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Finished Rosewood/Sitka Dread
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=11619		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  bob_connor [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:28 pm ]
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This one went out of the door today.

Dready
EIR back and sides
Sitka top
Goncalo Alves bridge
Maple bindings
Honduras Mahogany neck
Grove Statites
Ubeaut Hard Shellac finish over Z-poxy

The guitar is nicely balanced with terrific projection
and you can really wang into it without it breaking up.

Very happy with this one - basically what a dready should be.















This is Paul the proud owner of the new weapon.

He certainly looks happy with it.

Now that this one is done we'll be able to concentrate on Trev and Cheryl, the OM twins.

Thanks for looking everyone.

Author:  KiwiCraig [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:42 pm ]
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BRAVO ! Bob and Dave . Looks fantastic ! The U-Beaut shellac finish is immaculate. How many coats on this one ?

Paul has every right to be so happy. It's a fine guitar


Author:  bob_connor [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:07 pm ]
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Thanks Craig.

Both Dave and I are really happy with the way it turned out.

I took it to the local music shop yesterday and the guys gave us a big thumbs up on this one.

They reckoned it was comparable to any of the Martins they had in the shop but louder.

The Ubeaut was sprayed, two coats undiluted.

Cheers
Author:  John K [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:09 pm ]
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Very Handsome guitar Bob. It is appointed just the way a dread should be. The rosette turned out great, the finish is immaculate and I want to know more about how you did that, the GA bridge looks great and overall its just very handsome. Nicely done
Author:  Kim [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:40 pm ]
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Great Guitar Bob, tis a credit to the your and Dave's ability to work together as a team. The Ubeaut finish is a ripper and workmanship looks crisp and clean, congrats to the boys from Geelong

PS: Any chance of a pictorial tutorial on the hardshellac process when you are working on Trev and Cheryl??

Cheers

Kim
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:32 pm ]
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Nice dread, beautiful finish!

[QUOTE=bob_connor]
The Ubeaut was sprayed, two coats undiluted.
[/QUOTE]

Two coats, eh? This is the second time I heard that about this finish. It is amazing how thick this shellac seems to build, I have never heard of a clear, glossy finish that can be applied, levelled and polished to such a high standard with only 2 coats.   Anyways, I have got to try the stuff out!

Author:  Dave Anderson [ Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:15 pm ]
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Looks great guys! Very nice dredy and the finish is super nice. The new owner certainly looks happy!
Great job!
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:51 am ]
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Man, the more of these great looking guitars I see, the more respect I have for the people involved in theis forum.  That is really an impressive instrument, and the finish...What can I say?
Author:  Alain Desforges [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:57 am ]
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That's a beaut!



Two coats??? Amazing!
Author:  redennis3 [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:05 am ]
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Author:  Bruce Dickey [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:09 am ]
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Got here late, but wanted to add to the accolade!

Great looking instrument. The smile on Paul's face says about all a guy could express. It's a concensus, you built a great Dred.

It has a real sparkle and the appointments look perfect.



Let's have another look at that smile:

Author:  JBreault [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:26 am ]
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Bob, you've built what seems to be a classic. Mucho kudos!
Author:  CarltonM [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:58 am ]
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Bob, that's a beauty! Even if it is a deadknot.    Ubeaut should use photos of that baby on their Hard Shellac labels. Talk about being worth a thousand words....
Author:  LanceK [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:01 am ]
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Bob that looks great!

Nice job!
Author:  Bobc [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:44 am ]
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Beautiful guitar Bob. It's hard to believe that's only two coats. Gotta try that Ubeaut.
Author:  LuthierSupplier [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:12 am ]
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Looks Great Bob! Fantastic job, and great to see the customers face. I believe it about that hard shellac...I'm putting it on my little uke, and so far have brushed one coat on. It is really hard, and no shrink back in 1 day of letting it dry. It almost looks like I can level now! I was planning on going with 6 coats, but after one coat of brushing I'm thinking of going with 3 coats, and then levelling really good. Thanks for the tip on the hard shellac a few months back!
Tracy
Author:  bob_connor [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:33 am ]
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John K - the finish process was

Z-poxy
- one coat - then a rough level 400 grit
- second coat trying for a perfect finish 400 -2000 grit

Hard shellac

2 coats (on the same day) straight from the bottle - I think ubeaut is equivalent to a 4lb cut.

Leave it to harden for 2 weeks

Level with 1500 grit then 2000 grit

Leave it another 2 weeks for the Shellac to finish cross-linking

Check finish for small scratches and use Micromesh up to 12000 grit.

Buff with Menzerna medium then fine.

Final polish with Meguires.

Kim - that's the skinny of it above, but I'll do a photo tutorial in the next few months, inspired by Hesh's fine recent tutorials. We've got eight guitars in various stages of construction at present so we'll have plenty of material to work with.

I also want to give one of them the tradtional french polish treatment with Ubeaut (a la Hesh) so I can learn the technique.

Arnt - it goes on pretty thick if it's undiluted. You could thin it down and apply 12 coats but if it comes up like this why bother.

Bruce - I was dissapointed that my partner in crime, Dave, wasn't there when Paul took delivery. He had strummed one chord and then looked up and I was lucky enough to have the camera on him . Priceless.

Thanks Kiwi, Dave, Hesh, Waddy, Alain, Redennis, Joe, Carlton, Lance, Bob and Tracy for the kind words.

Cheers

Author:  Todd Rose [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:31 pm ]
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Very nice looking guitar, Bob. Is that a dread shape of your own design? Something looks different about it... maybe it's just the angle of the photo.
Author:  Doug O [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:44 pm ]
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Great looking geetar!  2 coats?  Wow!


Doug
Author:  gratay [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:38 pm ]
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just beautiful Bob....
love everything about it....and wow ....what can i say about the finish other than it confirms to me what I will be using on mine.....looks great
Author:  John K [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:41 pm ]
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Thanks for the info Bob

If you have the time and inclination to answer a few more questions...

How do you apply the z poxy

How do you apply the ubeaut shellac

Again, great looking instrument.
John
Author:  GregG [ Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:10 pm ]
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Yes....VERY nice! I too love the finish.

Greg
Author:  bob_connor [ Sat Apr 14, 2007 6:16 pm ]
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Todd - I took the shape from my 80's D18 so I think it's reasonably standard in shape.

Terry - the Hard shellac has something added to it which cross-links over a period of about a month making it much harder than traditional shellac.

I'm not really sure I could make a comparison between the Goncalo and Ebony. We've built 3 dreads in the last 6 months -

Sitka top, Padauk back and sides with a Padauk bridge
(and a top thickness of .082 !!! - amazing it hasn't exploded yet)

Sitka Bearclaw, African mahogany with an Ebony bridge

And this one.

So it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges.

I dropped a piece of the Goncalo on the floor and noticed it had nice sustain and decided to use it.

John K - the z-poxy is applied thinly with a credit card, working it across and diagonal to the grain.

Allow it to dry 24 hours and sand back.

This guitar was sanded back to the wood so that only the pores were filled with the z-poxy. We have two other EIR guitars nearing completion which were not sanded back to wood but the z-poxy was levelled.

Bottom line is I don't think there is any difference to the final finish whichever way you choose to do it.

The Ubeaut shellac was applied with an HVLP spray gun and compressor. The gun was a cheapy costing $65AUD
(about $50 US) and our spray booth consists of a couple of milk crates in the back yard on a sunny day. So nothing hi-tech here either.

You can apply it with a traditional french polish technique and I think Tracy mentioned he was applying it with a brush. We've done touch ups on sand throughs with a piece of rag and then sanded out with 2400 micromesh and it's invisible.

We do have a lot of finishing to do over the next few months so I'll throw up a photo tutorial of the whole process when we do it.

Hope this helps

Cheers
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