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Hypothetically speaking of course,
If a person were to accidentally get some alcohol dissolved shellac on top of some well cured WB lacquer (Target USL), how could said shellac be cleaned off without damaging the newly buffed finish?

Conversely, Hypothetically speaking of course, if some USL overspray were to get onto a french polished surface, how might the USL be cleaned without damaging the FP?

Maybe its not possible, but hypothetically neither problem is that big, neverthelss, neither will hypothetically be dealt with until daylight.

Thanks to anyone who might have some info on this.

Dave

Each experience in luthiery is a learning experience. That's what I always say.

For the pure sake of reference for newbies like me.

A possible solution for a situation like this should you decide to French Polish your fingerboard and bridge separately from the finish schedule on the rest of the instrument.

If you decide to completely finish the top and then glue the bridge on, and the bridge is not finished; make sure there is plenty of overlap of painters tape around the bridge before you seal or finish or French Polish the bridge. And should there be not enough overlap and the shellac seeps through in a few places, you might consider wiping a bit of alcohol on the shellac and then leveling and buffing the area again to make a completely invisible repair to the oops.

Should your tape job on the frets not be secure enough and allow some of the sprayed lacquer to get through to the fingerboard, just buff the daylights out of it and it will look as thought it never happened.


Virtually no solvents needed in the fixing of these issues.

Dave

The question that comes to my mind is "Why would you French Polish a fretboard?" with very rare exceptions fretboards should not be finish as the finish will just get dirty, worn and look bad pretty quickly.

Purely hypothetical.

But if a person were to do it, it would probably be an experiment that would hopefully not wear off too quickly.