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Josh, I only used seal coat shellac on the Mendocino cypress which didn't need any pore filling. I was using it in case the CA made the surface blotchy looking. I didn't use any on the walnut. The CA is the pore fill for the walnut and the finish too. No barrier to worry about. It "wets" the wood nicely too. On the cypress I sealed it before the CA.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Ken,

Thanks for setting me straight! I think I'm going to have to try that method on my first given the limited equipment and budget. Once done, I'll post results on a new thread (a few months away). I'll also post one about 6 months later. I will be playing the guitar out multiple times per week and subjecting it to normal gig wear and my very acidic oils/sweat. I'll see how it holds up...

Thanks again!

Josh

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Finally escaped The Peoples' Republik of Massachusetts; I can smell the freedom in the air!

Josh, be sure to try it on some scrap first to see if you like it.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I have refinished a few guitars, but I am looking forward to French polishing my first build. Having said that my opinion is from a players point of view. I prefer a matte tung oil finish on the neck, back and sides and a gloss finish on the top. I don't currently own a FP guitar, but I think that is how I will finish my first. From what I have read, FP results is the best sounding finish and that is where my interest lies. I'll probably still do a matte finish on the neck though. Anyone ever do a matte FP?

Joey, steel wool after FP makes a nice matte finish.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

No one's mentioned spirit varnish or danish oil. Any opinions on either?

Tried them both. Danish oil is nice for a quick, practical finish. It is not going to offer the protection that other finishes offer but if you take good care of your instrument it's fine. It's also extremely easy to recoat should you feel the need. It also shares the properties that make any oil varnish that little bit special. It highlights the tiniest scratch, especially in Spruce. Your finish sanding really has to be up to the mark.
Spirit Varnish is often considered too soft for Steel Strings, although it seems some Mandolin builders are happy with it. The trick is to find a recipe that isn't too hard (becomes chippy) or too soft that it takes an imprint. I can't comment on spraying the stuff but using it with a brush is a bit of a steep learning curve. In terms of total time spent on obtaining the finish it's relatively fast. You may have to put on as many as 15 very thin coats but each coat takes just a few minutes to apply. It has to be that way. You simply can't brush the stuff out and it seems extremely difficult to recover from too much build up of overlapping strokes.

I read about this in Wired magazine, and instantly thought of guitar finishes. I don't know what it looks like when laid down, but it's impervious to UV light and it's not affected by body chemistry. It's also flexible enough to be sprayed on fabrics, which would lead me to believe that it would have acceptable acoustic properties. Even if it didn't work as a finish, it might be a great seal coat to protect other finishes. I apologize if someone else has mentioned this already, but I didn't have the attention span to read the whole thread.

http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html

Shellac is spirit varnish. So are a bunch of other resins that dissolve in alcohol, but most formulations have shellac as the main ingredient.

Danish oil is a blend of a drying oil and an oil/resin varnish. It is an OK, easy finish for an electric guitar if you don't care a lot about a full gloss. I would not use it on an acoustic guitar, because it adds mass and damping without much protection.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I just did a very thin FP on the neck. Initial rub-on coat, and a short round of bodying. Matte and smooth, feels great. No pore filling either, so it has a bit of texture under the smoothness. I suspect it will wear through pretty quickly, but I'm kind of looking forward to it I'm thinking the rubbing that wears through the shellac will most likely polish the neck with finger oil instead, hopefully eventually creating that feel of old wooden handrails that have been worn smooth by hands touching them.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I've been using danish oil exclusively since the start and find that it is very well suited for solid body guitars where a natural sheen is most desirable. The factor to watch out for is the fact that it is a penetrating finish, not good for a 3-5mm instrument top, as it will soak into the wood a bit. You can get a danish oil finish to shine quite nicely though, or so I read. I forget how to do it specifically but it can be done. Made some pretty good headway once with some very very fine grit sandpaper a while back. Pretty much just burnished the surface.

Laurent, very nice purfs and rosettes!
The finish looks great as well.

Thanks!