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Very thin coats is a little like applying the Liberon finishing oil or Danish oil. Mostly they are tung oil based urethanes laced with lots of solvent to make them watery thin, thinner than Tru oil. I think the Liberon finishes a bit harder than Tru oil once it's fully cured. It will give full gloss if enough coats are applied. Tru oil is more pleasant to apply, it doesn't have the level of solvents of the others. These oil varnish/finishes can make the wood glow.

Here’s an updated pic of how the process is going.
After one more coat and an overnight dry period I’ll again level sand very lightly.


Each time I level I dilute the TO being applied a little more w mineral spirits to thin the application.

Again these are thin coats
This picture is following coat 9



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In this latest pic I like the color of the torrefied top with TO on it. The other pic it looked crazy dark but could have just been lighting. This looks nice!

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Must have been lighting.... looked like mud haha
It’s starting to become more translucent now
I’ll do a level tonight


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I did not polish or buff this.
Really made the African Mahogany figure pop.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

HUBBA-HUBBA! That is a world class finish right there.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yowza! That looks great!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Curious as to how that TO was applied? Looks like it might have been applied a bit thicker than any of the other methods mentioned in this thread...?

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Just tried Tru-Oil for the first time on a neck and am very impressed with everything about it. Applies very easily, really pops the grain, has a very nice sheen before polishing and a great feel with a 0000 steel wool finish. Have a long way to go before truly finished but it seems like a great product...

Also agree with the misnomer about the 'oil' in its name. Doesn't seem to soak in like the oil in the name might lead one to believe. I think if it was applied thinly enough to seal a top (or use their filler though I have no experience with same) it would not effect the tone in a negative way. Again pretty impressed...

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I seal the inside of my instruments with shellac (get ready for the repairmen to curse me!). If it's good enough for Somagyi it's good enough for me. I've based a lot of what I do after his book, which is a great read btw.

As for Tru oil, I definitely use it. Like Hans I don't think it has a place on the soundboard. For that I prefer a french polish, which I think is the best sounding finish because a bunch of people that are a lot smarter than me told me so . I finish my necks with Tru oil and then scotch bright. I like the feel of the matte finish as my hands don't feel like a windshield wiper screeching across the windshield with the wipers on high while it's not raining. That's just me though. Obviously other finishes can be made matte as well but tru oil is so dang quick and easy that that I can't see myself switching to anything else any time soon.

I have finished B&S's with tru oil too with decent results, but I'm not completely satisfied. I can't see myself finishing high end BRW, coco or ebony with tru oil. I still have yet to settle in on a set finish for backs and sides other than FP. I like to round off the edges of the body a bit so having two different finishes is a bit of a challenge. It would be nice to find an option that was a bit quicker though.

THIS is what keeps me from combining finishes. Doing a EnduroVar T,B&S with a True Oil neck to test results. Uh oh just realized I'm probably killing the tone of my guitar by using EV on the top...

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Larry,
I rubbed on and wiped off three coats. I wiped using pressure as if I was trying to remove the oil.
I sanded with 800 using the oil as a lubricant and wiped it off.
I rubbed and wiped three more coats.
I thinned the final coat with about 25% mineral spirits. I rubbed on the oil, and gently and quickly wiped leaving enough oil to appear shiny and self-level.
I used paper towels to apply and wipe.
Dan

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Wah

THANK YOU Dan, very helpful...I can only hope to get such a nice finish...

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I don't think anyone notices the difference in finishes other than the builder. That said all finishes have their purpose. For a gigger who really cares about the tone unless the player has some kind of internal mic setup, other wise you're probably hearing a crappy, clappy UST anyway. In that case I'd probably go with something more durable. For myself, a guitar to sit on my couch in front of the fireplace it's gonna be FP. That said, FP for the back and sides is a PITA.

Don't think John Greven believes EV kills the tone of his guitars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=90&v=0nbXjpW2iNs

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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.

I remember that video from this forum many years ago - nice....

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Yeah I think EnduroVar sounds so much better than EM6000

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“Killing” the tone. Hmmmm... call me a pragmatist. But unless you are dipping the guitar in a vat of EnduroVar and swirling it around I think only the most refined and exquisite ear would hear a difference. Maybe you have that ear, but very few people do.

That said, I FP because I would rather spend six hours at my kitchen table than one hour every three for three days getting intimate with a spray gun, a noisy compressor, a RO sander, a buffer, and the limits of frustration.


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I need to find the 'just kidding' sarcasm emoticon and forget that nuance and inflection does not come through in a forum.

Pretty sure if EnduroVar had any effect on tone I'd be the last to hear it but, like I posted above, it does sound way better than EM6000 - just kidding.

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