Can you french polish a guitar?

The short simple answer is no. The common misconception is that french polish is the best finish acoustically especially for classical guitars. It may have been 50 years or more ago but not now. A French polished finish will also dull over a surprisingly short time and need a touch up.

What is sunburst color?

Sunburst color is primarily a color from Yellow color family. It is a mixture of orange and brown color.

Can french polish be sprayed?

Re: Spraying French Polish Shellac based french polish does not spray well at all. What you are probably seeing is cellulose laquer (for wood) It is usually finished by hand with a polishing wad and “pullover” . There are even more modern finishes that should really be banned for antiques.

What kind of paint do you use on a guitar?

If you plan on painting your guitar with a solid color, find yourself a paint that’s durable, such as a paint with nitrocellulose or polyurethane. Nitrocellulose is the best decision for you to make and can be found at car part stores or online, but the biggest downside to this paint is that takes a long while to dry.

What alcohol do you use in French polish?

Traditionally luthiers have used denatured alcohol, nondenatured ethanol, and mineral spirit blends as the spirit base for dissolving shellac for french polishing.

What oil do you use for French polish?

The final essential component in the formula for a beautiful and durable French polish finish is oil. French polishers use many different oils, but the most commonly used oil, based on my experience, is olive oil. The second would be mineral oil, followed by walnut oil.

What is a sunburst chart?

The sunburst chart is ideal for displaying hierarchical data. Each level of the hierarchy is represented by one ring or circle with the innermost circle as the top of the hierarchy. A sunburst chart without any hierarchical data (one level of categories), looks similar to a doughnut chart.

Who invented the sunburst finish?

It was created when LLoyd Loar, the acoustics genius at Gibson in the early ’20s, came in drunk one morning, and puked all over a mandolin he was building. This was the famous F-5 that was to wind up belonging to Bill Monroe, a teetotaler, who scraped the “sunburst” finish off, after he found out how it got there.

Is French polishing expensive?

In most cases wooden furniture can be very expensive to replace, the most cost-effective way can be to get your wooden furniture French polished as it can be cheaper than buying new furniture.

Is French polishing difficult?

French polishing is a method of applying shellac to a surface to create an almost perfect high-gloss finish film that has great depth. Though it takes practice to master, the procedure is easy to describe.

How to apply a sunburst finish to a Les Paul guitar?

First, we are going to bring out the natural wood grain which works a treat on flamed maple which is what the typical Les Paul clone will have on its top surface. Essentially we are going to apply a dark base coat stain, work it into the timber and then sand back the surface leaving the wood grain highlighted.

What do you call a sunburst guitar finish?

In most cases, we refer to a sunburst finish as a finish that features graduating color from the edge of the guitar to the center and that is how we will reference a sunburst finish for the duration of this article but technically there are a number of ‘burst’ variations you can try.

Can you use a sunburst finish on a violin?

Originally conceived to imitate an aged French polish finish (as seen on vintage violins) the sunburst finish is quite achievable if you follow the steps outlined below. I refer to sunburst in this article but in reality, there are a number of ‘burst’ finishes which loosely go by the term ‘sunburst’ such as:

Which is the best finish for a guitar?

It’s a question I get asked all the time – is French polish the best finish for guitars. The short simple answer is no. The common misconception is that french polish is the best finish acoustically especially for classical guitars. It may have been 50 years or more ago but not now.