Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm getting ready to replace a failed top. Need to match finish of course. Someone here said they did a replacement. How did you match finish? What did you use?

Mike

bump!

Not me!
But is that not a UV-cured polyester?

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hey Mike - Don't know precisely what the finish is on these but the tops do have issues pretty commonly. The Thunder Chief is lightly built as you have observed which is one of the reasons why for an acoustic bass some folks like the responsiveness of these.

As such we've repaired a number of them though the years and my impression is that the finish is low gloss, satin like and resembles a wipe on poly or satin lacquer to my eyes. In any event exact matching may not be possible (or financially possible if the client is billed for actual time). With this said if functionality is what's most important wipe on poly (satin) may be the quick, easy, inexpensive way to make it look just about right. Minwax makes a satin wipe on poly that's nice to have around the shop for touch-ups on crack repairs and in this case it may be perfect to finish a replacement top.

Didn't respond earlier because I don't know the exact finish used.

I agree it looks like a low gloss poly. Its the color I am after.