What and How much ? to Seal and Finish Guitar Body and Neck?

howdy all.

it has been said that one can use Coloured Spray Can Acrylic to paint the guitar, then an Clear Coat Acrylic Spray Can to finish.

we do hope this is true as we are waiting for delivery of first Kit to build and we weren't too sure of how to seal and finish the Body and Neck.

We were thinking we would have to use Epoxy Resin or Poly and as we want solid colour, not wood grain, we would have to add colour to the Epoxy or the Poly.

so, is it correct that we can use Acrylic, either spray or brush, to seal and finish our Guitar body and neck?

as have never had the luxury to build a guitar before, only just found out there were diy kits, so could someone please tell us how much in ml, or L, is needed of Poly or Epoxy Resin to give at least 4 coats to Seal and Finish our Newfound Interest?

Thanks.

Hope you'll start a build diary. They can be helpful if you have questions along the way.

What you need and how much depends on a number of factors, including the wood in your kit. What wood is it?

Basswood and maple don't need much in the way of sealing or filling, for example. Most others do require some filling to have a flat finish in the end.

I don't use spray to finish, so others may chime in there. I use MTN94 spray paint for solid colors, which is an acrylic. It usually takes me two cans, maybe three. No need for sealer, but you may need grain filler. You'll also need a clear coat since MTM94 has a very flat finish.

I tend to seal with dewaxed shellac. I get it in flakes, and it has the advantage of being relatively cheap.

+1 for starting a build diary.

Forum member Phrozen has a run-down of his process for spraying with rattle cans. It can be found at: https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post129444.

As far as the amount of poly goes for the final coats - a 250 ml can will be more than needed if brushing or wiping on. Or 2 rattle cans of clear should be plenty.

thanks "fender3x" we will start on this diary.

thanks for the info as have given many more options that we seen earlier, but we narrowed in on the Acrylic Spray but have since come accross Eckersleys for Art Acrylic Paint and Inks.

plenty to think about...

thanks again.

thanks Trevor Davies.

this idea of a build diary seems to be worth more than we gave it credit for. we will get started on this Build Diary.

We were starting to think that it would have been much cheaper to buy a finished guitar from a store, but it is turning out, from the info thus far, that this build will be much cheaper than anticipated, and it will be our build, not bought.

thanks for info.

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Originally Posted by Left Unnamed

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We were starting to think that it would have been much cheaper to buy a finished guitar from a store, but it is turning out, from the info thus far, that this build will be much cheaper than anticipated, and it will be our build, not bought.

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It could be cheaper buying from a store, but having the satisfaction of building it yourself, finishing and even modding it is a wonderful thing. Also, learning to setup the guitar will give you the confidence to later make changes to the setup which can make the guitar a lot better to play. I think it is interesting that a lot of guitar builders have quite a lot of built guitars! For me it is a fun hobby - I get to try different things and learn new skills.

If you stick with stock kit parts, the cost should not be too high for consumables like paints, clear coats, sandpaper etc. And most of this can be purchased from a general hardware store.

I don't think I gave enough credit to the satisfaction you get from playing an instrument that you made.

I think there could be a bit of a debate as to whether you save money building or not. Some years ago I purchased a really cheap Jazz bass clone. It was OK out of the box. Certainly the equal of a lot of name-brand import basses. But it took a fair amount of work to get it to sound and play as well as I wanted it to. It also took a bit of investment to get replacement parts that I liked.

From a cost standpoint, I think I generally pay a bit less for the parts than I would for upgrades...but when I add in the cost of sandpaper, paint, stain, etc., I am not sure there is a real savings.

However, the kit build has a couple of advantages that are hard to quantify. One of them is that I don't have to buy everything at once. Also, I don't have to buy parts until I know what parts I want. There is probably some cost savings in shopping for deals.

Another advantage is in pretty much every case, I got something that I would not have been able to get from my local music shop. And something I could not have afforded going anywhere else. All my builds have something hard to get about them. Sometimes it's lighter woods, different necks, weird pickup configurations. I can also "invest" in high quality parts when I think it makes a difference, and avoid paying for premium parts when I think it doesn't.

I keep working on them until they sound and play well...and they are all unique in some way...which leads me back to point number one. I get a ton of satisfaction out of playing them. I have pretty much retired my name brand electric guitars and basses as a result.