Finishing, Finishing & More Finishing

One guitar body is out for a UV Cured Poly finish one is getting a Tru-Oil finish and one a French Polish with Royal Lac Shellac and all 3 necks are getting a Tru-Oil Finish as well as the Celtic Harp getting a Shellac finish (not french Polish).. Whew..

Tru-Oil

French Polish (top)

French Polish (back)

Simple Shellac

How to Unwind on a Friday Night

Spend a couple of hours French polishing.. got the back & one side done..

Finally - Applying a Finish

Whew, it's taken a bit of time and way to much pore filling & sanding but I just put the first base coats of shellac on the parlour guitar.... Looking forward to seeing how this Royal Lac hardened shellac works out.

And it's Done

Complete finished done.. Sounds good, ok sounds better than the ladder braced Celtic tenor I made a while back, more sustain and a bit deeper sound.. Probably due to the slightly bigger body.. Also the sustain might be a combination of the stiffest top I've used so far and the relatively thick saddle...

I was anticipating have to do compensation on the saddle to get the intonation right but if anything it's a bit flat so none was needed.. The thicker saddle might? be better at energy transfer to the top?? I'll have to do a bit of reading up on that.

Next, I've got to finish the parlour guitar which I've just started carving the neck on and I have the original Mandocello I made that need a new top. A carved & properly arched one this time .....

French Polish, Bridge and the Rest of the Jobs

So the French Polish is done, finally after re-doing the top. The frets are leveled and polished. Tonight I attached the bridge and rough shaped the nut & saddle..

Now all that is left is:
drill & taper the bridge pin holes
slot the holes
finish the nut
finish the saddle
attach the tuners
string it up
set the intonation on the saddle
see how it sounds

ready for the bridge

It should fit

Positioning the bridge

Temporarily locator screws

clamped for the night

Back to Work

Back from a great vacation doing some diving in Honduras.. Now on with guitar building..

The tenor is getting French polished, just started building the base. The Parlour now has a fingerboard again and I can start carving the neck soon.

The tenor's top with a bit of Sellac

Ready to have the neck carved

Getting Very Close

So the finish is done a satin sort of French Polish, not too shiny, I like it.. The tuners are on a nut & Saddle are made and tonight I glued on the bridge... Should be making music with this Mandocello pretty soon..

I think at least for the start I'm going to string it up with the C string pair as an Octave pair its easy to change if I don't like it.. But harder to go the other direction...

French Polish so far my favourite finish

Front view

Back view

Tuners front

Tuners back

The only way I could set the intonation was to actually string it up
with a temporary tailpiece and just fiddle with the bridge position...
actually 2mm of compensation came out pretty close

Gluing on the bridge

Finished French Polish

So the finishing is finished ... A good amber shellac, lots of thin coats and lots of rubbing.. It has the overall darker tone I was looking for now to install the tuners as fit the bridge.

French Polish

So far my preferred finish is French Polish, partly because it is relatively easy & very safe to do unlike nitro lacquer.. Besides that it has little effect on the instrument tone is easily repaired and looks great.

I use a technique taught by Robert O'Brien, which uses a very thin or light cut of shellac (less than 1lb) and many many very light coats. It works well and is quick (as far as French Polish goes)

Before, pore-filled and sanded

Applying the seal coats

Polishing

Back finished