Official Luthiers Forum!

my first acoustic was a Gibson made in the mid-'70s. It had the ladder bridging before the top collapsed at a place where they had sanded the top really thin. Too bad the quality issues of that era Gibson weren't widely known at the time I bought it. I was pretty upset about this whole episode, so I decided to rebuild it myself. I replaced the top, but I discovered that the finish was really thick, so I took it off. It was finished to look like Rosewood, but it actually had a mahogany body and maple neck. As you can imagine, the body didn't really match the neck all that well. I think I'll just go with the flow and dye both to match.

I have been trying to finish off a batch of old projects, and this is pretty old. The thing that's stopping me from finishing this is that I want to keep the face of the headstock the way it is, so I can't just use any old finish. I see that Gibson has used varnish, but as thick as this finish was I have always wondered if it was some kind of poly. It came off like plastic, seems like on some parts of the sides it was almost 1/10" thick.

Any words of wisdom on what this finish might be? I just watched the video of fill'n'finish, so if I use that I probably can match up the color without disturbing the headstock finish.

Been a long time since I've been on the forum, glad to see it's still around.

If it's a 70's Gibson it's Nitro Lacquer.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/