Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

[quiksilver]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

Thanks! This has been the easiest refin I've done, by far. Getting the original finish off was tough, and I was very disappointed when I lost the veneer top, but the wipe on poly worked great, IMO. Much easier than spraying.

Here's what it looked like before (this pic also shows the body I was planning to transplant the parts to):


The original finish was in great shape, but just way too dark to see any grain. It looked black, but was actually a very dark brown ("Mocha," I think).

[quiksilver]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

. . . oh yeah, good suggestions for the trem cavity, too. I plan to dress that up. The chemicals did a number on the original insert that was in there.

[noodlesatf]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

[ QUOTE ]
+1 to that. On the RR Legend I purchased from guitar express, the finish was CRAP. I've never seen such poor paintwork in my life. The pinstripes were splochy and white was coming through all over.

I have a feeling I got the runt of the litter though.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you dind't. Where the pinstripes meet near the neck joint on mine, they start to get splotchy and white comes through in places. It also has a few spots on the top that are lighter than the rest of the guitar.

Quicksilver, that is a really nice piece of mahogany. Why they would cover that up is beyond me. Who cares about that veneer, it looks great just like that.

[quiksilver]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

Thanks, Noodles. Here it is with the hardware and electronics back in. I really like the spartan, black hardware on natural finish look:





Now if I was REALLY adventurous, I'd sand the headstock down to bare maple, put a black (or better yet, black chrome, if I could find it) Ibanez logo on it and clear-coat it, scallop the highest frets (Jem-style) and replace the pearl dot markers with smoked mirror dot markers. But I'm not that adventurous (well, I will probably scallop it a bit - I'm not made of stone, after all! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ).

[punkrock6768]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

I think it looks much better. Great job! Now you won't have to worry about it collecting fingerprints [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[slash]

Re: Refin questions: how to lighten a finish

WOW! That looks great. Beautiful piece of wood. Nice Job [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]