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Hi Folks

A quick question(s), say you have a mahogany guitar with some type of purfling or back-strip, how does one stain said guitar without also discolouring the backstrip/purfling?

Also, how do you pore fill such a guitar in order to avoid having to sand that pore fill back and thus risk sanding through the stain?

Probably some noob type questions but i appreciate the advice.

Kind regards.

G.

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

Three coats lacquer on purfling, pore fill, sand, 3 coats lacquer on purfling, stain or dye, scrape purfling, binding. Finish...
Celluloid purfling: Pore fill, sand, dye, scrape purfling and binding, finish.

Hans,

Do you think subbing Shellac for the lacquer would work? I found masking the purflings difficult on my guitars I made with the marquetry purflings.

Thanks,

Glenn

HI Glenn,
I suppose what you use doesn't matter as long as the wood is completely sealed. If you can thicken shellac, would probably work alright. I've tried 3M blue tape too and there is nothing worse than having dye leak under it. The hole you dig, scraping it as you try to get the dye out is painful. When using shellac, you'll definitely want to use water as the dye base!