Diy explorer kit finish questions

[stankybudz]

I was a little leary but I wanted a cheap project and I pulled the trigger on one of those ebay diy guitar kits. It is a mahogany body and i want to put some sort of stain on it. I seen people just wiping it on with rags as opposed to spraying it, I would like to go that route if possible. What are some of my options?

 

[stankybudz]

Here it is

 

[Cagey]

Mahogany can be a pain in the shorts to finish due to its open grain. Needs to be sealed, grain-filled, (stained), sealed, then finished, with lotsa sanding steps in between. If environmental or time/money limitations leave you unable or unwilling to engage in all that rigmarole, you might consider something like this...

It's a simple wipe-on finish that's pretty durable. You won't get the professional results you see on better instruments, but it'll protect the wood and look attractive enough. In fact, Gibson is using a very similar finish on some of their offerings these days. Be aware that if you decide to refinish later that getting this stuff off will be quite difficult, but if you don't see that happening then...

 

[stankybudz]

If I did want to go through the longer process, how do i seal and fill and what should I know about sanding?

 

[Cagey]

It depends on how long a process you're willing to go through, what kind of equipment you have, how good a finish you want, on and on. There are a number of very good articles on it at LMII. For instance, it's tough to fail following this schedule if you want to do nitro. They have another treatment on water-based finishes, and another on oil finishes.

In all cases it takes time, money and patience. You can't skip or shortcut steps. In most cases, a good finish is going to take anywhere from 6 to 10 weeks. That's why it's expensive to have somebody do it. Nobody's trying to get rich on the process; it's just labor-intensive and you go through a lotta shop supplies.

 

[fretless]

IMO Hog is most beautiful when left natural color . Shellac then a clear will really bring out it's chatoyance .

 

[Johnny]

I'm in the middle of my first finishing project. So I'm going to assume that you're primary reason for doing this was the same as mine. Specifically that you are doing this for the experience and thus are not looking for shortcuts.

The first thing I would do (if you haven't already done so) is to fit the neck on and put the bridge in place and check that everything lines up and that the scale is right. Hopefully everything will be right but if not, you will want to deal with those issues first. I only mention this because I've had issues with this and have read where a lot of others have as well.

Since this is my first finishing project and not mahogany, I can't offer any real help. I can tell you that finishing is a bit of an art in that everyone seems to do it a bit differently. I settled on the process from the site below (go to Info and scroll down). It does not address finishing mahogany but does provide a clear coat process with minimal spraying. I'll be writing up my experience with that in about a week when I get done.

http://www.frettech.com/

From what research I've done, Cagey's schedule is what you want. You just have to get the specifics of the steps which can be found on this site as well as others.

Good luck!

 

[line6man]

IMO Hog is most beautiful when left natural color . Shellac then a clear will really bring out it's chatoyance .

+1.

Why stain what nature perfected?