Official Luthiers Forum!

I have been working on my first scratch build(an electric) for over a year now. It's complete except for pickups, electronics, tailpiece and control knobs. I have it sitting on the guitar stand in my music room while I wait on the funds to finish it. I admire it and pick it up from time to time(hey, it's my first, and I'm proud of it, warts and all). Today I noticed on the back of the neck there are two spots where the finish is kind of wrinkled, right where it rests against the neck rest of my stand.
I have heard and read in Martin's material that comes with a new guitar that nitrocellulose can react with some materials used on some stands, and I'm fairly sure this is what i'm seeing. However, the finish is acrylic laquer, namely old formula Krylon(before they moved to enamel they were an acrylic lacquer) with clear Duplicolor acrylic lacquer as a top coat.
Has anyone heard or experienced finish compatability issues with stands using acrylic lacquer or other products besides nitro?
Also, in your experience, can I expect this spot to grow, or can I sand it smooth with 2000 grit and buff it out with no worries? I have wrapped the parts of the stand the guitsr will come in contact with using cotton cloth from an old sheet, so I don't think I need to worry about continued damage from this. Any thoughts/experiences?

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Mike,

Nitro and acrylic aren't all that different, so I'd expect that anything that would affect nitro would also affect acrylic. I've sprayed nitro over acrylic lots and the two are very compatible. I'm sure on paper there are lots of differences, but in reality they are both lacquers and I've found no problems spraying one over or under the other.

I'm sure you'll be able to sand the area smooth and buff it out without any adverse problems, at the worst you may have to shoot more clear to protect from sand throughs, if your finish is very thin.

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Thanks, Cal. Yeah, my finish is kinda thin, but i think i'm gonna give it a shot. Thanks again.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

i primed a solid bod with nitro, and shot acrylic lacquer over that,
after coat 12(?), it alligatored, radically.
re-did from square 1 .
went with ac lac primer the second time around.

I just pulled an acrylic lacquered guitar off its wall hanger yesterday, to find it had stuck to a pvc extention cord behind it. fortunately not too much damage. So yes it is vulnerable to the same situations as nitro.
It is my understanding that you can shoot nitro over acrylic but not the other way round.

Ouch!. Yeah, i have a strat style that was done in acrylic lacquer, but I top coated with a clearcoat that just said "lacquer". Wasn't certain what kind. It looked great for about a month, then the finish started crazing like when lacquer cold-checks. Definately the two were not compatible.

Jeff, sorry to hear that. I buffed part of it with 0000 steel wool earlier, followed with buffing compound, and got most of it smoothed out. I'll finish up tomorrow, if all goes as planned. I'm wondering though if the problem is more of a soft finish instead of a reaction. Those parts of the guitar affected were where the weight of the guitar was concentrated(found two more spots at the butt of the guitar where the guitar rests in the bottom cradle as well). The finish is about a month old, and feels sufficiently hard, but it's got me wondering. i have laid freshly finished guitars in cases before and found it left an imprint from the plush lining of the case. But what do you do about stuff like that? You've gotta put the thing somewhere, and parts of it are going to rest on something. Ah, the wonderful world of guitar building.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

This finish is over 6 months old
It's the plasticisers in vinyl and some rubbers that soften the finish