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Washburn


rpgdude

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Oh, one other thing. If you are planning to refinish it, DON'T go into the wood sanding! It's made of basswood, that is covered in an epoxy undercoat. Basswood is generally a very soft wood, that needs a hard covering, or else breathing on it would leave a ding. My advice would be sand the color off, fill the dings, cracks, whatever, then sand smooth, and add color and clear.

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Oh' date=' one other thing. If you are planning to refinish it, DON'T go into the wood sanding! It's made of basswood, that is covered in an epoxy undercoat. Basswood is generally a very soft wood, that needs a hard covering, or else breathing on it would leave a ding. My advice would be sand the color off, fill the dings, cracks, whatever, then sand smooth, and add color and clear.[/quote']

 

 

That scares me. The Washburn is probably a catalyzed poly finish of some sort (do the usual test with lacquer thinner to be sure). I don't know of anyone who is having good luck finishing over catalyzed poly. I have pretty much stopped doing any repairs on modern guitars that require touching up the finish because I'm pretty sure I can't do a good job. I might drop fill a scratch with CA but there is nothing that I know of that I can shoot over it at home.

 

You may have some luck shooting a two part pre cat automotive finish over the old poly and I know some builders who have the little hand held UV lights for curing finish. But if it was my project I would go to bare wood to be sure.

 

And yes, basswood is soft (and light weight and cheap). It is used on inexpensive guitars (I think that has been discussed). It is a popular wood with wood carvers because it is so soft. It will show dents and scratches and every sanding mark - that means prep has to be perfect. The OP is a contractor so he knows that any refinishing project is infinitely harder that finishing from scratch, and that finishing is one of the hardest parts about home building or repairing.

 

When someone asks about refinishing a guitar I always ask four questions

 

- why are you doing it?

- what effect do you want (solid, graphics, transparent, translucent, 'bursts, furniture finish......)?

- what materials and techniques do you have available to you (and that you know how to use)?

- what are your standards and expectations?

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