After some weeks busy, I started the finishing. Initially I wanted to keep it simple and apply the lacquer by hand, using a cotton cloth, but soon I realised it's more difficult than spraying. I bought a spray gun.
After the first coat, which was a little too much, I made a disaster and a drop falled down from the neck pickup route, creating a yellow stain mark. I tried to repair it with a red stained sandpaper, but the blurr is still visible. I don't want to sand the whole top and start again, so I will leave it like this. It's OK for my first project
I am using a water based lacquer from a Nitorlack, called Nitoraqua. I just sprayed 3 coats, and for the moment looks good to me. The manufacturer reccomends 6 to 12 coats for the guitar, so we'll see. I bought Micromesh sanding pads for the polishing later.
The water based lacquer finish is complete, with some problems. During polishing I was not able to reach a completely flat surface, and some orange peel is still visible when you look close. I stopped polishing because I accidentally reached the wood in one little edge in the belly cut. Then I started final step with polishing compound and I am quite happy with the result (even more if it is playable in the end).
I had to sand the stoptail holes because I measured it wrong: I wanted to install a Schaller stoptail which has 1 mm more distance between holes. After correction the bushings were slightly loose. To fix it quickly and leave it strong enough I glued the bushings a little bit into the body.
When polishing, I slightly sanded too much the edges of the back covers I made. It's a pity because they were really good and lacquered, and almost match the back colour. For the moment I leave them like this. Also part of the "A" insert in the headstock is gone. If the guitar finally is playable and everything, maybe I fix it by finishing again the headstock.
Regarding electronics: As I have a lot going on (2 push/pull pots for split coils and phase shift, the piezo bridge and Schaller preamp) It's difficult to have the control cavity cover closed just with the magnets. I'll use standard 4 screws for this cover. The other 2 (toggle and battery) keep well closed with the magnets.
Hi Alexis
i have read you're thread and you made a few errors with the stain and finish mate, firstly the red dye you used you have put it on to heavy if you're using water base dye if you pop on 2 coats and leave to dry a couple of hours, then rub the dye with a damp sponge what that does is pull all the dye that didn't soak up and will give you a lot more uniform look do that for another coat or 2 to get to the colour you want and will get rid of the blotchy and streaky look, with the finish you used Nitorlack nitoraqua Lacquer is water borne nitrocellulose paint, it should be applied with spray gun and its not for the 1st time builder as can be a bitch to shoot, you didn't spray enough coats to cut back usually prep work wasn't done to get the body flat the less prep you do will require more coats or you'll sand through when you're going to polish. you did a good job with the front but buggered it up with the clear all you can do is carefully sand the clear with 2000 and soap and shoot 5 or 6 coats of clear which should give you a safety margin when you sand it back to polish
Yes, I made some errors: I did not sand between dye coats. During lacquer spraying I had a lot of issues, some dye went out and it was a mess (the dye which didn't soaked as you said). I used a spray gun for the first time and in total I made 12 coats of lacquer. The firs ones mixed with 25% water, and the last ones 5-10% ow water.
After 4 weeks drying, I sanded with 1000 and water, but I couldn't flatten the surface completely. Later on I will do a refinish as you said: sand the clear, add more lacquer and polish again.
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