Brian's Guitar from Conception to Birth or How to Build a Guitar in 62 Easy Steps!

Finishing

46 Make Finish Samples

You don’t have to wait until the guitar is done before you start testing your finish. This can run concurrently with many of the previous steps. It only takes a minute to wipe on some stain. Plus it gets you a little excited while you’re performing some of the more mundane tasks. No matter what recipe you use for you color and clear coats, take the time to test your finish on some scraps from the actual guitar. Don’t stop your testing with just your color coat, carry it through to about three coats of your clear finish. Each coat will slightly alter the color and bring a different sheen to the finish. You definitely do not want any surprises at this point. Our first sample (on top) was too light on the left and too red on the right. Our second sample (on the bottom) was a shade darker, but still not where we wanted it. Our third sample (in the middle) was right on with our color coat, but when we continued through our subsequent coats, the appearance darkened up quite up bit more than we expected. Our fourth sample (not shown; it’s on the back of the bottom sample) came out just right. Keep track of your recipes so you can duplicate them on the actual guitar. It might be hard to see in the photo, but you can make out some scribbles on the edges of the boards noting the color and number of coats used. From the work on our finish test pieces, here is the big picture on where we’re going. I’ll break down the discussion on each step as it’s covered. ● Finish sand ● 1 coat of Golden Brown Dye ● 1 coat of Boiled Linseed Oil ● 4 coats of Orange Shellac ● 30 coats of High Gloss Lacquer ● Rub out with Micro-Mesh abrasives