Custom Guitar - Paint Help

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Bg »

Molly wrote:
GrantB wrote:Is TruOil a paint finish, or actually furniture oil of some form?
It's a foul smelling gun stock oil. With patience some folk get a great finish with it.
dunno where this patience comes into it, I've stripped a neck and refinished it and been playing it the same day with tru-oil. And it smells awesome :P I wouldn't use anything else on necks, ever. I've used it on bodies but I don't like it as much, others do, but I prefer nitro or poly.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Slowy »

My poly necks are Meh. My Nitro neck has long been stripped to bare wood. My Tru oil neck still looks new and feels as good as the stripped maple. Like BG, the only finish I'd use.

Trick to applying it is to wipe it on very thin with a completely threadbare old T shirt.
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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by jeremyb »

Tru-oil is the business, done a couple of guitars and a neck with it, dead easy and great finish!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by werdna »

Molly knows his onions, but I haven't had stickiness problems with home applied nitro on necks. It last well, too. Adrian once told me that he had come to a similar view.

Not so with factory applied nitro. On Gibsons the nitro is sticky, and applied quite thickly, even on CS models. I suspect Gibson nitro is stuffed full of all kinds of other compounds.

Tru oil sounds much smoother than any other option, but I don't expect that it would protect the wood like nitro.
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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by The Bald Man »

Its a personal preference thing. I do like Tru Oil personally, but I have had nitro necks that have been great.
It is much more difficult to produce a great nitro (or poly) neck, whereas TO is pretty foolproof.
Note that with any oils, once it's soaked into the wood it's there for good so pretty hard, if not impossible, to change.

Another trick I use is with necks is buy some really fine grades of steel wool from a specialist paint store and spend a few hours hand-rubbing down the neck. It just feels goooood. No seriously, you'll smooth down all of the minute humps, hollows, imperfections in the finish, giving a much finer surface. Its also good for cleaning off gunge build-up.
It does have to be a really fine grade, and it does slightly 'dull' the finish gloss also, by the way.

With regards to tinting, usually the tint colour is mixed with the nitro, or whatever spray finish is applied. Another option is to use a wiping stain into the raw wood, so you actually are changing the actual colour of the timber, not just the lacquered surface. This is much more difficult, ya gotta know your stuff but it gives a far better depth of colour.
I have done this to some natural finished bodies with stunning results. Plus any chips or dings don't show the lighter original finish thru.
I'll shuttup now... :)

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Bg »

tru-oil is actually a bit of a misnomer, as its more of a varnish than an oil. Enough coats and it'll protect equally as well as nitro, if not better.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by jeremyb »

Bg wrote:tru-oil is actually a bit of a misnomer, as its more of a varnish than an oil. Enough coats and it'll protect equally as well as nitro, if not better.
Yarrrr I believe it's a 50:50 mix of oil and varnish, sets to a bloody hard finish if you put plenty of coats on, or can go thin like for a neck and it's glorious too :)
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Marshmallow »

Too many options I'll see how the laquer finish is on the neck (but will test on the wood) and will also test the tru oil and see how they both feel!

Now for the last quesion.. My guitar has saw holes in the back. I was wondering whether I should put it on the thickness sanding machine (but might have to redo the contour and the edges or just grain fill the holes with matching filler? I already did chuck it in the thickness sander. It'll have to go down another 1mm at least but that might destroy the contour already. HMM

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Thoughts?

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by The Bald Man »

If they are on the back of the body, I'd thickness sand them out.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Marshmallow »

Update,

I took the guitar through a thickness / drum sander and took the guitar for a paint in the booth the other day. I've just taken it off the hanger and is now sitting in my room :3. Neck has been done with laquer (sorry i didn't do tru oil). Now for polishing :) I will probably leave it for a week till I can polish it.

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That is all.haha

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by jeremyb »

WOW! Impressive work man!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by AiRdAd »

what did you use to laquer the body with?
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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Marshmallow »

AiRdAd wrote:what did you use to laquer the body with?

Hey man sorry for the late reply. I used Nitro but I can't put the guitar together as of yet. The guitar is currenly sun tanning with something so it doesn't heat up too much and create bubbles.. Waiting another week before I could put them together. Wish I could go to the shop and use their machines to dry the body. haha

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Bg »

thats turned our really well :) like a custom shop jobby!
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Custom Guitar - Paint Help

Post by Zaulkin »

Nice!!!

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