'62 Jazzmaster Type in Sherwood Green Metallic

Topics Covered

What Finishing Materials Do We Use?
How Do We Do it?
What Do We Paint?
How Long Will it Take?
Price Lists

What Finishing Materials Do We Use?

The heart and soul of our finishing is McFaddens nitrocellulose instrument lacquer. It is our only finishing material for top coats. We use Dupont Chromabase® for color coats. Sanding sealer, a high solid-by-volume combination of powder like sand and lacquer, is used as a base coat on woods like maple, alder and other close grained woods. Paste grain filler is applied to fill pores if it's an open grained wood, such as mahogany or swamp ash. When it's all done and the finish is cured, buffing is done with a variety of buffing pastes, liquids and polishes. All of these products are professional instrument-grade products from Luthiers' Mercantile.

How Do We Do it?

On bursts and other transparent or translucent finishes the first step is to stain the body. This step may be skipped on some guitars, depending on the effect desired. For all bodies, the next step is to apply several thin coats of sanding sealer, lightly sanding level between each coat. On fine grained, less porous woods, such as maple and alder, the sealer acts as a base coat to fill the small wood pores level in preparation for color and clear coats. On open grained woods, such as swamp ash and mahogany, we first shoot sanding sealer as a base or barrier layer, to seal the body, and then we apply grain filler paste. On open grained woods, sanding sealer keeps the grain filler of the next step from sinking into the grain so much. It makes leveling the finish easier. If required, the body will get one or more applications of a paste grain filler. On solid colors, we follow the sealer with a primer coat and lightly sand it level. Then we apply the color coat . On clear, translucent or transparent finishes, no primer or color coat is applied and a we shoot a coat of clear, followed by the burst color(s) (if it's going to be a burst) or shaded clear for tinted finishes. Then we spray a number of clear coats and the body is left to dry for about 18-21 days. Then we buff it out and we either start assembly of the guitar or ship it to you. The same process is used on necks.

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What Do We Paint ?

We offer finishing services for the guitar bodies and necks we build here, as well as new bodies and necks that you may provide. These cannot yet have been finished in any way. We do not accept bodies for stripping and painting. If you've stripped and prepped the body adequately, we'll paint it for you. The determination as to whether the body is ready to be finished is up to us.

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How Long will it take?

Painting is not an easy nor is it a fast process. It's slow at best. Compared to other finish types, which may be shot and out the paint shop door the same day, nitrocellulose finishes take much more prep work, more curing time, and more careful buff out than non-nitro finishes. The actual work time is the single biggest factor in the time it takes to get your item to you. Another factor is how much work we have already underway. Neck finishes will run a month under ideal conditions, body finishes from one to two months, depending on the complexity of the finish. Metallic finishes and bursts take longer than clear or solid colors. The time estimate we give you is tacked onto any time it takes to order and receive a neck or body. We always strive to give accurate time estimates, but please remember, these are only estimates. We don't compromise on quality. No item will be released until it's ready. When we're not too busy, we take pictures of the entire process and either post them to the web site so you can show them off, or send them to you directly.

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Price List

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Page last updated June 17, 2007

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