do it correctly you will strip the old finish to bare wood, being careful with chemical strippers that can damage binding, decals, etc. Remove all the hardware, pickguard, etc, of course. Spruce tops are not pore filled but mahogany and rosewood are - depending on how you strip it you might have to redo that step. The reason that you want to strip it totally is that unless you know what the old finish was you may have solvent incompatibility. It is much easier with the neck off, but unless you are doing a reset that would be a huge hassle. The easiest finishes for the home are some of the wipe on like TruOil, but I've had good luck with rattle cans of nitro lacquer (I built a little spray booth out of a guitar shipping box and shot the stuff in my garage). Nitro is nasty - both to you and the environment - and potentially very explosive - but you can get a really nice finish with lots of coats and lots of sanding and buffing(nitro is still used my Martin and many of the botique builders today). A safer choice is waterbased lacquer but you will need a compressor and detail gun. If you know your old finish was nitro (I doubt it on an Alvarez, but do the acetone test) then you don't need to completely strip - nitro will blend into old coats. Waterbased and catalyzed finished will not, and will leave "witness lines" so you gotta get all the old stuff off. For satin you can get finishes that dry that way or you can rough it up with steal wool. Dan Erlewine's book on guitar finishing (StewMac) has a lot of tips and their is some website with a lot of refinishing supplies (I don't have a link, sorry). However, let me also add that most home finishing projects are no where close to a factory job and unless the git is totally toast (as my Dobro was) I would recommend against it. And as an aside, conventional wisdom is that on a valuable guitar (say an old Martie) any refin, no matter how well it was done, reduces the value by up to 50 percent.
Members daklander Posted December 12, 2007 Members Posted December 12, 2007 Yeah, I ruined a nice old Coffee Burst archtop by sanding it down and spray painting it with red, white and blue automotive enamel. Never did sound the same after that so I traded it for a Roberts or an Ampex tape recorder, I can't recall which and had both, that had sound on sound and sound with sound capabilities.Should'a kept the guitar and re-refinished it.
Members makoshark Posted December 12, 2007 Members Posted December 12, 2007 my guess is that it has a thick poly finish on it. right? I used to have a cheap alvarez acoustic and wanted to refinish it all the time because it sounded like plastic. the finish was really really thick. do you want to refinish to try and improve the tone, or for aesthetic reasons? If you're looking to improve tone, get all that thick catalyzed crap off the guitar first. I did this on the poly finish of solidbodies with a heatgun, but you obviously can't do that with an acoustic. I would use a belt sander, but I don't know how comfortable you are using one in general. Once you get a feel for belt sanders, they're quite usefull for reducing thickness and pretty easy to control. then follow up with finer grits and move up to about 220. once you get all that finish off, just do like ya done wit yer solid bodies!
Members FarToMany Posted December 13, 2007 Author Members Posted December 13, 2007 Im thinking its probably a poly finish on it---and like the electrics i have done, was tempted to grab the heat. On multi-piece electrics--even with set necks, i have never had a problem with parts unglueing themselves. I try to control the heat the best i can. Yes, i would like to refin for asthetic reasons, its a little beat up after all these years and i figure what the heck. I even tried to sell it for $40 and couldnt get that so i'll keep it and experiment i guess.
Members 0rbitz9 Posted December 13, 2007 Members Posted December 13, 2007 Blast off the old finish with a palm sander. Have your neighbors' five year old finger paint it. Cover with five coats of urethane.
Members Freeman Keller Posted December 13, 2007 Members Posted December 13, 2007 Im thinking its probably a poly finish on it---and like the electrics i have done, was tempted to grab the heat. On multi-piece electrics--even with set necks, i have never had a problem with parts unglueing themselves. I try to control the heat the best i can.Yes, i would like to refin for asthetic reasons, its a little beat up after all these years and i figure what the heck. I even tried to sell it for $40 and couldnt get that so i'll keep it and experiment i guess. No heat, please, and I wouldn't use a belt sander either. Trust me, refinishing is about ten times harder that finishing - is it really that bad? (after watching both Willie and SRV in the past week all I can say is don't worry about it)
Members bigmo66 Posted December 31, 2007 Members Posted December 31, 2007 I've refinished 2 acoustics with poly finishes. That stuff can be almost impossible to sand. With great caution I was able to remove the finish with a heat gun and a good scraper. I then sanded and prepped the body for a hand rubbed poly finish. With a scuff coat in between I rubbed on about 5-6 coats. I wasn't looking for a factory glass finish just a warm gloss. In both cases the guitars turned out better than my expectations and have a really nice protective gloss finish. I'd like to try lacquer, but I seem to do these projects in the dead of winter and my garage isn't heated. I will not risk blowing my family to kingdom come using lacquer in the house!
Members Jake7 Posted December 31, 2007 Members Posted December 31, 2007 GREAT JOB!!! That looks lovely!!! I had my j-185 re-topped and refinished in an oil varnish type finish, it's nice, but very delicate, and I'm already marking it up pretty bad....but I gig my two main acoustics, and mark them up pretty badly...I've come to think that I shouldn't worry about it and just get on with playing!
Members trw Posted January 1, 2008 Members Posted January 1, 2008 Please don't use a belt sander on an acoustic. Unless you also mow your lawn with a bulldozer. You'll get about the same effect. I think Bigmo has the right idea. I have never completely removed an existing finnish. I have simply sanded some acoustics starting with 220 paper and working higher, then spraycaning satin polyurethane on carefully for a tougher more scratch resistent finninsh. (I just like satin) Turned out nice without affecting tone. I always masked off the fingerboard with tape and removed headstock hardware. Some things are easier to mask, others are easier to remove.
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