Sanding finish

[bill67]

Would sanding off some of the gloss finish on the cheaper guitars give you much more volume and bass.I'm talking about solid tops.

[RIX]

Short answer is yes. I actually did this on an Ibanez acoustic electric guitar. First of all let me say what a hassle and I would never do this again. You find out right away that the poly finish is tougher than nails and there is no chemical that will remove it. The other thing you'll find is that the finish is use as a filler, so it not only fills the grain of the wood, but, you'll find dips in the surface that were not visible with the finish. You'll need to remove the bridge of course which is tricky if you never done it before.

 

So once I was done it did improve the sound of the guitar, but I also found that the finish is use to help dampen feedback problems by limiting the resonance of the guitar. I am not sure I would do this on an any guitar unless I really, really felt it was worth it. Good luck hope this helps.

 

BTW, Which guitar are you thinking of doing this to and have you considered replacing the nut, saddle, and bridge pins with bone?

[bill67]

Short answer is yes. I actually did this on an Ibanez acoustic electric guitar. First of all let me say what a hassle and I would never do this again. You find out right away that the poly finish is tougher than nails and there is no chemical that will remove it. The other thing you'll find is that the finish is use as a filler, so it not only fills the grain of the wood, but, you'll find dips in the surface that were not visible with the finish. You'll need to remove the bridge of course which is tricky if you never done it before.

 

So once I was done it did improve the sound of the guitar, but I also found that the finish is use to help dampen feedback problems by limiting the resonance of the guitar. I am not sure I would do this on an any guitar unless I really, really felt it was worth it. Good luck hope this helps.

 

BTW, Which guitar are you thinking of doing this to and have you considered replacing the nut, saddle, and bridge pins with bone?

On a Washburn HB15C archtop so the saddle would be no problem But I think your right I want do it.

[dhanners623]

I'd say that more accurately, the short answer is "Yes, but...." There will probably be some improvement in the sound, but I'm not sure all the work (and expense) will be worth it. Removing the poly finish will probably not turn a so-so guitar into a great guitar. And it probably won't turn a very good guitar into a great guitar. But it will probably bring some improvement.

 

The bottom line is that polyurethane is a very hardy and robust substance. That, coupled with the fact it dries quickly, is why guitar companies use it.

 

Earlier this year, I had a friend of mine, Leo, who was taking luthier/repair classes, sand down the poly finish on my IB'64 Texan. It was sort of a class project so he gave me a price break on it. The poly finish just looked too glossy to me, and I wanted him to take the gloss down a few notches and leave it with a vintage patina. I also had him add a few nicks and scrapes to age the guitar a bit. I will say that his work -- coupled with some time on a ToneRite -- did improve the sound. And I will say it looks a heck of a lot better. He didn't remove the bridge, nor did he take off the pickguard.

 

I had Leo write out a list of all the work he did. I've posted it here before, but I'll post it again so you can see the work involved:

 

A quick list here -- Rough material removal was done with a combination of cabinet scrapers, 3M scrubbies and copper pot scouring pads, steel wool (#000-0000,)sandpaper of varying grits (100, 220, 400 and so on) depending on the amount of finish to be removed and the type of contour desired. There were some areas where wood was exposed where a wire brush was used along with water to raise the grain a bit. Surface dings and chips, etc. were accomplished by a number of means -- flogging with a set of keys, light taps with a jeweler's hammer and screwdrivers, etc.( The round shaft of a screwdriver does very nicely for the little binding chips) and the belt buckle marks were etched in with the ball hex-head of a truss-rod wrench. I dropped a few coins from 3 feet or so for random top dings as well. Most of the initial sanding with the rougher grits was done dry, but at the 400-grit level I switched to wet sanding.

 

Up to this point the work was only being done on areas where specific wear patterns were desired based on the player's style and handling of the instrument. From the 400-grit onward, the entire instrument was wet-sanded with 400, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grits. I frequently revisited heavier grits in some areas as the final wear patterns became evident.

 

Once the 2000 grit was very thoroughly applied to the entire surface with some touch-ups from larger grits and steel wool here and there, I began buffing with a soft rotary wheel and Tripolish compound. This was rather time-consuming but paid off. Note, it is VERY important to have good lighting from several angles at this point -- the really fine scratches will disappear at certain angles and you need to be very vigilant. After this step, a thorough hand buffing with a soft flannel and a very light polishing compound was applied before a final polish/wax coat. Bindings and plastic parts were sanded with 400 grit on down ( special care was taken to remove molding lines and soften corners consistent with playing wear) and colorized with Letraset permanent art marker (primrose) and vintage Amber lacquer pencil (Stew-Mac #6091).

 

Tuners were bathed in distilled vinegar and salt for five days while other work was taking place. Anyway, that's about it in a nutshell (big nut) The only advice I would give to anyone attempting this is go slow and evaluate your progress constantly. I cannot stress the importance of adequate light, and I wore actual magnifier glasses for a lot of the finer work.