Official Luthiers Forum!

If you aren't French Polishing, but using a different type of finish i.e. KTM9, Nitro, Target USL...do you use a seal coat of shellac before your final finish?

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Yes. Some have said they have had issues with KTM9 directly over Zpoxy or other epoxies. Others say they have had not problems at all. I always seal with a 1# cut of shellac before spraying nitro or KTM9

use a seal coat of thinned epoxy about 50% DA or better yet grain alcohol like everclear, wiped on thin.John How38986.6947337963

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I had issues with KTM-9 over shellac, but I think it was because I didn't sand the shellac. It was too slick a surface for the KTM-9 to grab hold of. It needs a good mechanical bond. I've tried it with shellac that was sanded, no problems.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I use McFadden's nitro, and I use their vinyl sealer on top of pore fill, but not
shellac. However, I tend to sand back the epoxy so it remains only in the
pores; I don't like the color or texture of epoxy on top of the wood grain. It's
a bit tedious, because it's easy to overdo it and remove the epoxy in the
pores, but it's worth the effort for me. crazytooguy38986.7308564815

i have only one experience,, KTM9 over system 3 epoxy on maple.. Didn't need to pore fill, but liked the tone the epoxy gave to the maple. The KTM9 was cold and very clear. No trouble with adhesion.
Mike

Like the crazytooguy above I've been spraying McFaddens and use their vinyl sealer over the epoxy. I've had no adhesion problems . I've used various brands of epoxy for pore filling and recently tried the Zpoxy stuff from LMI and like very much as it sands really well.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Same here. I've used Oxford PSL and more recently KTM-9 over System 3 epoxy with no problems. The oldest one of mine is about two years old and no worries so far.