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I've narrowed it down to two options.

1.) Lacquer guitar finish with z-poxy finish
Pros:
I am currently in possession of everything needing to do a Lacquer finish.
Lasting duriable finish
Easier than the French Polish

Cons:
If I put the finish on two think, it will kill the sound

2.) French Polish
Pros:
Looks great
Sounds great

Cons:
Need to buy stuff.
Also, need to learn how to do it.

Any suggestions? Opinions I also thought briefly about an oil finish. I do a lot of oil finish on my furniture builds, but picturing those finishes on a guitar... it doesn't work in my head.

That's a pretty slim, single con for the lacquer finish - millions of great sounding guitars out their with a lacquer finish and the pros seem to outweigh the cons. Is it your last guitar? If not go either way and learn a new skill no matter the finish.

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Thank You and Best To All

You have to put a lot of lacquer on to get it too thick, There is lots of information available on both methods. Lacquer is a bit more durable and if done well they both look real good.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Try the liquid hard shellac diluted with 100% DAA. You can spray it on. Drys almost immediately and hardens besutifully in 20 days via a polymer additive. Literally designed for musical instruments. It's from down under but available in US. Brand is called Ubeaut I believe.

Do you have first hand experience with the Ubeaut product? I have heard some not so nice things about it but none from the first person.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I know the guy who "invented" it and licensed it to Ubeaut. The original formulation had a plasticising agent in it, which Ubeaut, in their wisdom, wanted out. That resulted in finishes crazing as they hardened. So, in their wisdom, Ubeaut put it the plasticiser back in, and now, apparently, everything is fine. I haven't used the Ubeaut stuff, preferring to get mine straight from the "inventor" who lives a few suburbs away. It works brilliantly. I originally tested it out on a kitchen bench, which is still going strong ~10 years later, which is pretty good for FP on a kitchen bench. Most of the guitars pictured on my website have tops FP'd with this product. Never a problem for me. I'd say it wears at least as well as nitro and quite a lot harder than your typical shellac. I've never tried spraying it. I want to call my finishes French polished rather than shellacked.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

I have a good friend who is a fine classical builder, here in NC, and he is using Ubeaut. He likes it a lot. He sprays several coats for the spit coat before beginning the FP process. He said it gives him a much better base and keeps things from going splotchy. He did say that he has to be very careful when spraying as the solvent is some bad stuff vs local alcohols, and if he breathes any of it he has problems for days. He is also very careful, when using it for FP, to have good ventilation.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks, good to know. I will still use buttons for all my FP though, that stuff is tough.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I French Polished a classical guitar with ubeaut (the second formula) a couple of years ago. It acted like shellac through the process. I diluted 50% with DA. Also I used almost no oil through the whole process. The finish still looks good.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com