Archive for October, 2009

Copious amounts of… shellac.

I wanted to show the pictures first in this post so you could see the progression of the top finish. I am using shellac from ColorTone. Initially, I was waiting on the funds to order my Z-poxy (more on that next post) but then I realized that the top doesn’t really need any pore filling.

Apparently there are different “cuts” to the shellac that you need to be aware of. 1 pound cut, 2 pound cut, etc. etc.

From what I’ve learned (and I don’t know much) is that you need to start off your base coats with a fairly low cut (thin mix). So I dumped some shellac flakes in my container, poured in a bunch of alcohol and waited. I had to play around a lot with the mixes because the shellac doesn’t dissolve very well and I kept getting chunks. This probably means it was way too thick, so I kept adding more alcohol.

When I got to a fairly thin mix, I started applying the shellac to the top. My first impressions weren’t good. The shellac was dull, clearly not coating well, and overall very underwhelming. I figured I would keep trying, I could always just sand it away if it didn’t work. So I added a few more coats. It wasn’t getting any better. I decided to call it a night.

The next day I made a thicker cut and applied the shellac liberally. After it dried I started to see some results. Then I remember that the very idea of shellac is a slow buildup of finish. Duh!

So my routine was add 2 or 3 coats of shellac and let it sit for a day. After sitting for a day, I would either add more shellac or sand it flush, depending on what I saw.

That’s where I am currently. Hopefully I’ll post an update on it in a week or so.

Headstock Inlay

Here are the pictures of the inlay after it was glued in. There were lots of little gaps (as seen in the first two pictures) so I did the whole gluing process again to fill those holes. The last picture is essentially what it is now, I have since sanded the CA (super glue) out of the pores.

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Bailie Guitars Blog

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