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Has anyone ever done this? One of the 3 I recently FP'd is for my Godson as a college graduation present. I originally wanted this one to be nitro but couldn't find a suitable location to spray so I FP'd along with the other 2 I'm working on. Now that Joe has offered to help me with Nitro, I'm going to do it. I just know he needs the greater protection that nitro will provide and he won't take the care that a FP'd instrument requires.

So I'm planning to sand the top back to wood and start from scratch and probably scuff sand the B&S. Has anyone ever done this and are there any issues I should be aware of. Seems pretty straightforward but just wanted to make sure.

TIA

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

JJ, my understanding is that nitro adheres very well to a shellac finish. I wouldn't think you would encounter any problems at all. I'm not sure you would even need to sand all the way back to wood. I often use shellac to seal a neck before spraying nitro on it, and have never had any problems with it.

Wait for the experts though.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Dave...the reason I want to sand back to wood on the top is to assure that I'm only laying down a minimal thickness on the top. I don't believe that the B&S are that critical. If it were for me, I'd leave the top FP'd but it's essentially for a kid.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Got ya JJ. That makes perfect sense. I think I may have misread your first post.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

There is a rule of thumb that says Never put a hard finish over a soft finish. That is what you are proposing to do. That being said, many people put a sealer coat of shellac on before they do any other coat so a thin coat should be OK.

Is a full french polish coat too thick? It might be better to sand it down alot. A half hour with a palm sander should do it. That's what I'd do. Than I'd wipe on a seal coat of shellac just to cover up the place where I sanded through.

Hesh, I'm glad you mentioned that. If you didn't I would have!
Shellac makes a great base-coat for just about anything, but is a very slick finish if not sanded.

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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."

Thanks guys...looks like I'll sand off the B&S as well.

Believe me...sanding this is gonna hurt, since it took such a long time to achieve what I believe is my best FP effort so far. So I really have to look at it as just another tuition cost. Does it ever end?

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Hesh...Freddie must have been one of those "patsy" golfers...you know, the kind that rarely collects and more often pays out at the end of a round! That can get to be expensive!

This FP is VERY thin so I'm not too worried about the additional Nitro thickness. And upon further review, I'm not too sure that I need to sand all off from the B&S...after all, we apply shellac as a base for Nitro anyway. Therefore, I agree with your opinion to do light sanding before applying Nitro. I'll probably sand more thoroughly on the top just to keep the finish as thin as practical.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Why not leave the top just French polished and nitro the back and sides? Best of both worlds then.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Mike brings up a good point about not putting a hard finish over a soft one, which begs the question as to whether we're not doing just that by putting nitro over sanding sealer. I dunno.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

JJ, did you use any kind of compoung to buff your FP out? If so (ans I suspect you did) you'll definitely have to sand her down real good... I don't think nitro would stick to well to Maguires!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Pat...Nitro has been going over shellac (sanding sealer) for decades on millions of guitars. I really don't see this as a problem.

Colin...you're right, as usual. If it were for me I would do just that. I'm just concerned that Andrew (my Godson) would not be as careful with the guitar as he needs to be.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Alain...It has been buffed out with Menzerna. I plan to clear the surfaces with Naphtha and even possibly ETOH before sanding.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com