17" Archtop Jazz Guitar finally starting it 5 years late!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Alright
The finishing has begun. I'll do my best and go slow, watch for runs, etc.
I haven't sprayed a hanging guitar in years.

So the booth is up in the backyard. Most of you have seen this before. 10 x 10ft patio covered with a tarp. 10 x 10ft pop up, wrapped in plastic tarp. It's worked well for many a guitar.

I'm hanging the guitar from paracord that pulls over the top cornice on the pop-up frame and hooks off to the side with two stopping heights. This will allow me to spray the headstock and neck, and lift up the body to spray the butt end. Then pull it up so I'm facing the body for a good horizontal spray. I have cushions under the guitar in case it falls!!!!!!

I just sprayed a 50/50 lacquer sealer coat. After about an hour dry time I'll wipe sand the surface and wipe it down with a lint free rag.

After that I'll spray the whole guitar with vintage amber rattle can from Stewmac.

Once that dries about 45 minutes I'll do a top coat of clear mixed 80/20. That will dry over night, and I'll dream tonight about how I'll apply the sunburst. I hope it's a good dream. 😉

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here is the guitar with the vintage amber and a coat of clear over it. The amber really made the flame pop.

Tomorrow I'll wipe sand it and the start the burst with Tobacco brown. Still trying to decide my best approach

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here we go!!
I decided to use some masks. I think it helped.

The brown went on pretty good started to get some spitting toward the end. I reheated the can but still got some. I can lightly sand those out.

When I removed the masks I had too stark of a line so I did my best to feather those out, which made my burst area a little wider than what I was thinking but all in all I think it will be okay.

I'm letting it dry an hour, then I'll lightly sand off the spits, overspray, and maybe even out the boarder.....

Then I'll shoot it with one coat of clear. After an hour of dry time I'll pull the masking tape and see what I've got.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Neck and headstock and with the masks on

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Well I had brown splatter on the top and back in the yellow and I just couldn't leave it alone so I tried to lightly sand then out, but being lacquer they melted in and I had a bit of a mess, I also went back and trued to blend in some of the burst areas and ended up with a much smaller amber patch ( see the final pic of the back)

So I wipe all the amber and into the dark area off using thinner and rags and resprayed amber. My thought was to try again.
I had very little brown left in the can and was hoping it would be enough.
So this afternoon I cut the mask I'd used before smaller and sprayed the brown, attempting to feather blend it in.
It worked quite well and I ended up having enough brown lacquer. I have a wider really dark area then I wanted but this is how it ended up and how I'm leaving it.
The top is better then it was, being much like the back now. I can live with it.
Some splatter on the back and some on the sides.
I'll come up with some reason for them intentionally being there. Right!

So it was much harder than I thought it'd be using rhe rattle cans. If I ever decide to try another sunburst I will buy a detail gun and mix the colors and do it that way.
I don't expect to ever do another.
This one is for me and I'll be happy to play it.

Next step tomorrow morning is to remove the tape on all the binding and see how much scraping there is to do.

[TEETERFAN]

Sorry ya had to deal with the spatter issue. But you made the save. A detail gun is easier than rattle cans. I use a detail or touch up gun and mix my own. I first hit the dark areas along the outer edges. Then I add a bit of clear to the dark sunburst color so I can slowly build the transition, which makes it easier to get an even and gentle fade. I don’t use a mask, I just “eye-ball” it. I find it is easier to see what I got as I shoot.
Like most everything, it takes practice.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Hey Kevin
If I was making this for someone else I'd have to strip it and start over. But since it's for me I'm telling myself just play it and enjoy it.

I did pull the masking off yesterday and the binding purfling around the body and neck/headstock came out great. I only scraped about 4 places a little.
However the F hole binding was a different story
When I clean off the lacquer on the top with thinner and rags around the F holes I got seepage along the edge of the tape right along portions of the white/black and it looks quite messy. T had brown out that far over the F holes and I didn't consider this when I resprayed. But.....I'm not going to mess with that either.

Exposing the binding all around made it look much better.

[TEETERFAN]

Oh yea, the scraped binding makes a big difference. Additionally, you have the gorgeous ebony pick guard and tailpiece to install. I am always obsessing on little things that pretty much disappear when the guitar is completely done.
Mr. Archtop will look terrific!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I'm starting to rub out the finish to ready it for the buffer.
I had an area along the side purfling show up with a gap about and inch long so I'm fixing that.

This is probably the worst finish I've ever done. Not too happy with it. I buggered up the top around the F holes when I tried to make the top "better". I actually messed it up. I will finish it up and play it.
Perhaps one day I'll strip the finish and redo it.
Since it's for me it doesn't really matter now but someday it will be passed along and then I'll feel badly about how it looks.
Hoping I can learn some jazz and it sounds and plays good.
I post some pics when I'm buffing.

[Dobroguy]

This is certainly a beautiful build to watch.
I have a buddy who has started working on an archtop.
I had the pleasure of gluing up the top halves for him.