Ok to add more clear coats?

Hey Sully I have a question here about clear coating, I built a guitar from scratch just recently and I’m just waiting for the bridge to arrive in the mail. I put on about 8 coats of clear coat, now here’s my question;  if I don’t think it’s clear coated(shiny) enough, could I just take the neck and pickup out and put on a few more layers? Or should I sand it down lightly first with like an 800 grit sandpaper?

Hey there,

The gloss of a finish comes to life after wet sanding it flat and then buffing it to its final shine. If you shot it with lacquer, the general rule is to have around 9 coats on there at minimum (three coats of clear shot three hours apart for three days).  So if you shot lacquer, you can reshoot it and the lacquer will melt into what’s on there now (If you shot a catalyzed, two part urethane clear, they don’t melt into each other). If you decide to add some more coats, you can scuff sand it with 600 and reshoot. The other thing I’d like to point out, assuming you shot lacquer, is to give it at least 4-6 weeks of curing time before you think of wet sanding and buffing it out. Fight all urges to complete it, and give it the time it needs to cure. It may look like you’ve got a ton of clear on it right now, but the finish will gas off over time and shrink. While it might look great the next day, if one was to sand and buff it out and move to assembly, it wouldn’t be uncommon for what’s left of the clear to sink into the wood. When it stops smelling like paint, you’re usually okay to start sanding and buffing.

Satin finish -> Gloss finish?

Hello, can you please give me some advice on making a satin finish form 100% shiny finish. I´d like that on one of my guitars. Tried to carefuly sand the back side a bit with very soft grit, and it is quite good. But you can see some patterns here and there cause my hand pressure isnt the same all the time. Do you have any other way how to do this? Cause I want the front side to look good.

 There is an agent added to the clear coat that gives it the satin finish, so while you can buff it out to a shine, it won’t be quite as shiny as a gloss finish. If you have sanded the finish, make sure you’re using a sanding block and let the sandpaper do the work; although if it was a factory satin finish, you probably could have just buffed it to a shine. 

Z-poxy on Alder?

Big fan of your work, thanks for sharing so much. Have yet another z-poxy question, as I am getting all sorts of different answers on the google. I am finishing a guitar for the first time, was planning on white primer then lake placid blue then clear, all laquer. It is an alder body. Can I use z-poxy as both filler and sealer, then spray my laquer? Some people claim adhesion issues, others not. I have also attempted to turn the guitar blue by pure force of will, but staring at it really hard has also not worked...

So here's the good news; Alder does not require grain filling. That means no Z-Poxy needed. Sand it to 320, shoot your sealer, then your primer (even though they kinda achieve the same thing), then color and clear. 

Now exhale.  It's gonna be okay.

New videos?

Sully, more videos coming soon????

Good question! I’ve tried to write a brief answer for you, but clearly you already know my penchant for yammering on. So with that in mind…..

The videos have been a lot of fun to do, but while I’ve been filming these things and sharing over the years, my main purpose has been to get a guitar company established. I noticed when I did those two fretting videos that it killed an entire weekend. That was kind of an eye opener. Shooting all of it, trying to sound relatively coherent, trying to make it somewhat entertaining, and editing it all later takes a lot of time; time that quite frankly, needs to be spent on completing customer orders. Since I don’t build guitars full time, I have very limited time available, and I need to spend it more wisely.

I’ve been meaning to do a brief update of what I’ve been doing, and will probably get around to it, but I don’t foresee more than a couple of quick hits here and there over the next few months, and possibly going forward. I hate saying that, because let’s face it, those videos have helped me a lot and I’m super aware of that. I’m happy that anyone finds them useful or at least mildly entertaining, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. On the other hand, I’ve stopped accepting any new guitar builds at least until October of this year so that I can finish the orders that I have now, and complete a couple more prototypes. Thankfully. I’ve got some things in place to add some automation, so hopefully I won’t need to stop taking orders for long periods of time in the future.

Runs in the clear

Hey Sully. I need to ask you some advice. I bought an old Washburn electric guitar about a month ago and sanded it down, sprayed the wood primer, two cans of color and now I'm busy spraying the clear coat. I placed the first can in a bit of warm water like on your one video and then started to spray. There are 3 places on the guitar where the paint started to run. Also the finish feels a bit rough like 1200 grit sand paper which I think is because I'm holding the spray can too far away.

Would I be able to sand out the 3 paint runs? I've finished the first can of clear paint and I have another can.

If you’re shooting lacquer from a spray can, don’t worry about the clear coat runs just yet; keep shooting the clear. The lacquer will melt into each other, and you can level sand it out when you’ve got all your clear on there. If it’s rough in certain areas, yes, you’re most likely too far away and the clear is drying in the air before it hits the body. Also, when it comes to using spray cans, use about 2/3 of them; the last bit is mostly solvent, and they’ll tend to spit and sputter when you’re running low. 

Uh oh...I needed grain filler?!?!

Dude! I need your advice! I made a stupid amateur mistake when I was painting my guitar ( the wood is mahogany) and I started finishing it without knowing that it needed grain filler. The black wood stain and the clear coats have sunk into the grain and I don't know what to do! Is it ruined? Is it salvageable? or what? I've searched all over the internet and I couldn't find any advice on this problem...please give me advice on what to do! :/

 The way I see it, you have two options; redo it or live with it. If it’s any consolation (and I’m guessing that it isn’t), Gibson has done plenty of guitars with no grain filler, so while the result that you got may not be ideal, you can always tell others that you enjoy seeing the pores of the wood; gives you that earthy, natural feel.

In all seriousness, check out www.reranch.com and read their refinishing 101. Lots of great info there about painting your own guitar. Finally, don’t beat yourself up about it; you completed a project (painting your guitar) and learned something from it! That, to me, is a success of some kind. Granted, it’s always better to have someone around to catch you before you’re about to make a mistake, but it’s a process, man. We’re always learning. 

Transparent finish over Z-Poxy?

I am currently making a guitar, and I am just starting body work, I want to map everything out first though. I know you must have been asked this a million times, but I will sand the finished body, put on z-poxy, sand that (repeat), then for a reddish finish (similar to that of a cherry SG) I will mix that in with the clear as it won't stick to the z-poxy? What would I use to tint the clear!? I'm completely in the dark when it comes to this and suggestions from anyone would be appreciated! Tanks 

Shoot a thin layer of intercoat clear over the zpoxy (or just use clear if you’re shooing lacquer) so that you have a barrier between that and your finish (in case you have to sand back your color coats) Get your hands on some trans tint (stewmac, lmi, woodcraft, etc) and mix that into your clear. When you get the desired shade, shoot it. Then finish it off with your clear topcoats. 

How do I paint my guitar?

Dear Sully sir, I'm going to change the paint of my guitar, also I've seen your video how to do it. My question is, my guitar is already bare naked to the wood; do I need a primer first, or go straight spray it with nitrocellulose? Also when do I have to apply the nitrocellulose clear can you guide me thru it please? I'd really appreciate it thank you..

There's a lot to cover with this. My recommendation is to research as much about finishing as you can before going any further with your project. In a nutshell, one would sand to 320, apply a sealer, shoot color, then clear (while sanding between sealer + color). A great book I'm happy to recommend is Dan Erlewine's Guitar Finishing Step by Step and go to Reranch and read Reranch 101. Finally, before you start painting your guitar, go to a hardware store and get yourself some inexpensive wood; use that for your practice work. Paint work is one of, if not the most challenging part of guitar building; there's a lot that can go wrong on you.