Official Luthiers Forum!

I just strung up my Om martin kit! It's an unreal feeling to play it! I really love the look of the guitar now. Can I leave it how it is or should I tru oil it? I'm dying to put the pick guard on the top? Or should I leave the top natural and tru oil the sides and neck? I like the natural look myself. Thanks guys

If you don't seal it with something, it won't look good long!

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Will tru oil on the front look good or what would you guys recommend? Thanks for the reply

There are many ways to finish the guitar - you have to pick one depending on your resources. Search here on the site - "finishing" - to name a few shellac, poly, EM6000 (?), dutch oil, Tru-oil, varnish.... plus different methods of application - french polish vs hand rub vs spayed.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I have read that an oil finish like Truoil should not be used on the sound board because it will deaden the sound. The suggestion was to Shellac the top and truoil the rest.

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EddieLee

I can tell you from my last, which was tru-oiled all over, and is as bright a guitar as you'd like to hear, that tru-oil does not deaden the top.......Use it all over. search youtube for deadedith and tru-oil, and then look at Robbie O'Brien's tru-oil video, and go for it. It's easy, and once cured, well hard enough to polish to a mirror look....I left mine un-buffed and love it....

TruOil is fine for the top, but I've always put a couple of seal coats of shellac on before the TruOil.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I completely understand the raw feel, its nice. Just do it up like they do a music man EVH neck. Wipe pure tung oil on it for 5 minutes and then wipe it off. The wood will still look and feel raw but it will seal the grain, if you don't it will muck up fast.

BTW I did an accidental experiment. I had a piece of scrap alder that I treated half of with a quick 5 minute tung oil, you couldn't tell the difference. A few weeks later I shot a light coat of urethane on the same piece of scrap while getting ready to shoot a body, the side that was untreated soaked up most of the urethane, the treated side didn't soak up any. So it does have sealing properties even at its lightest.

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Whatever you do DON'T confuse me as an EXPERT, or MASTER, just a self learned trial and error guy. I had to build a dozen guitar before I found out what a "Luthier" even was (????)

Roger Knox has it: Put an intermediate shellac coat over the top, or over as much of the guitar as you wish. Then apply as many thin coats of true oil as you wish. The key word here is THIN. You will be tempted to apply heavier coats in order to speed things along, but don't yield to the temptation. You'll be amazed how the oil suddenly starts to come up to a gloss at about the third or fourth coat. In addition, after it has cured a couple of weeks, you can polish it out with nothing more complicated than an old t-shirt and some Mequaire's Swirl Remover. If you prefer a mat, eggshell sort of finish, you can knock back the shine with a gentle rub of 0000 steel wool. The shellac coat is optional, but I don't think you'd regret it. If you are concerned about brushing or wiping it (and if you don't have spray equipment) you can even use a little Preval aerosol spray kit from your auto parts store. Thin your shellac a bit with alcohol if you do this, and strain it through a coffee filter before loading the sprayer. Use de-waxed shellac. The Preval unit is not for big jobs, but I've used them lots of times to shoot seal coats of shellac.

+1 for shellac under oil on the top. Some wise people say that oil soaked into the top can be a significant dampener.

If you only apply a few coats, say 3 or 4 of oil then it will still look very natural, the more coats you apply the more it builds up into a more glossy finish. I would recommend Danish oil, because it gives a nice semi matt finish, I find tru oil tends to be more shiny. I agree with the others though, definitely seal the soundboard with shellac or similar, because oil straight onto a soundboard tends to come out blotchy.

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