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One year ago I delivered the second guitar that I've built to a friend of mine. He loves the guitar. At first, he was attracted to the idea of just having a small-bodied guitar, finished french polish. It's an all mahogany 00. I think he thought he'd just have the guitar, and play it sometimes. But what wound up happening, is he began using it on EVERYTHING. And this included playing outside in the sun, all night on somebody's porch with condensation dripping off of it in the KY summers, a few beer spills here and there, etc. He also takes it to jam sessions, where when he might switch to mando or fiddle, then someone else in the room will clamor for it. And to compound the situation, the guy and his wife will actually argue over who gets to play it next. Someone has almost constantly been playing this guitar for a year. It's quite a compliment, but the guitar looks real rough now. Anyone that would see it, and know that I built it, ...their first thought is going to be that I'm a terrible finisher, and that it looks like crap.

So I talked him into letting me take it back to see if I could do something with it to help protect it a little better. I will post some pics tonight.

Should I strip it and spray it? Should I smooth out the shellac and spray or wipe something over that? Just wondering if anyone has experience with a similar situation and can make a recommendation.

If I touch up the surface, the guitar is just going to need to have it done again, and probably every 3 months, the way it is going.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

I have a very similar experience, my second is a year old with some weak FP and I have been the one playing the heck out of it. I was staring at it a few hours ago thinking about how to make it look better. So I'll be waiting with you for answers.
Rob

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You could sand the french polish down to where it was like a shellac sealer coat, then apply a more durable finish on top like nitrocellulose lacquer.

This is bound to spur some controversy among the purists, and someone will inevitably object because they fear it will rob tone, but here goes.

I recommend anything with a shellac only finish, especially guitars, be polished with a traditional wax furniture polish. I like Butchers Boston Polish myself, but any high quality furniture paste wax will do. Do not use wax for floors or bowling lanes as these are too soft, furniture polish is hard. In fact most contain shellac wax from the dewaxing of shellac. If you use regular waxed shellac rather than the dewaxed, the wax polish will really, really bond to the finish and almost amalgamate. This provides a wear layer, offering protection from sweat, beer spills, and the like. It also will take on the scuffs, abrasions and minor dings of use, protecting the actual finish beneath. As you have seen, shellac without any protection will wear away very quickly and damage relatively easy, this will make your finishes last and I think the patina it adds actually makes them look better and better as time goes on. I put 4-5 coats of wax on a new finish over a couple of days about 2 weeks after it's done, after that I re-apply a coat only as needed. On my guitars it's every time I change strings. And I have noticed no bad effects on tone or sustain. So to answer your original question, I would re-build the finish with more FP and then wax and buff. Instruct the player to re-apply as needed and see how that does. By the way, I think guitars that show the wear of being played real hard are a compliment to the maker. Don't believe me, Look at Willie Nelsons guitar.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

It was made to be played, wasn't it?
Sounds like mission accomplished to me.
If the client likes it, leave it alone.

Besides, if beauty made a guitar play nice and sound nice, a Steinberger wouldn't even tune up.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That's awesome No better complement to a guitar than playing it. Looking forward to the pics, I've always been curious exactly what a well worn FP looks like.

Interesting idea with the wax layer, Brian. I'll have to declare one of mine a guinea pig and try that. Seems like a bit of a tradeoff, as it does prevent rebuilding of the shellac itself. But since the wax is so much easier to reapply, it might be worth it. Do you coat the whole guitar every time you change strings, or only the neck and main contact areas of the body? How does the wax feel on the neck, compared to bare shellac?

Also might be a good opportunity to try out that u-beaut hard shellac and see how it holds up. But maybe not, since it would be annoying to the owner if it turns out to not hold up so well and needs another refinishing.

The nice thing about a French Polish finish is that you just clean it, possibly sand down the rough spots a little, and then just do some more French Polishing. It's the most repairable of basic finishes. You can almost think of it as touch-up work. Just have another go at it.

I've been begging the guy who has my first French Polished guitar to let me have it back just because my technique is basically acceptable now, and wasn't then. (problem is it's a long way from Florida to Delaware). A few days of attention and I'd probably be happy with it.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

+1 Like well-worn bluejeans.

What Chris said.
Look at Willie Nelsons "Trigger"?
People that pay a lot for a custom made guitar take good care of them.
Kinda like paying for Ray Bans, instead of 5 dollar sunglasses.
Did you get paid a decent amount for that axe?

thanks for the responses everyone. The thing about it, (and I didn't do a good job of making this clear) is that it doesn't look like normal wear. it looks like crummy finish. There are open pores in much of the finish, and it looks in places as if the finish has come off or even a little like fabric has been pressed into it. also, on the upper bout, it has bumps on it, that appeared somehow. dude is all for repairing the finish and making it more durable. I probably will over spray it with something like nitro.

BEFORE:

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Per chance you want something tougher than lacquer you might consider KTM-SV (water based spar varnish which is a type of urethane).

Will you need to pore fill?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

That's all? Beauty marks, I say

Is the neck (easily) removable? If so, take it off, sand it down and send it to Joe White..

That's what I'd do.

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Jim Hansen

[quote="DennisK"]

Interesting idea with the wax layer, Brian. I'll have to declare one of mine a guinea pig and try that. Seems like a bit of a tradeoff, as it does prevent rebuilding of the shellac itself. But since the wax is so much easier to reapply, it might be worth it. Do you coat the whole guitar every time you change strings, or only the neck and main contact areas of the body? How does the wax feel on the neck, compared to bare shellac?

[quote]

The finish can be re-done quite easily, just clean off the wax layer with a rag and some naphtha, it comes right off. Takes a little elbow grease, but you should be thoroughly cleaning an instrument before any refinish any way as a lot of modern polishes contain silicones and waxes also. During playing, in between string changes, the marks left by your arm across the lower bout, scuffs on the back etc. will buff right out with no additional wax. If they don't, apply a little more wax in those areas and buff. When I change strings I clean and re-wax the whole guitar, with the exception of the fretboard. When I say clean, i do not mean strip the wax with naphtha but clean any dirt off with a lightly dampened rag and dry immediately. I wax the bridge myself, it gives it a nice warm polished look, but you may not want to apply wax there yourself. As for the feel on the neck, as long as the wax was left to dry and then buffed off vigorously it feels as slick and hard as shellac or lacquer.If it feels a little tacky you didn't let the wax dry long enough or didn't buff hard enough, I use the shoe shine method to buff the neck. One word of caution, it takes a good bit of pressure to buff the wax out so use due care on the top and back.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Maybe I'm looking at the picture wrong, or not close enough, but what I see looks like belt buckle wear, or shirt sleeve button wear.

It was hard for me, for a while to see one of my guitars beat up.........but.......my personal 57 year old Martin is beat all to heck, and the finish is all cracked and crazed. This won't keep anyone from buying a Martin. As long as you don't become complacent, and turn into a factory, each guitar you build with be better, in some way than your last. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to go back and re do all of your older ones , to be as good as your latest.

I've got a client who plays out several times a week. He loved the burst on his guitar, and decided he didn't want a pickguard. After a year or so he had a pinky/fingernail scratch worn all the way through the dark burst, into the spruce. He wanted me to fix it, and didn't care what it cost. I sealed the bare spruce with a little Varnish, and put a black pickguard on it. That was alot easier than re finishing the top, once a year. LOL

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