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I had a mishap spraying a sunburst this afternoon. That's never happened to me before. Oh well. I'll need to sand the color off the top and re-spray the top. I'm spraying lacquer. How long should I wait before sanding back the color? I tried after a couple hours, and the sandpaper gobbed up quickly.

First thing I would do is remove the tape or sponge in the soundhole. That will let it offgass from the inside too. I suppose I would wait a week, but you are going to waste a lot of paper anyway. I would guess you have your sunburst IN the lacquer, not in the wood. If that is the case, all you have lost is some work. You could strip it also, but you have to be very careful with stripper around binding and purfling AND of course, no drips on the ribs or back.

"Strip-eze" gel works fast, I think alcohol clean up. But if you have any plastic or Ivroid trim chemical removers could make a serious mess of the project. I have removed the bulk of troublesome fresh finish with sharp scraper blades, of course care has to be taken if the sound board has contours.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I'd give it a week. And yes the paper is going to getted seeded pretty quickly.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

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If it has wood binding paint stripper works well. DAMHIK If you just want to do one part of the guitar I masked at the binding with electrical tape papered off the rest of the guitar.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to work from the center out to the edges. If you go edges to center, or just follow the grain you risk getting dark color in the center. I've learned this the hard way! The dark color can get imbedded into the spruce and will not come out. This is fine if you will re-sunburst over with the same dark color, but if it's in the center, you're done.

Lacquer thinner on a rags works well to wipe nitro off. The sooner the better, but I've done it after a few days. A little acetone mixed in if it is stubborn. If using plastic binding leave a buffer around that. Still needs some sanding but not nearly as much since the paper doesn't load as bad. Festool granat or 3M gold / Mirka goldflex don't load too bad to get the rest.

I don't recommend using thinner to remove the burst the liquid mixture will actually be a really effect deep penetrating stain

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Or, to quote the Rolling Stones, you could do what they used to do at Gibson if a sunburst got messed up: Paint it Black.

Fender does it all the time... if you see some old solid color Fenders when the paint wears away there's sunburst under it!

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

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