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I have probably posted this before - but after Joe White "retired" from doing guitar finishes, my guitar builds fell into a void for a few years. I wonder if that is a coincidence??

I am looking for someone who does somewhat close to Joe's quality of work.

So... I am looking for two things please,

Does anyone have current contact info for Tony Ferguson, and,

Does anyone have other recommendations I should consider.

Oh, I prefer to not use nitro finishes.

Thanks

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Tony Ferguson is a "known quantity" and will do a professional quality finish, every time -- just like Joe did. I tried Vancouver guitars -- 4 guitars were sent and 4 came back with issues that would never have passed Taylor or Martin QC. I sent back a couple and they came back with the same issues -- very frustrating and they were not accommodating aside from willing to redo again at my shipping expense. I have seen some of their work by other builders at shows and it was absolutely superb. So they are hit and miss but my personal experience was bad. My own experience is echoed by a number of other builders. In Vancouver Finishing's defense tho' -- they are extremely affordable. But I'd rather pay more and get a better finish.

Addam Stark does nitro but is also hit or miss. Honestly, every single other finisher out there that I know of I have heard mixed reviews from -- some good and some bad. It is difficult to know whether the quality is mixed or whether the expectations of the clients are different. I will say that finish work is challenging and that doing professional quality finishes and making a profit from it is even more challenging. It seems to me most of the issues with guitar finishers are reliability -- will they do a professional finish every time or will small mistakes slip through.

You might give Brian Howard a call and see what he can do. He was the next person on my list before I gave up and decided that I had to do my own finish work. He does seem extremely knowledgeable and seems like a really nice person, which is important if you should run into problems.

Definitely check with Brian. I spent three days in his shop to ramp on UV finishes. He’s a great dude and super knowledgeable. He did mention he was considering retirement so check if he’s still taking clients.

Does Jeff Jewitt take outside work? I’ve been trying to convince him to let me come up with my UV gear to let him evaluate it. What do I get out of it? Soaking up the knowledge!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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FWIW…

Vancouver Guitar Finishing has ditched UV Poly in favour of catalyzed urethane over epoxy fill, and they say they will do nitro too.

Oh, and Jeff Jewitt said no when I asked him about outside finish work…

And though Paul says he’s not into nitro, others may be so I’ll post up Matt Eady’s name…

If anyone is looking for Brian Howard, then I'm sorry report his website says that he has retired.
https://howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I'm doomed.

Brad—

Jeff Jewitt and Robbie O’Brien are leading a class on spray finishing at the Marc Adams school of woodworking (near Indianapolis) sometime in September. I can’t attend (there is a scheduling conflict), but I wish I could.

I've attended several classes at Marc Adams' school--mostly wood carving, and they've all been top notch. Wish I could take the finishing class. I've been finishing for years but still have a whole lot to learn.

Dave

I might try to move my schedule around so I can attend the class. I looked at the details again, and it sounds great.

Interestingly the landscape is very much like it was 17 years ago here, Ferguson, White and Stark and doing it yourself were the only possibilities back then.

Over here some of the Piano refinishing guys will spray guitars, and some do very high level work. Some of the high end furniture restoration shops will too. We’re such a small market in comparison to the USA, I’m amazed there aren’t more options available over there in the ancestral home of the nitro-finished guitar.

I did hear back from Tony Ferguson and his still doing finishing. Catalyzed Urethane with epoxy fill. As of today's post he said $725 for a finish, plus $150 to do a top burst I wanted.

And then there is the shipping on top of that.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Ooofs mah boofs. Still, only 750+ for what is at least 1/3 of the work of making a guitar. Still good value, particularly considering the impeccable work Tony does.

Much of the effort of doing a high end finish is the prep work before any finish is applied. What many of us think is "finish ready" a good finisher will consider to be marginally prepped. As Meddling said - a third of the work is in finishing.
If I manage to do a typical factory level finish I am happy enough with that. Considering what a guitar finish usually looks like after a decade of playing that is about as much of my life I'm willing to put into the finish work.