Tip before shooting a guitar

[frets]

Hi Guys😸😸😸

I’m getting ready to shoot a body and I thought I’d share this tip.

After your done sanding and you’re ready to shoot, you want to get all the residual dust off of the guitar. After you’re done wiping it down, take a lint roller and very gently go over the surface of the guitar. Do not apply any pressure, just very lightly roll a couple of inches, move and roll again, etc. If you do it extremely lightly, it does not leave a residue. I’m talking barely touching the guitar.

You’ll be amazed in the tiny particles that were missed by wiping it down. Then you’re ready for your paint and clear coat😸.

[thetragichero]

compressed air works quite nicely as well. i usually spray it off with the air compressor and then wipe down with denatured alcohol

[frets]

Trag,

compressed air is a superior method if you have it.

[roadtonever]

I was getting ready to share my product photography knowledge...

[frets]

Trag,

Do you shoot with the body hanging or on the flat?

I use an old neck, bolt it on, and shoot while holding the guitar and then lay it flat to dry.  Of course, just one side at a time:D

[thetragichero]

i used waterbased poly and spray pretty thick coats so i found doing a side at a time works best for my heavy hand. somebody with better technique/a better spray gun could probably do a lot better hanging and sharing the entire body at once. that being said, it is much less humid up here in the mountains than it was in florida so once i get around to finishing bodies again I'm sure I'll have to alter my technique, although i assume it'll be a lot easier (i could never spray in the summertime because moving from the porch to the house the newly-painted guitar would mist up

[frets]

I shoot Nitro when using a gun. When rattle canning it, I use high gloss epoxy spray.

[b4nj0]

Tack cloth. It works a treat. It feels very slightly sticky but it's not sticky if you see what I mean. I don't know what it's called over your side. I learned that trick from the paint shop in the (loosely) aerospace interiors manufactory when I was still working. Compressed airline blowers were banned and in any event what comes up goes down and dust is no exception. If I put down a coffee in that place, within two minutes several dust motes would settle on the surface of the beverage, and yet we still drank it! So far as shooting goes, I suspend the body or neck in my garden shed on a bit of cord so I can rotate it readily and have at it with a rattle can. It's far from ideal and I've had to learn to include dust in the process, but I get results that match my tempered expectations with so little equipment. The last thing I did was rattle can a nitro finish, first tinted and then plain on a Warmoth neck. Warmoth absolve themselves of any warranty unless the part is finished, and last I knew they wouldn't accept an oiled finish either.

でつ e&oe ...

[stevewf]

Jul 2, 2022 12:53:26 GMT -5 roadtonever said:

I was getting ready to share my product photography knowledge...

Please do! Maybe in another thread?

[Edit] or maybe it's about putting a guitar in a canon like this? [/Edit]

[thetragichero]

Jul 2, 2022 12:53:26 GMT -5 roadtonever said:

I was getting ready to share my product photography knowledge...

isn't frets in florida? (or just a bucs fan?)
in that case it would be just as likely talking about pumping a guitar full of lead, for whatever reason (especially for the 4-6 days around july 4th where at least melbourne, fl sounded like a friggin war zone until the neighbors ran out of fireworks/bullets)

[frets]

North Carolina

[cynical1]

I always used a tack rag prior to spraying. Wiping down with denatured alcohol is a good final step after the tack rag to get dirt or impurities from handling off of the surface prior to spraying. Honestly, you're going to be sanding like a mad woman after it dries anyway, so don't obsesses on this step.  One pass with each is sufficient.

I always preferred lacquer. The best thing is that each coat of lacquer melts into the previous one. This makes repairs easier later. Don't get hung up on nitrocellulose lacquer. The reason lacquer was used on cars, furniture and guitars was purely cost...nitrocellulose being the cheapest of the cheap. Varnishes and epoxies hold up much better, but when breathing\air quality is not an issue, cheap is the mantra and you want it to shine like mirror, then accept no substitute. Nothing shines like lacquer.

Rattle can or compressor\gun makes little difference. Using a gun gets more involved as you need to thin your lacquer as a rule, and watch your pressure. Use the paint companies pressure settings, or just refer to references for spraying auto lacquer. You can avoid this by using a rattle can. I always liked the old Dupli-Color touch-up. For clear, I always had good luck with Cabot clear lacquer.

Either way, technique will determine how hard you work after spraying... I always preferred multiple thin coats with lacquer. You got a better head rush from the acetone or butyl acetate solvent...and it runs less. I never sprayed with an open door or outside. Bugs, if they land while the finish is wet is typically a respray. I always hung plastic drop cloths to make a temporary shield around the guitar.  If you care about brain cells or your lungs, wear a mask designed to handle all the nasty VOCs that go airborne.

As far as how to position the guitar, I have a few "holders" I keep around. It's just a block of wood that fits in the neck pocket with a long stick screwed to it. Screw the block into the body like a neck, put the stick from the holder on an inverted garbage can with a sand bag on it and you have the cheapest adjustable platform to spray a guitar body. Just turn the stick for front and back. I don't spray necks, I wipe them, but that's another post...

Now to the part of painting guitars that gets no press. Sanding and polishing. But first, a caveat. Any hard finish you apply to a guitar has to cure\dry completely prior to sanding and polishing. Typically on varnishes it's about 15 days. Lacquer is around 30 days. The rule of thumb is, if you can stick your nose on it smell no solvents then you're ready to polish it out.

Lacquer dries very thin, so sanding is an exercise in restraint. Typically, I start with 600 grit. It doesn't cut as well as 400 grit, but it leaves fewer sanding lines and makes it harder to sand through the lacquer, especially on the sides and corners. From there I go through several grits until I reach 2000 grit. Change your water for the sandpaper frequently.  Make sure all of your sanding lines are gone before moving to the next grit. After that I do two passes with rubbing compound, polishing compound and swirl remover. I always preferred Meguiar's line, but they all do the same thing.

And feel free to toss some car wax on there at the end.

Hope this wasn't too verbose and offers some insights.  Any questions...you know what you have to do.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[frets]

This was great Cynical. Covered all the bases. I am building a turntable with a 3” block of wood in the middle of the plywood for a shooting platform. I’m hoping this will ease the shooting process. I did use this high gloss epoxy for this one recent build given a fellow luthier recommended the mix, but I’ll never use it again. The gloss is great, it’s the particles that one has to sand out between shoots that is a pain. And I’m not holding the sprayer too far from the body. I’m going back to nitro for my next body build. Thanks for posting this very comprehensive methodology.

[newey]

cynical1 knows whereof he speaks. I will only add that there is a middle ground between the rattlecan and a full-on airbrush/sprayer rig. It's called the Preval Sprayer. I haven't tried this yet, I've only used rattle cans, but others here over the years have reported good results with these. The advantage over the rattle cans is that you can used pretty much any product you wish, and in colors other than what the rattle can offers.

But for my next project I'm definitely going this route. I can't justify an air compressor, etc, but this is an option for the amount of times I paint a guitar (which is not very often)..

[reTrEaD]

Jul 2, 2022 11:20:17 GMT -5 frets said:

Tip before shooting a guitar

Always offer a cigarette and blindfold. It's the civilized thing to do.

Seriously though, surface prep is extremely important. Lots of good info in this thread.