..uhh Durwood what's the best approach here?

Hi..especially to Durwood.

I tried your rubbing method for nitro with thinners,metho & chamois on some scrap and it made a big difference. Now this scrap was something I'd used for dye testing, & had shellac slapped on & ignored. I sprayed nitro on a few weekends ago for this test, but it was never going to be anything more than scrap.

So encouraging were the results that I tried the method on the butt of my guitar which has been shellaced, nitro'ed & scuffed to 1200 grit.

I'm sold on method because it's non destructive as you've said before, and the risk of rub throughs seems very much less than with sanding.

After one or two little trial rubs the difference is pleasing to say the least!!:D

So now I would like to do the whole job. The reason for the post is that the guitar body (Gibson SG) is a complicated shape with champfers & scallops. See pics.

How do you recommend I approach this? Break it down into sections eg the flat top, the curves one by one...or rub the whole thing as a unit?

(If this seems a really dumb question feel free to say so :D ...as long as you offer your usual good advice..:D )

TIA

RobSm

Hi Fanlee,

The stronger your mixture the quicker it will soften the material, so you can adjust it to suit the area you want. I think the size of the guitar would allow you to do the whole face in one hit but you could do it in smaller areas.

Do the least critical areas first, so I would say that is the sides and the back. By the time you get to the front you should have it humming along nicely. Any marks you put into it will go to the sides and a quick wipe should fix them

The rule is: look after the large flat areas the curves and edges will look after themselves. You only need a gloss on the reflective surfaces the edges and curves disperse light so you can't see if they are shiny anyway and you don't rub through them. As its easy to rub through and edge try to not work at doing so, this applies especially to sanding.

Thanks for the advice. I hope I can post some nice pics soon.

RobSm.

Looks like Durwood's the man, following these threads with great interest:)