Any small builders using very thin finishes?

[smilefan]

Are any of the small builders discussed here using very
thin finishes, like nitro, or hand-rubbed varnish, or
even oiled? I really like the satin finish that Anderson
uses on their necks and the finish Gibson puts on their
Historic LP's.

I'd like to commision a custom built LP-type, but finish
is a critical issue to me. Thanks for any help.

[cnardone]

Call both Mr Chapin and Mr Heatley. They can and will both help you with wonderful instruments.

cmn

[59burst]

My Nash s-style guitar has an extremely thin nitro finish on the body and neck. Really thin. The neck feels great, and the body resonates like crazy.

[The Eristic]

www.mcinturffguitars.com

You don't know the meaning of thin if you haven't talked to Terry about his nitro jobs and his latest invention, Nitrothane.

[Gadowguitars]

While polyester seems to be a "dirty" word in the booteek/hand built set we use it ( although we use other materials in addition to ) and manage to keep it thin. I run test pieces fairly often just to measure film thicknes and we've been averaging what we feel to be a very respectable .009"-.011". Personally I don't think any small builder out there is just haphazardly squirtin' on a thick ol' finish so you should be in good shape no matter who you go with.

[Shades]

We are right in the .003" range for bodies and .001" on the necks. I'm pretty anal about this as I really feel this thickness allows the wood to speak properly.

[-kk-]

http://www.mykaguitars.com/instruments/017/default.htm

last sentence on the description is on the finishing.

kelvin

[trisonic]

+1 for Bill Chapin, the finish on my Hankahoula is truly remarkable - I have plenty of guitars but just one Chapin - it is the only guitar where I can say that it seems to contribute to the tone of the thing as opposed to detracting...

Bill's necks are otherworldly in the playability stakes.

Best, Pete.

[Joe]

Don't forget the Nuno N4 came from Warmoth with no finish on it, so bigger builders have offered the service as well.

[Jon Silberman]

Originally posted by lotus
I believe I am the owner of the only two Thorns with Tru-Oil finshed bodies, but I'm sure he'll do it for anyone:

http://lotuscreative.net/matt/055-7.jpg
http://lotuscreative.net/matt/056-8.jpg

I do deeply dig.

I just love those two guitars. :)

[drezdin]

Originally posted by Shades
We are right in the .003" range for bodies and .001" on the necks. I'm pretty anal about this as I really feel this thickness allows the wood to speak properly.

That's amazing. I don't know how you do that without a million sand throughs.

[rjlaero1]

yeah....that's super thin. I don't know how you can buff a guitar that thin and not sand through.

[robmarch]

Originally posted by lotus
I believe I am the owner of the only two Thorns with Tru-Oil finshed bodies, but I'm sure he'll do it for anyone:

http://lotuscreative.net/matt/055-7.jpg
http://lotuscreative.net/matt/056-8.jpg

I do deeply dig.

hotness!

Originally posted by Joe

Don't forget the Nuno N4 came from Warmoth with no finish on it, so bigger builders have offered the service as well.

do you have a link to any more info about this? I didn't know warmoth built those bodies, and thought those were at least oiled or something, though there wasn't a conventional finish.

I can believe the paudak ones were totally unfinished, but were the maple neck (maple body?) ones?

[gls500]

Robin's lower-end guitars use a satin nitro finish, for a good price.

http://www.robinguitars.com

[Shades]

Originally posted by rjlaero1
yeah....that's super thin. I don't know how you can buff a guitar that thin and not sand through. It is not easy. I have a finisher that I push to keep everything this thin and I check to make sure. He hates me but I pay well.
On the necks, they are not buffed. .001" can't be buffed without going through.

[Hipster Dofus]

My grosh RC has a very thin finnish.

[Jack Briggs]

Originally posted by drezdin
That's amazing. I don't know how you do that without a million sand throughs.


Yeah, I think that's awfully optimistic. My nitro finishes have mic'ed out at about .005 for an instrument with a few months of cure time. After a decade - it will be even less as the finish has shrunk more.

The problem, of course, with trying to measure a chip of lacquer is that, especially on an older instrument, you're looking at a chip with a cross-section resembling a flake of Wheaties! The substrate side will be irregular, as the lacquer will have filled the pores and micro-chasms of the wood surface, and the surface will have shrunken revealing any amount of 'orange-peel'. Unless, of course we're talking about a solid opaque colored finish, which would likely have had it's surface glazed with something like Bondo or other surface leveling treatment. Then the lacquer chip could be relatively flat.

You could actually figure the film thickness in the final show with the solids content, # of coats and, of course, if you don't rubout, but simply buff to gloss. Like the way Gibson do it. This is how you can get consistently micro-thin nitro film finishes with little or no burn-thru. ;)



Jack Briggs

[drezdin]

by rubout do you mean sanding to flatten and get rid of orange peel?
If so, how are you able to accomplish that without the rubout?

[Dreaded]

Mcnaughts Polyester finish is actually very thin for a poly finish. He will also do satin finish on any part of the guitar you want or on the whole guitar.

[Gadowguitars]

Originally posted by Shades
It is not easy. I have a finisher that I push to keep everything this thin and I check to make sure. He hates me but I pay well.


If your name is on the headstock, your employees hate you.:rolleyes:

[DerekMinnich]

+2 or 3 for Bill Chapin. You can really hear the wood when playing my Chapin unplugged, the wood breathes very well. The color is beautiful too.

[hansoloist]

How does one measure for finish thickness?

peace
-jeff

[Stike]

Originally posted by hansoloist
How does one measure for finish thickness?

peace
-jeff

I spray a test panel along with whatever is in production. I put a piece of Fine Line tape on the board before any thing is shot, when it's all done I peel the tape, the finish comes of the tape and I measure with dial calipers. Works for me.

[Turbozag]

RS Guitarworks does excellent nitro finishing!

I was there today and saw a super nice 52 Les Paul that they are doing. Also saw a Gold Top that was AWESOME!

www.rsguitarworks.com

[drbob1]

If you could ever talk Fleishman into building another electric, his finish on mine is so thin it's hard to tell from an oil finish.

[burningyen]

Originally posted by lotus
I believe I am the owner of the only two Thorns with Tru-Oil finshed bodies, but I'm sure he'll do it for anyone:

http://lotuscreative.net/matt/055-7.jpg
http://lotuscreative.net/matt/056-8.jpg

I do deeply dig.

Holy $#!+ those are pretty! Dig the no-inlays.

[Harry Fleishman]

Finish is a big topic. I spent a long time on the phone with Mike Bashkin, a very good builder, on the topic just this morning. As important to me is the issue of toxicity and repairability. I'm interested in player's comments on those things. I want a finish with ultralow toxicity so my kids can have a planet when they grow up. I also want a finish that is repairable so after the bass player (read drummer, singer, etc) knocks a ding in the guitar it can be fixed. Most of the modern finishes will not really repair cleanly without leaving an ugly trace. For my nonglossy finishes I use shellac, coated with waterborne, with a light coating of nitro for repairability. Final thickness is under .003", measured after all work is done on test strips placed variously on the guitar while finishing. My classicals are .002"
Do you players care about the above issues?
PLease let me know.
thanks, Harry

[Dave Orban]

Scott Lentz.

[hendrix2430]

for necks, the thinnest I've seen is suhr.

[JoeB63]

The phrase red herring has a number of metaphorical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor) senses that share the general sense of something being a diversion from the original objective: a type of logical fallacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy) in which one purports to prove one's point by means of irrelevant arguments.


A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_device) that motivates the characters and advances the story, particularly one whose importance is accepted completely by the story's characters, yet from the audience's perspective it is usually not the main center of interest, might be minimally explained or may test their suspension of disbelief (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief) if it is scrutinized.

[57special]

I french polish my pitiful creations... mainly cause i refuse to put up with fumes (did some of that many years ago), and also because i love the old world feel , look, and (i believe, but haven't rigorously A/B tested) tone. I just do acoustics , mind you... I think it's really great that builders are putting on such thin finishes, whatever they may be. The problem in FP'ing is having to thin a finish! It takes forever to build up any thickness!

[Long2Play]

I'd like to commision a custom built LP-type, but finish
is a critical issue to me. Thanks for any help.

http://www.groshguitars.com/images/set-3a.jpg

Don Grosh Set Neck....

[Chris Rice]

We use mostly super-thin nitro, hand-rubbed.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/dabluzeguy/CarlTele/CarlTele13.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/dabluzeguy/HollowTele/f85f625f.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/dabluzeguy/PurpleRice/PurpleTele5.jpg

I've been trying a few with a polymerized oil finish.
3 coats wiped on and steel-wooled off, followed by a 4th coat a few days later.
It feels like bare wood, resonance is good with a cool zing to the treble.
Has a satin glow to the sheen, and an amber dye suspended in the oil for a bit of color.
Good results so far:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/Rice%20Custom%20Guitars/SpaltESQ12.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/Rice%20Custom%20Guitars/SpaltESQ13.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/Rice%20Custom%20Guitars/SpaltESQ15.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/Piccolo%20Bass/PicBass2.jpg

[lookslikemeband]

Do these ultra - thin finishes check more or less than slightly thicker ones might???

I had a customer's finish check recently (it was an "oldie" that I'd Nitro'd), but he didn't mind because he likes the "vintage" vibe (he said he liked it more now) ... But I'm a perfectionist, and I want them to last longer before checking.