Official Luthiers Forum!

Okay, so Z-Poxy is a great pore filler for the acoustics, but what should a guy use for an ash solid body that'll be painted a solid color? The guitar took shape pretty quickly, but now I'm out of the shop and thinking too much I suppose...any wisdom from you electric solid-body pros?

Thanks!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Z-Poxy looks so good on the ash Tele I'm building right now that I wish I could leave it as the final finish, rather than nitro. It took several applications though, before everything was covered

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Larry, is there a reason you don't want to use epoxy? Besides possibly being slightly more heavy than some other fillers, I think it would be the perfect filler.

Hi Paul, no reason...just wondering if there was anything else out there that would be preferable...if epoxy's okay, that's where I'll go...I already have it on hand to boot!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Larry-
Some of the Fender ash Teles had black filler used and the filled grain shows through the topcoat on some 'vintage' guitars. I've seen that on a cream '68, but have no idea how common this was over the years.
Some of the electric guitar historians can add to this, no doubt.
Unless you are going for that look, I'd stick with the epoxy.

Cheers
John

On a related note...when you grain fill with epoxy and sand back, are
you looking to have the entire surface coated with a thin layer? 
Or sand back to wood and leave the epoxy only in the pores?



And do you seal prior to epoxy?  Or not?  I've heard both.

I used walnut paste filler on the wings of a swamp ash solid body once to accent the fantastic grain. It was a MIJ neckthru LP tv special knock off. I left the 5 piece maple walnut lam neck natural. I finished the wings over the contrast filled swampash with a translucent candy apple light blue and then darkened the outer edges with a translucent royal blue, sort of like a see thru blue burst if you will. I then fitted chrome pickup rings that looked real nice against the maple and some amber tophat knobs that looked the goods against the blue. It realy did look cool, the blond GT striped neck contrasting down the centre set things off very nicely. Just wish I still had a photo.

If you just want to solid colour I agree with others, epoxy will be great and will not sink back so easy.

Cheers

Kim

[QUOTE=erikbojerik]
And do you seal prior to epoxy? Or not? I've heard both.
[/QUOTE]
Epoxy sticks best to bare wood without any coating.
You can probably get away with a lot, since pore filling is not a very demanding application, but epoxy as the first thing on the wood is the most reliable.

Cheers
John

Sand back to bare wood leaving the epoxy only in the pores. Then mix up 60% epoxy and 40% alcohol and very lightly rag on This is very very thin mix and will hardly leaver any film at all. The rag on is just to even the color everywhere.

No difference electric Solid body from an acoustic.


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