Official Luthiers Forum!

This was prom pted by the shellac question thread, but seems off topic enough to get buried there.

I am building a Tele for a friend that has an ash body and myrtle drop top. We are doing a butterscotch nitro finish on the sides and back, and using tortoise bindings in standard acoustic guitar style. The top has flame you could fall into. I am planning to do a light tint with garnet shellac, probably preceeded with a seal coat of blonde shellac as suggested by Mark in the previous thread.

The question is - what would you use for filler in between the undercoats of shellac and top coats of nitro? (Customer wants nitro - I hate the stuff) Will a pumice fill stand up to the nitro, or would I be better off using a different filling technique? (I usually use Crystal-lac, just because I haven't gone through my first container yet).

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Zpoxy Finishiing Resign

It looks like you're saying that the back the ash- will be a solid color, while the top natural, right? it seems to me that you could use any regular old fill method. the epoxy would work, so would the cryatal-lac, and other types of fillers like the colortone stuff from Stew-mac.
You don't need to put it between the shellac and the nitro. You could use it over bare wood, then shellac...you could even use more filler after that and then more shellac. Keep working with both until you are happy. Remember to mask off the top, and work on the ash until you get the surface the way you want it. It'll get you every time, you'll swear that you had all of the pores filled and then when you spray the nitro, they'll shrink in! You may end up having to sand back a time or two on the color coat, too so just bepatient and give it time to dry well before you go to the finial clear coat.

_________________
Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

The Myrtle doesn't seem all that porous - is it? I'm hoping that filling will be simple. The Ash I can work on til I get a nice surface. It will be hidden by a semi-opaque color, I may try to let a little grain show through though.

The myrtle drop top was the leftovers from a board that I found at the local hardwood supplier's, and managed to saw 4 B&S sets out of. Hopefully I'll be able to display them here someday. It's as nice a Myrtle board as I've seen anywhere.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

you could try filling with shellac and sawdust. Worked well on my first steel string.

Mike

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

There is a difference between being "porous" and having big pores- it isnl;t the same thing. A wood that is porous simply has a structure that will absorb, in the way a sponge will. For example, spruce and cedar are porous, because they soak up finish. I've put shellac on some cedar and it soaked all the way through to the other side! That's porous. but, having huge pores is different. The myrtle doesn't have big pores, and finishes more like maple, but the ash has huge ones. If you're going to use something to mix with the shellac, I'd use pumice.

_________________
Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Yeah, I know the ash is a bear - I've done two ash teles so far. That's just getting a more or less standard nitro finishing schedule, though. Shellac is for the drop top.
Yesterday I sanded three samples, and applied blonde and garnet shellac to taste. I am going to do experiments with pumice, epoxy and crystal-lac. I'll report back

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu