April Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in March 2018)

[Fretworn]

Holy crap! And I thought competition would be easier this month - looks like I'm wrong!
I've always been really apprehensive about buying kits with binding, in case I get the stain over them...
How exactly do you go about making sure that the white binding stays (or gets) clean?

If you polish the binding smooth first then it can be quite stain resistant making it easier to clean up after.

[Ahabs_beard]

I think some people manage to successfully mask the binding but the majority just stain over it then scrape the binding clean afterwards with a blade which gives a nice clean edge.
It is not that difficult but mighty tedious and certainly in my case gives continued entertainment in spotting bits that have been missed

When you say 'mask', you mean just covering it with masking tape when staining, and hoping for the best, right?
Stewmac have a good video; is this what you meant by scraping? I'm a noob, but I'm gonna try to hound all you guys for as much information as I can get! haha

If you polish the binding smooth first then it can be quite stain resistant making it easier to clean up after.

What exactly do you mean by polishing? Like, steel wool, sanding sealer etc? What products do you recommend? Cheers!

[Gary B]

When you say 'mask', you mean just covering it with masking tape when staining, and hoping for the best, right?
Stewmac have a good video; is this what you meant by scraping? I'm a noob, but I'm gonna try to hound all you guys for as much information as I can get! haha



What exactly do you mean by polishing? Like, steel wool, sanding sealer etc? What products do you recommend? Cheers!

I'm new here myself so maybe not the best to be giving 'advice'
Masking - yes, covering the binding with masking type. My view was that I don't have a good enough eye or steady hand to get it just right (especially on the really narrow binding on the guitars top) so would be likely to get stain on the binding and have to scrape anyway or, even worse, get tape over the wood and miss bits with the stain.
The Stewmac vid is it. He makes it look easy! I like the tool he uses - I did all mine with what he calls a utility blade (Stanley knife blade in the UK)
I don't know about the polishing, would be interested to hear if Fretworn replies on that.

[Fretworn]

When you say 'mask', you mean just covering it with masking tape when staining, and hoping for the best, right?
Stewmac have a good video; is this what you meant by scraping? I'm a noob, but I'm gonna try to hound all you guys for as much information as I can get! haha



What exactly do you mean by polishing? Like, steel wool, sanding sealer etc? What products do you recommend? Cheers!

Our resident luthier, Dingobass, suggests polishing the binding with 0000 steel wool prior to staining.