The Finish

Its been a long while, and I have a lot to catching up to do. I'm in the finishing stage on this guitar.

OK not really finished, but putting a finish on guitar #2. I have smoothed and sanded every bit of the body and the neck. I have gone over everything in the most minute detail, looking for gaps. I filled the gaps with medium viscosity CA glue and scraped and sanded the spots smooth. When I am satisfied, I move on to the pore filling stage. The E.I. Rosewood has some pretty big pores, so I start with some System 3 epoxy with silica thickener. I mix ~15ml of the epoxy and add enough silica to give it the consistency of heavy cream. I spread it with an expired gift card, scraping the goo over the surface as thin as I possibly can.

I let the epoxy cure overnight then sand lightly with some 400 grit sandpaper to knock down any nubs and ridges. One of the nice things about the epoxy is that it makes the color of the rosewood sparkle and adds depth to the grain.

The pores of the rosewood were pretty big so I needed to put on a second coat. The process is the same, apply, scrape off the excess, cure overnight and sand lightly.

The top got a slight variation of the process. Since the spruce is a closed-pore wood, I could do without the epoxy altogether. The rosette did have some pores (mostly in the mahogany strips). I used epoxy without the silica filler, and used only one coat.









The neck will get a different finish from the body, but I still wanted to get the shiny finish on the ebony peg head. I mixed up some epoxy and diluted it in half with alcohol. The epoxy was wiped on with a paper towel. Just like the effect on the rosewood, it makes the pearl inlay sparkle.

I used the same water-base lacquer (KTM-9) on the body as my first guitar. The front of the peghead was finished with the lacquer as well. The neck was finished with Tru-Oil. It is an oil finish that is supposed to leave a finish that is real pleasant to the touch. I rubbed the oil on with my fingers, letting it dry overnight between coats. The next day I scuffed the surface with some 0000 steel wool before rubbing on the next coat. I put on 5 coats, then set the neck aside for a few weeks to let it cure. The last step was to rub the finish using steel wool and paste wax. The result is a slick, satin finish.