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I love seeing pics of people's finished guitars. It really gets my creative juices flowing. I was looking at some today and thought, "I wish people posted finished guitars more often." Then It hit me, I should do it too if I'm going to lament that others don't do it often enough. . .

Here are a couple I finished recently (Okay about a year ago )

One is a parlor with Katalox back and sides, Lutz top, curly hard maple neck and redheart bindings. 12.75" lower bout 12 fret. This one sounds nice but maybe not quite as nice as the other one I made of this size.

The other is a 13.5" lower bout cherry 12 fret with an engleman top and a cherry neck. This was the first time I tried radial purfling. I used some chechen and was really happy with the way it came out. I think this is one may be the best sounding guitar I have made and the owner is in love with it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

And the other. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Nice guitars Bryan, I like the little ones. What's your finish these days, it looks good. I've been busy with repairs (setups mostly) so the one I'm working on is moving slowly. I just finished setting the dovetail today so maybe I can post it in a few months

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks. The finish on both is z-poxy porefill with French polished Royal-lac. I've done this now of 4 guitars and I think I'll be sticking with it. I wish I could learn to photograph it better. I can't get a good shot of how the curly maple shows off.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Nice Brian, thanks for posting.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Beautiful work Bryan. That's the other finish I want to try after I finish this one. It looks great here.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Maybe it’s the photos but I think your French polished Royal Lac looks better than mine - nice work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I like the look of both. Does the katalux make a brighter sound? Maybe a thinner top? I have a piece of katalux that I need cut into back and sides.

I don't know all the guitar finishes. I thought that FP was started on bare wood. I'm guessing that using Zpoxy first cuts out a lot of coats? Sounds like a good idea.

Limited to 250k, a detail shot is the only way to see detail.

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Why be normal?

I’m not even close to experienced enough to make claims about how Katalox affects the tone. I did make one other guitar of this model using a different back and side wood. BUT. . . The tops and bridges were different woods too. I used the same bracing pattern and made the tops feel about the same to my intuitive (go by what feels right) method. So, you should assume there are 1,000 differences between them.

The pores were filled with Z-poxy and sanded back to bare wood. Then I wipe on thinned out z-poxy just to keep the color even and pop the grain. This is just part of my process. The katalox didn’t really need much fillings and the cherry didn’t need it at all. I would not say that it adds much thickness so I wouldn’t consider it a head start on the finish.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Maybe this will show the Royal-lac a bit better. It is far from perfect French Polish but skis the rest of my work



Edit, well it looks like the flaws are still getting compressed out by reducing the image. I guess that is a good thing ha! It looks like a hand rubbed finish, not bad at all, but not like it was dipped in thick plastic then leveled with lots of sanding.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Sharp looking pair, Bryan!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Royal lac is a great finish. I've done a couple of guitars using it (french polished) and I was very happy. Your finishes look great (as do the guitars--good job!)

Dave

I really like french polished Royal Lac although I'm always looking for an easier finish - haven't found one yet that looks as good and is as thin.

I buy a fresh can if it has been open more than a few months. I will let the Seal Lac go a lot longer since it doesn't seem to go bad (I believe that is straight shellac}.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Two amazing gits! Good job.

Nice! I like the alternative wood choices. I have done a few in Royal Lac and I think I like the stuff but cannot quite figure it out at the same time. Do you use traditional FP technique to apply it? Do you spray it? Do you wet sand? Do you polish out on a buffer?

Thanks John. I pretty much do straight French polish. Or, my version of it anyway. I think everyone does it a little different. As mentioned before, my base coat is thinned Z-proxy. I then pad on a few thin coats of regular shellac. After that it is just Royal-Lac, olive oil and alcohol on the pad like normal. Build and spirit off. I typically don’t do any sanding but sometimes I will if I let a surface get a little lumpy because I was getting greedy and putting too much shellac on the pad. I also did some light sanding when I was doing the repairs I mentioned before. I sand with olive oil because I heard some people had issues when wet sanding Royal-Lac with water. Of course, you don’t have to sand imperfections, you can just keep going and even them out. I’m not a purist and am not above sanding.

I get a nice gloss just from spiriting off but I do wait until it has hardened up and buff with Meguire’s swirl remover. I honestly can’t tell if that makes a difference or not.

I know what you mean when you say you cannot quite figure it out. I feel like, with French polish, you are always figuring it out on the fly. Conditions change and one session may need a slightly different approach than the last. With Royal-Lac, it seems like it is always changing and harder to predict what it wants. I think part of that is my method. I don’t ever measure the cut of my shellac. I add it straight to the pad with a dropper and add alcohol the same way. I am just mixing the right consistency on the pad. Royal-Lac is a heavier cut than what I usually am using so I might just be having a harder time making those adjustments on the fly.

Still, it seems like it wants more oil than regular shellac and the pad cover seems like it wants to get gummed up easier. Another dozen guitars and I might have a feel for it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Nice looking guitars. The finish work looks outstanding. Small bodied guitars can be addictive!

[quote="Clay S."]Nice looking guitars. The finish work looks outstanding. Small bodied guitars can be addictive![/quote]

Hear, hear- very nice, and I love the small ones.

I'm making my triple O sized model now and it feels enormous.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Well then Bryan...

The woodwork on this one was finished a while back but I am still working on the setup. It is a straight up version of Trevor Gore's falcate braced SS. I like the look and the design always makes a good sounding guitar.

The reason I'm still working on the setup is that I thought for a change I would try this business of nut and saddle intonation to get it more accurately in tune. So far I have completely failed! It is the worst tuned guitar I have ever made! I will get there eventually even if I have to revert to just saddle intonation.

It is Sitka with US black walnut. Enjoy! Dave

Nice Dave! I like the light line boards ring the back strip going into the back purfling. I am doing something similar on the one I’m making now but with a narrow back strip.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Lovely work Bryan.

Radial purfling? Could please explain process and mebbe a closer pix? If I understand correctly, I've never seen that before. Beautiful guitars and finishing. Thanks, Roy

Thanks Bryan, The line is a bit thick - I've used thinner one on a classical and it looks better. Still experimenting with decorative schemes. Cheers Dave

PS that bloodwood binding looks extraordinary!