sand or not????

[TMatt142]

Ok this may be a really stupid and obvious question but I've gotta ask. Ok, I've painted the body of my guitar. I had a small run and a bit of orange peal, so I lightly sanded with 600grit so everything is nice and smooth, no imperfections. Is it time to shoot clear or do I need a smooth paint coat before the clear. I guess...Is it ok to clear over a dull finish?
I haven't seen any threads pertaining to this part of the process and this is my first painting project

[fookgub]

Depends... if it's a metallic color, you shouldn't sand it before clearing. If it's a solid or translucent color, you're ready to go.

[TMatt142]

sweet....nope, no metal flake in the paint...just a solid yellow.

[Out Of This Swirled]

pics would be nice matt. depending on how much paint you put on your guitar? running paint is maybe a sign you went a bit heavy? you might want to give the guitar and the paint time to know each other before you got wrapping it up in a clear. paint needs time to cure and depending on the paint, the conditions and the clear and the temp? i would leave it a bit first, rushing things now will not help in the long run. re sanding as long as the paint finish looks fine clearing over it wont be a problem but remember the guitars you see that the clear is like a slow running stream? they probably looked awesome when they were painted then quickly cleared, then sanded and they were mirror finish or close then the paint and the clear moved around because they hadnt had enough time to cure, then it looked crap. this happens a lot on cheap mass produced stuff. i hope this helps some and good luck to ya. post a couple of pics sometimes there worth a thousand words. HAGO

[jayeedublef]

Yes you are ready to put the clear on & you should be using nitrocelulouse lacquer clear which you can buy at Walmart, brandname Deftthane in the spray can, this is the same lacquer that most guitar manufactures use.
You can put as many coats on as you want (8-15 recomended) sand lightly between coats with 400 grit it dries fast, usually in about 30 minutes to the touch & for light sanding or wet sanding. When you are all done with the coats let it dry overnight & then you can wet sand with 400 till all the shinny spots are gone & all the orange peel or any runs are sanded down & dont sand to much off. then follow with 600 or 800 grit wet sanding to smooth out further, just enough to smooth it out. Then comes 1200 or 1500 wet sanding & finally use some 2000 grit for final wet sanding to get things really smooth.
Now you can polish with some car polish & a clean old sock form you drawer.
Just keep rubbing that polish on there til it shines like glass. This is time consuming but it is the least expensive & gives you a high quality finish if you don't have a guitar shop & polishing wheel in your garage! trust me I have used this procedure many times & one more thing it will take a couple of weeks for this to completely dry before you assemble the guitar. & before you assemble it the finish needs to be inspected for any imperfections that might need to be wet sanded & polished a final time. You probalby want to put your guitar back together rigth away but don't get in a hurry & the lacquer needs to dry thouroughly before you put it together, any guitar manufacture will tell you this, I know it is a pain in the ass to have to wait but you don't want to spend all that time & money to have your hardware ruining your finish before it is ready! Alrighty then.

[TMatt142]

Well, there's a ton of pic on some of the other threads "post pic of your 7's" etc..... I had planned on letting it cure a bit. I just wasn't quite sure how the pros did things before clear was applied. Here's a pic for ya.....

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...2/P2200049.jpg

[losgatosrg350dx]

nitrocellulose is a tone killer


if ur smart about it, no matter what paint you use, a nice coat of tung oil will always give the surface a hard nice easy sily playable surface!


thats my two cents, i use guitars with no finish whatsoever and just tung oil throughing, neck and body

love the tung oil
great for tone!

[Lefty Robb]

Originally Posted by losgatosrg350dx

nitrocellulose is a tone killer


if ur smart about it, no matter what paint you use, a nice coat of tung oil will always give the surface a hard nice easy sily playable surface!

LOL!!! Nobody puts Tung oil on a painted surface..

oh, and another LOL @ nitro comment..I bet Eric Johnson would disagree with you...and every other owner of a vintage strat (granted some were Acrylic and had that plastic stuff under the paint as well, which, if Nitro is a tone killer, this stuff should be worse, but it wasn't)

[losgatosrg350dx]

i dont wana argue with you but if u know what u are doing u can put a tung oil over paint, stain, etc...

but the fact is fact
any kind of solid based finish, like poly, nitro, shelac, even clearcoat over a stain....all those types of finishes, they all kill tone...some people like the sound it gives, but they are all tone killers


they make overtones and resonation inside of the body and the sound waves sometimes "bump" each other shelving the organic tones over with the higher bassy or trebbly frquencies


a true tung oil finish is the best tone you can get, the tone doesnt bounce withing hte finish, it actualy has little to no overtoning unlike any hard layered finish

[jb4674]

Originally Posted by losgatosrg350dx

i dont wana argue with you but if u know what u are doing u can put a tung oil over paint, stain, etc...

but the fact is fact
any kind of solid based finish, like poly, nitro, shelac, even clearcoat over a stain....all those types of finishes, they all kill tone...some people like the sound it gives, but they are all tone killers


they make overtones and resonation inside of the body and the sound waves sometimes "bump" each other shelving the organic tones over with the higher bassy or trebbly frquencies


a true tung oil finish is the best tone you can get, the tone doesnt bounce withing hte finish, it actualy has little to no overtoning unlike any hard layered finish

I'd like to know what book you grabbed that response from

Jimmy

[Lefty Robb]

You don't put tung oil on paint, period, its a penetrating oil thats meant to seal open grain wood.

[losgatosrg350dx]

you CAN put tung oil on paint or stain

yo dont just need to put on it on wood for sealer

tisk tixsk, looks like you havent tried a bunch of things before

and i dont need to pull out books to prove it, its a obvious thing knowing most hard and thick finished deture the organic tone guitars have

tung oil allows the tones to resonate organicly

if you dont understand how materials and finishes produce overtones, you should educate urse3lf somemore! but the facts are facts, and esspecially if u ask eric johnson, like anyone gives a damn, since he doesnt play that well, and his opinion on tone wouldnt be all that holly since the guitars he uses arent tone freak guitars

just strats

people mistake strats and teles for tone freak gjuitars, but they are not

just a standard all of the mill guitar

so go ask eric jhonson, hell tell you whatever he dreams about, but it wont make a solid finish anymore more tone worthy than tung oil

[jb4674]

Originally Posted by losgatosrg350dx

you CAN put tung oil on paint or stain

yo dont just need to put on it on wood for sealer

tisk tixsk, looks like you havent tried a bunch of things before

and i dont need to pull out books to prove it, its a obvious thing knowing most hard and thick finished deture the organic tone guitars have

tung oil allows the tones to resonate organicly

if you dont understand how materials and finishes produce overtones, you should educate urse3lf somemore! but the facts are facts, and esspecially if u ask eric johnson, like anyone gives a damn, since he doesnt play that well, and his opinion on tone wouldnt be all that holly since the guitars he uses arent tone freak guitars

just strats

people mistake strats and teles for tone freak gjuitars, but they are not

just a standard all of the mill guitar

so go ask eric jhonson, hell tell you whatever he dreams about, but it wont make a solid finish anymore more tone worthy than tung oil

You're either smoking some good earthy products or you're just a noob who thinks he has a clue as to what he's talking about.

The biggest giveaway of your immaturity and prepotence was how you chose to express yourself (yes, it's "yourself" not urs3lf).

Jimmy

[ryanb]

Originally Posted by losgatosrg350dx

i dont wana argue with you but if u know what u are doing u can put a tung oil over paint, stain, etc...

If you know what you are doing, you wouldn't try it because it is a pointless and stupid thing to do.

a true tung oil finish is the best tone you can get

Uh, no. The "best tone" does not exist because it is completely subjective. It might be the "best tone" to you, but that doesn't make it the best tone there is. Besides, if you really feel that way, you shouldn't even be using the tung oil because of all of the precious tone it is stealing from the bare wood.

If you don't like Strats or Eric Johnson's playing, that's your business. But for you to claim his tone sucks is just another demonstration of how confused your reality is.

Stop trying so hard to impress people with the knowledge you think you have.

[losgatosrg350dx]

when i say best tone, i mean the most unrestrictive organic tone available

....oh, and another LOL @ nitro comment..I bet Eric Johnson would disagree with you...and every other owner of a vintage strat (granted some were Acrylic and had that plastic stuff under the paint as well, which, if Nitro is a tone killer, this stuff should be worse, but it wasn't)



but you make the mistake as to catagorize me like you did
playing unfinished wood is grrrrreat, but ****ing makes the **** gunk up and warps and absorbs moisture and ends up cracking, i have had tons of warmoth neck and bodies i had that only lasted like 3 years and were not finished

later i used what carvin uses
and i love it
i use minwax tun oil/it is a mix of pure chinese tung oil and spirit solution

the spirit soliton gets into the main pores and takes some tung with it but mostly dries very fast and hardens the surface, but just a small shell, unlike the thick coating of nitro or practicaly and finish, even like some guitars are painted with automotive paint


tung oil single handedly, if aplied right can resist anyting, sweat, acidic chemicals, ancohol, spirit, water, etc...once that stuff dries and is aplied corectly and finised corectly, you can get a superioir finish, i have pictures to show ypou what i mean

this guitar has a clean crisp tone, no overtones, im put my ear on this thing when i played it, and i put my ear on a a strat andeven on a jackson, even a gibson

and the tones do relate specificaly to the finishes too, some guitars sound a certain way that makes them have those characteristics, but there IS a way to get the best tone....and thats organic, un characterised, crisp clean tone

this also lets u hear the true clarity of pickups

tun oil rocx, its a true guitar finish

but thats my two cents

<img src=http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c143/confederatewk/bod1.jpg>

<img src=http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c143/confederatewk/neck1.jpg>