Foxbass
Member
Just found this site and reckon somebody here may be able to help me out.
I live in London UK and have owned a '91 black/maple/rosewood 5 for about 10yrs.
When it came to me it was exactly what I'd been looking for, albeit fairly battle worn. Put it this way, it looks like the previous guy took the term 'Axe' too literally! Clearly had never been placed in a stand on stage either.
Anyway, I put up with this until recently, when the neck needed a refinish. That's now really good again thanks to Birchwood Casey and lemon oil. Almost showroom.
Since then, I decided that the body was waaay overdue some TLC so I've stripped it back, not to the wood, but to the clear base coat. This was achieved quite simply with a sharp cabinet scraper and oxide paper in about 3hrs.
(Side note. I'm not worried about residuals as I intend to keep this baby.)
Problem is that in sanding it back to a smooth finish, I've gone through that base layer a little just on a few corners. This I know will not help the new paint job so it needs re-sealing.
So my question is, does anybody know what that clear coat is?
Acrylic Laquer?
Celulose?
Sanding sealer?
It seems quite thick and is very tough. The mentioned dents don't seem to have penetrated too far into the actual wood so I won't be getting too happy with the filler!
Second question is, I want to go for a custom paint job. It will only differ slightly from the original shiny black in that I'd like it to have a very subtle metalflake, sort of stars in the night sky effect. So what type of paint should my finisher use? (He is a luthier but is not familiar with MM finishes and doesn't want the new coat to attack that base)
Any help here would be deeply appreciated.
Fox
I live in London UK and have owned a '91 black/maple/rosewood 5 for about 10yrs.
When it came to me it was exactly what I'd been looking for, albeit fairly battle worn. Put it this way, it looks like the previous guy took the term 'Axe' too literally! Clearly had never been placed in a stand on stage either.
Anyway, I put up with this until recently, when the neck needed a refinish. That's now really good again thanks to Birchwood Casey and lemon oil. Almost showroom.
Since then, I decided that the body was waaay overdue some TLC so I've stripped it back, not to the wood, but to the clear base coat. This was achieved quite simply with a sharp cabinet scraper and oxide paper in about 3hrs.
(Side note. I'm not worried about residuals as I intend to keep this baby.)
Problem is that in sanding it back to a smooth finish, I've gone through that base layer a little just on a few corners. This I know will not help the new paint job so it needs re-sealing.
So my question is, does anybody know what that clear coat is?
Acrylic Laquer?
Celulose?
Sanding sealer?
It seems quite thick and is very tough. The mentioned dents don't seem to have penetrated too far into the actual wood so I won't be getting too happy with the filler!
Second question is, I want to go for a custom paint job. It will only differ slightly from the original shiny black in that I'd like it to have a very subtle metalflake, sort of stars in the night sky effect. So what type of paint should my finisher use? (He is a luthier but is not familiar with MM finishes and doesn't want the new coat to attack that base)
Any help here would be deeply appreciated.
Fox
