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I am fully aware that none of you has sunk so low as to build one of the Saga electric guitar kits. A friend has purchased one and wants me to help assemble it- more importantly to finish it and set it up. It will be a gift for his son who has a birthday in early December.
Why am I not asking you know where? Well, because there is an air of tolerance here that can be missing elsewhere. I am aware that these come with pretty good looking but thin fiddleback maple caps. My friend wants the figure to show, but in a dark stain. So, anyone here have a friend, or low-life cousin -you know, not an OLF Genuine Luthier, who has found a stripper that works without trashing the pre-bound body? The cap is a thick veneer and from some research, I find that trying to sand it off can go through the maple.
I have an ancient ferrous dye formula usually used on muzzleloading rifles that penetrates properly leaving the hard stripes somewhat dark golden, and the "base wood" a transparent dark brown. It will still work with the sealer in the pores, but I need clean surface to stain.
If I cannot really get the miserable stuff off, then it will be color in the finish, base shellac and then stain/dye overcoats(teenager- FP wouldn't last an hour)--though now that I think about it, this would be a decent piece for FP learning/practice. Thanks- for open-minded tolerance of my heresy and offering advice. Mike T.

Hi Mike,

I've never seen a Saga kit but from your description is sounds like a solid body electric.
Now I don't know of a finish stripper that won't destroy plastic bindings, but what I've done on this type of refinish in the past is mask the bindings, then strip the finish down to wood. After the masking tape is removed I will use a thin card scraper to carefully scrape the old finish of the edges and the binding, give the body a very light hand sand with 320 or 400 paper and proceed with the new finish. If the veneer is really thin you may want to omit the sanding and just clean up with 0000 steel wool.

Hope this helps.

Cal

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Thanks- that sounds like a reasonable plan. Mike T.

Miketobey: "So, anyone here have a friend, or low-life cousin -you know, not an OLF Genuine Luthier, who has found a stripper that works without trashing the pre-bound body?"

I had a buddy who found one like that, but then she took his money and he hasn't seen her since.

Darrin

I admit it I have put a saga kit together, well helped my son. Here is a link to a a luthier in england that goes through the basics of a saga kit http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/kitbuild.html
My experience with finishing was interesting used colortone laquer that we added black tint to and ended with a a black/ purplish sunburst sorta that the grain showed through. getting there was a challenge first try didnt adhere to the sealer and ended up scrapping that off (wasn't difficult) and starting over, lightly sanded and cleaned with laquer thinner and the second try did fine. With a good fret dressing and the eventual addition of emg pickups and grover tuners we ended up with a pretty decent playing and sounding electric guitar.