Sanding sealer required on Maple?

[OscarG]

I'm getting ready to finish a guitar build, the body is ash which I've started spraying with a waterborne sanding sealer ready for the waterborne acrylic lacquer.

The neck though, made of maple... will that also need a sanding sealer or would you go straight to applying the lacquer?

Cheers!

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

I would still use a sanding sealer. Although it has a very fine grain the sealer will still stop the finish from sinking in.

 

[ED65]

Sanding sealer isn't really a separate category of finish, it's just one of a number of clear finishes, usually diluted, that you apply prior to the final finish for one or more reasons. Because it's not necessarily a different thing you can often 'sanding seal' your wood just using the first coat of finish.

In this case because you're planning on using a water-bourne finish there might be a benefit to using something else first to enhance the wood more (both depth and colour) but it depends on the look you're going for. I think shellac applied before an acrylic finish nearly always makes the wood look better, but YMMV.

 

[Kalimna]

A quick question - have you used a pore filler on the ash? If not, are you aware that sanding sealer and pore filler are different entities? (apology if you already know this)
Also, have you considered using an oiled finish on the neck - it can often give a nicer/silkier feel to the wood.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Austinisgreat]

Hi Oscar, good question and I'll offer advice in the best way I can:

There are forums (Fora?) specifically related to to your query. TDPRI and Re-ranch (Stewmac) are full of superb info and great threads from guys who build and finish their own guitars.

Now, assuming a solid body electric, and you said "build" not "make", so assume internet or shop-bought body and neck?

Okay assuming the above, if body is ash - prob american ash - then Adam's post above is spot on as you may have to grain-fill depending on the finish you want, as american ash is wide-grained and will need smoothing unless you want a very rough and grained finish (some do).

As to your original question if the neck is american or some other smooth maple, then no, you do not need to apply sanding sealer. If machined smooth enough then sanding through 180, 240, 320, and then 400 / 600 grits should give you a silky smooth guitar neck.

Your options are then to either spray with nitro-cellulose or other clear lacquer, or, preferably in my book, to apply Tru-oil which is a commercially available modified linseed oil mix deisigned for gunstocks but is brilliant for guitar necks. If your neck is very plain looking wood then just apply enough finish to make it smooth to the hand when playing the guitar. If it is tiger striped or birdseye maple with loads of figure then spend more time - with the tru-oil - as mentioned above - for best results.

But as said please visit the guitar building and finishing forums there is loads on there and I learnt an enormous amount before actually doing my own.

Hope this helps and good luck. Be sure to post your pics for us. Cheers.

Andrew

 

[OscarG]

Thanks for the replies Gents.

To answer Andrew, I have actually made both the body and neck from scratch. I'll follow the advice and give the maple neck a wee bit of sealer ;-)

The ash body has indeed been grain filled with some thixotropic (no idea what that means!) grain filler before applying the sealer.

I have made a bit of a mistake with the body though. Here's what I've done so far...

1. Grain filled the ash
2. Dyed ash blue
3. Painted on sanding sealer with brush *DISASTER*, re-activated dye, ruined colour
4. Sanded back to bare wood, swore a lot, reapplied dye
5. Sprayed on sanding sealer with HVLP gun, much better. x 3 coats
6. Sprayed on lacquer x 3 coats so far

In between coats I've lightly denibbed with 800 grit, sanding with direction of grain. The body is looking nice, beautifully smooth in direction of grain but I can lightly feel the grain when testing against the grain. In my inexperience/stupidity I didn't check this until that 3rd coat of lacquer.

Do you think the body can still be polished to a high gloss even though you can slightly feel the grain in one direction?

Is it bad to sand in only one direction when denibbing?

I suspect when sanding back to bare wood after the dye disaster I should have grain filled again.

I'm tempted to keep adding more lacquer to smooth it but I don't know how many coats is too much, hard to find an answer to this question.

If you were me, what would you do now to resolve this?!

I have so much respect for people who can finish, it's so bloody difficult!