After completing the bridge and before attaching it to the guitar body, the next step is applying the finish to the guitar. The bridge location is critical to the sound and pitch of the guitar and must be established and marked very carefully. As I have stated several times in this blog I have used numerous sources, plans and information from several books in the building of this guitar. I have also stated that sometimes this has been my biggest problem, trying to decide which information or plan to go with. One choice early in the process doesn't agree with future choices made down the line from different sources. This is becoming more of the norm the closer I get to finishing the guitar. This was definitely the case with the bridge placement. All of my books and online sources agreed that placement was critical but they were all slightly different in their method of figuring the placement. At first all my research indicated a simple mathematical solution. The bridge placement is double the length from the nut to the twelfth fret. On further research I found that there was an additional amount added to compensate for the different string thicknesses. This is the part that seems to vary greatly. I finally decided to go with 1/16th of an inch compensation and I hope that works. We will find out when the guitar is finished and strung. If it plays in tune I guess I got lucky. All of this makes my head hurt. . . so I'm going to move on and mark the bridge position on the guitar body and mask it off. This is necessary so there will be no lacquer finish on the body when I finally glue the bridge in position. The other area of the guitar that needs to be masked is the finger board and frets. The sound hole also needs to be masked so no finish gets inside the body.
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| Masked bridge location. |
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| Masked finger board. |
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| Masked nut slot. |
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| Masked sound hole |
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| Guitar ready for finish. |
Once all the necessary areas were masked I was ready to start spraying the finish. I decided to go with a traditional sprayed nitrocellulose lacquer finish. I had some experience with this on other furniture projects and was more comfortable with it rather than trying a completely new process like french polish, a shellac process or the newer waterbased lacquer products. I decided to go with Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer because it was available in quart containers rather than gallon containers and I only needed about one quart, making it more economical and it was specifically made for instruments. I ordered it and the necessary Behlen Vinyl Sealer online and received it in 2 days. I later found that I could have purchased it locally at Woodcraft. I called them to see if they had it and was told they did not, only to find it myself when I was in the store later, oh well next time. I started by spraying two light coats of vinyl sealer sanding lightly between coats. After the sealer dried overnight I sanded again with 320 grit wet dry paper and a little water. I was surprised at how hard the sealer was. I have found most sealers are very soft and easy to sand, this was not the case with this product. I found it necessary to use water to keep the paper from clogging up. I then moved on to the final finish lacquer. The Behlen company recommends using this product without thinning but I felt it was a little thick straight from the can so I thinned it with 1/3 standard lacquer thinner. This seemed to spray well and flatten out nicely for me. I sprayed two coats a day then sanded the next day and started all over again. I worked from 320 grit on the first day then moved to 400 for the next three days and finally 800 for the last two days. In all a little over 10 coats with light sanding between coats. During this process there were a few specs that needed more attention. I used straight lacquer from the can and a tiny art spotting brush to apply extra lacquer to these spots. I allowed them to thoroughly dry and sanded and scraped them smooth. The thicker lacquer acted like a filler and worked nicely. Overall because of the tight grain of the maple I did not have to use any filler on the body. As mentioned in an earlier post I did use a thick CA glue as a grain filler on the head inlay.
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| First coat of finish makes a big difference in the tone and grain. |
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| First coat on the back. |
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| Spraying finish. |
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| Spraying. |
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| More spraying. |
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| Top after two coats, 8 more to go! |
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| Wow, flamed sides look great! |
After approximately 12 coats, I decided to stop. The finish now must thoroughly dry before polishing it to a mirror finish. I am going to let it set for at least 20 days before I start the polishing process. I am extremely pleased with the way it looks now! I am getting really close to finishing but there are still some critical steps remaining. I have to attach the bridge and make the saddle and the nut before I can string it up but my dream is in sight and I couldn't be more excited.
