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Looking to do a "vintage correct" TV Yellow finish on a Les Paul Junior style build. I ordered some TV Yellow paint from Gracey's Vintage Finishes. I figured I would lay down a white base coat and then TV Yellow followed by Clear, Then I read the following on the Guitar Reranch site:

First, the wood must be stripped and sanded. The grain must be completely open and the wood without any trace of finish. Clean wood with open grain is the key. Sand with #220 and finish with #320 dry. Be sure you do not have any scratches in the wood as they will show once the grain is enhanced. Once you have clean and open grained wood blow out any sawdust in the grain with compressed air. Use 80psi to 120psi. I use The Guitar ReRanch TV Yellow in the aerosol spray cans but if you want to mix your own color (be sure to use an acrylic lacquer or better yet, nitrocellulose lacquer) this method will still work for you.

Tape the neck and peghead for protection from the spray and spray a light misting coat of opaque yellow color onto the body and neck. After drying shoot another coat and then repeat. Be sure that the coats are misting coats and not wet coats. Just one too wet of a coat will bridge the grain and destroy the effect. The guitar when color coated should appear as opaque yellow in the field with open uncolored grain pits. After approximately four coats let the instrument dry over night.

You will notice that the Guitar ReRanch TV Yellow appears very yellow without much of the lime color tint seen on the original TV Yellows. Much of the lime color will come from the mahogany itself and will appear as the color coat dries. There doesn't seem to be much one can do to stop the lime color from appearing. It seems to bleed through the yellow and if you think you have applied too much yellow, let the lacquer dry for a day or two. This bleed through effect (coupled with the deep grain of mahogany) limits the achieving of a true TV Yellow to only mahogany.

Your job now is to fill the grain with a tinted filler and then remove the excess filler. You must do this of course without disturbing the yellow lacquer coat. How? To accomplish the task fill the grain with a mahogany tinted filler with a reducing agent that is incompatible with the reducing agent of lacquer. That is; use a water based (I use "Famo Wood" brand Cherry/Dark Mahogany water based filler) or an oil based filler. Going across the grain wipe the filler into the grain. When slightly dry wipe the filler from the field of the wood with the reducer of the filler. For water based fillers use water. For oil based fillers use mineral spirits. You may need to repeat the process a number of time (two or three) to fill the grain to the level of the field of the wood.

When dry spray a light coat of the TV yellow color coat to "soften" the color of the grain filler and blend it into the field. The clear coating and finishing is then applied as described in ReRanch 101.

Anyone try this approach?

when you say vintage correct, do you mean correct as the instrument was when new? or what they typically look like today? Gibson TV yellow was an opaque color when new, over the years the dark grain filler under the yellow bleeds through showing the grain pattern.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Dan Erlewine give a four page recipe for TV yellow in his book on guitar finishing. I think it was based on reverse engineering the finish on vintage guitars. (I've not done it)