Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello.

I'm brand new to this forum, and thought I'd start by asking what many will consider a stupid question.

When working on the top of an acoustic, would it be a horrible idea to start off the process by putting a coat of shellac on to protect it a little from the this-and-that while forming the bracing, sound hole, etc. I'm laying it on a carpet subflooring piece devoted to minimizing the dings that may happen when in direct contact with my bench.

First off, Welcome to the OLF Arnie.

There are no stupid questions, and my guess is your question will leave a few folks who have built a guitar or two going "now why didn't I think of that?"

Yes, it's a good idea to put a coat or two of shellac over the top face, even before putting the rosette in. You can always add a bit more here or there as the shellac will burn into each layer. And it will offer minor protection from "incidents".

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

It helps to keep it clean too.

You don't want to do the backside of the top though. I think that would make it hard to glue your braces in.

_________________
Mike Lindstrom

Thanks for the welcome.

Specifically, I was wondering if there were any off-color issues using shellac. I was planning on cleaning off the majority of the shellac later using alcohol. Any red flags here?

Thanks again. I've been a lurker for a while now, and just decided today to dive in.

Yep. Just the top. Thanks Mike.

I use shellac as my seal coats before finishing. You can leave the initial coats alone, apart from where you scrape or sand after bindings and rosette. When you get to the finishing stage, you can scuff sand the remaining shellac and the new shellac will just burn into the old stuff. Make sure you have a couple of seal coats and that they are of the same general thickness before you start with your finishing coats. Also, make sure you use the same shellac (blonde, garnet etc...) each time you seal the top.

If you want to remove it, you can use alcohol or just sand it off. The alcohol will be somewhat messy and can get down in the soundhole and can take a fair amount of time. Sanding the remaining shellac off isn't to bad with 120 no-load paper.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I'm new to, welcome EOArnie.

Just a quick question to the other experienced ones as well. In my reading on the subject of rosettes it has been recommended to use CA to seal the edge so there is no bleeding. Would you still do this? The only reason i ask is that if a person does seal the top they may forget to CA the freshly cut rosette hole.

Just an inquiry. So many people starting at the same time as me will be very exciting to see other builds as i do mine. My wood is somewhere on the ocean right now... Can't wait.

_________________
Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation

Welcome to the OLF EOArnie!

DO NOT seal the rosette cavity with CA, as it will soak in and discolor, is my (limited) experience. When gluing binding and rosettes with CA, I apply a wash coat of shellac to each channel and surrounding area and then glue in, precisely to avoid the CA getting everywhere.

Welcome to OLF , and dont worrie about asking Dumb Questions here , Ive already asked most of them and they havent run me off yet

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

As the others have said, their is no such thing as a dumb question. (Actually, "How far apart are the mile markers?" is pretty close) Your question is very far from a dumb one. It is important, however, to read the answers carefully. For example, sealing the rosette channel with super glue is a very bad idea and my guess is that the advice was to seal the rosette channel with shellac BEFORE using super glue. It is very easy to get things backwards sometimes.

Putting a seal coat of shellac on is a very good idea. I would sand it off rather than wash it off with alcohol.

I doubt you'll prevent real dings and dents with just shellac. For that you just need to keep your bench clean. I have a cheap brush from Harbor Freight just for that purpose. I leave it hanging near the bench and use it a lot.

Definitely use shellac to seal things up before you use superglue because otherwise it'll soak in and stain as others have pointed out.

I think shellac can also help before you rout out binding/purfling to minimize chipout for a clean cut. I've never had problems in this regard with spruce, but I was kicking myself when I got done routing soundhole purfling channels on a cedar top recently.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Ah thanks so much for that!! I looked and looked for where i read that but couldn't find it, so i'm glad someone clarified that. You know when you begin these things you read so much that it becomes impossible to keep it all in. I'm beginning to think that it is best to start and read specifically about what you are doing at the time to the facts don't get all jumbled up.

Anyhow thanks very much

_________________
Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation

Great advice, and certainly something I wasn't thinking about until you mentioned it. As to keeping my bench clean, I definitely will do my best with a combo of air hose and a horsehair brush, but you know how those little grenades can creep in and frustrate.