Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, went ahead and used polishing compounds and polish. Looks pretty good, not great. I have a theory, see if this sounds feasible....the imperfections I keep seeing look to me like they are well under the top layer of lacquer. I'm beginning to think back before y'all helped me understand what retarder was used for; I had sprayed more than just a couple of coats (seems like it was two days worth) so that would be 6 or 8 coats that were rough to the touch the next morning. I'm thinking those did not flow into the previous coats like lacquer should, and combined with the fact that I wasn't really doing much level sanding each morning before I put more coats on, the remnants of those coats that were drying too soon are what I'm seeing thru the lacquer now. That being the case, and this being my first quitar, I think I'm gonna leave the finish as is and see if it doesn't do much better on the next quitar, level sanding after each day's spraying, and not trying to spray when it's above, I dunno, mebbe 90F. Next one is already started. If this theory sounds stupid, pls advise. Right now it's all I can come up with, unless mebbe my sanding was too tentative at the start. I was concerned about sanding thru, and did start at 600 grit. Roy (still learning)

Just finished stripping the lacquer under the bridge area; was surprised and disappointed to see that the stripper had migrated under the tape I was using. It's Jasco Premium Paint and Epoxy stripper, and I was using the green frog brand tape, thinking it was supposed to be good for line edges. I've done this once before on a top replacement, and didn't have this problem. I let it sit 15 minutes, per the instructions on the can. So, either I used the wrong type of tape, or I should try much shorter times, or a different brand of paint stripper. I do have some 3M #2093 Sharp Line tape. I may try using it under ther neck and being gentler around the edges. I did have the tape about 1mm inside the edge of the bridge, so most of the edges that show will be decent, one had to have a little brushed on lacquer repair. Appreciate any advice, I'd like to finish this guitar and move on to Numero Dos, where I can try to improve on all my mistakes on this first one. Roy

Now there's a lesson, Roy, maybe don't use stripper for that operation. I've masked before finish, scraped it off (or sharp chisel) or routed off the finish, which I've tried lately with a dremel. Mask the bridge footprint off, then route off the finish slightly inside of the actual footprint (.10"). Keep doing fine adjustments to get it right on the thickness of the finish removal, no wood removal. Scrape to the footprint edge or put a small rabbet on the edge of the bridge so it fits down in the cleared finish area w/good wood to wood gluing. John Hall might have a video on this process.
It's worked on the last few for me.
Hey, tell us us what you're planning for number 2.

I use stripper, paint it on with a very fine artist brush. Let it dry completely and razor blade scrape it off. Leaves a very clean surface.

Thanks for inputs, will see what I can do better under the neck. For now I think I'll give the stripper another go, but much less of it, and less time. Even if I have to do it twice and combine with a bit of scraping. A dremel on the top seems a bit too hard to manage at my skill level. I'll check out John Hall video, and reread bridge attachment in some books before I put glue to it.

I'm hoping number 2 will be a chance to improve on all the processes I made mistakes on for the first one. I am using a cedar top, and Grenedillo (sp?) for back and sides. All I've done so far is bend the sides, put them in my mold, and braced the top and back. I need to finish this first one and see how it sounds. I am keeping a list of all the mistakes I don't want to repeat...so far I'm still trying to make a widish fretboard OM, 14 fret fingerpicker.