Show us your Polished Pics!

[bhika]

Yes Whiskey, your polish job also puts my efforts to shame, yours looks ultra glossy, never mind semi-gloss!   And the top!  I couldn't get even close to that level of gloss on the 2 guitar tops I did, so I don't even bother with the tops anymore.  Send your instruction my way too, or better yet, just post them on this thread, if you don't mind.  Thanks.

Yes please post your instructions.

[stuco]

 

Here are the directions that whiskeyjack sent me via email:

My Larrivees were done by my luthier who has a buffing wheel with some very good abrasive media.  They're a tad glossier than my 000-15s which I did by hand using the following materials and directions:



Here ya go.  Good luck to ya.





GLOSSING YOUR GUITAR



Please read through this in its entirety.  Don't be in a hurry with this process. There are several ways to Gloss a factory satin finish.  Here's mine:



The materials you'll need are Meguiar's Scratch-X and Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner Step 1.  You can also use Step 2 Deep Crystal Polish to finish the process but this is a polish not an abrasive.  I think you'll find that the Paint Cleaner Step 1 will provide a wonderful gloss without adding the polish.  I believe that polish designed for a lacquer finish will alter the tone of your guitar which is a poly- finish.



You will need a padded surface of some kind (old towels on the kitchen table worked for me).  You will also need a couple of old cotton T-shirts for applying, rubbing and wiping off excess abrasive:  4 X 4 squares of T-shirt worked well for me.


Fold and dampen a 4x4 piece of T-shirt and put a small amount of Scratch-X on it.  Rub the material onto a small area (4" X 4") in the direction of the wood grain.   You can apply the same amount of pressure used to wax your car.   Rub for about 45 seconds or so, let dry and use a clean piece of T-shirt to wipe the dried Scratch-X off.  This stuff dries quickly.  You'll see the shine start to show through after the second cycle of rubbing/drying/wiping.   Alter the amount of Scratch-X, rubbing time and pressure according to the progress you see in glossing.  Then do an adjacent area, etc. until the whole guitar is done.  This takes patience and more than a little faith – it's going to look really, really ugly at first.  You will wonder if you've screwed up by attempting this.  Persevere!!  It's gotta' look awful before it looks pretty.



Ideally, you want to be consistent so that the entire finish has the same degree of treatment.  This is impossible!   It's one of those variables that you really can't measure.   Just try to be consistent from place to place. The only barometer you have is the degree of shine.  Eye-ball it and call it good!   There's plenty of finish on the guitar.  Concerns about rubbing through the finish are mostly bogus.  You've gotta REALLY be rubbing for prolonged periods of time to do that with Scratch-X.  Sandpaper and steel wool will rub through a LOT quicker than Scratch-X.  Don't use those.



***THIS IS IMPORTANT "  Do NOT allow Meguiar's products to pool on the guitar:  don't squirt it on and leave it there.  There are chemicals in this product that will soften and discolour the finish of your guitar if you leave globs of it on too long.  Remember, this stuff is meant for use on hard, lacquer automotive finishes not the relatively soft polyurethane family of products on wood. . . .rub it on, let it dry and rub it off.***


Do the entire back and sides this way. You can also put a light coating on the neck as well, although your natural oils will gloss the neck up over time as you play. You will miss spots, and there will be spots that you will need to go over again. Moving the glossed surface at angles to sunlight will help you identify these.  Also, the bridge, pick guard and onboard electronics areas are awkward.   These areas will be most time consuming.  I'd recommend removing the pick guard and replacing it later.  If you're doing the headstock, remove the tuners.   Remove side-mounted electronics if you can.  That leaves the bridge – expect a little bit of satin shadow around the bridge.  It's just something that happens when you do this by hand.


You may think that your guitar is beautiful just having glossed it with the Scratch-X.  But take the time and apply the Paint Cleaner Step #1 (a milder abrasive), using the same technique. This will deepen the shine to the point where you can see your reflection fairly clearly.   This step will go a lot quicker.  You can treat larger areas to help even out the shine over the entire guitar.  If you see a spot or two that was missed with Scratch-X, go back and re-apply on that spot.


The end result will be a lovely, deep reflection of wood grain that is usually hidden by satin finish.  You might also see factory orbital sandpaper grit marks or grit marks directly across the grain.  These are just "character marks":  the imperfect touch of the human hand before the finish was applied.  Satin guitars are cheaper to make because less time goes into wood preparation and painting.  Satin finishes are cheaper to purchase and are applied quicker. 



Glossing causes no harm to your guitar.  It does, however, void the warranty on the factory finish.  If you screw it up, it's your problem.  Glossing has been thought to alter the tone of guitars but the claim is made infrequently by obsessive/compulsive guitar weenies like me.  It ain't likely that glossing will affect the tone.  Using Meguiar's polish just might though.


Some folks go one step further and use Meguiar's polish and wax.   I don't like 'em.   The best way to maintain the shine after glossing is with Gibson guitar polish.  Good stuff.

[stuco]

 

I wonder if one of these might act as a sufficient buffing wheel:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Abrasives,_polishes,_buffers/Finesse_Polishing_Pad.html

[Calvin]

I think what you need is an arbor + motor + those gynormagantuan sized cotton pads to do a proper job.

Jack's guitar is glossier than my gloss guitars, and that's not even an exaggeration.

[whiskeyjack]

post removed.

[dbirchett]

Do you know what he used for buffing compounds?

[whiskeyjack]

Several different abrasive bars.  Made in Italy I think he said.  Somewhat spendy as well.

[whiskeyjack]

Check out this site prior to doing anything by yourself with a buffing wheel.  While you will likely not rub through your finish with MeGuiar's products, too much pressure with the wrong abrasive on a wheel can and will do some serious damage.  You need to know what you're doing with a wheel.

http://www.sydneywoodturners.com.au/site/articles/finishing/buffing2.html

[whiskeyjack]

There are a couple of statements regarding finishes in the procedure above that aren't quite accurate and should have been explained a little better

1)

. . . . polish designed for a lacquer finish will alter the tone of your guitar which is a poly- finish.

2)

Remember, this stuff is meant for use on hard, lacquer automotive finishes not the relatively soft polyurethane family of products on wood. . . .rub it on, let it dry and rub it off.***

Somewhere in the context of these statements it should have at least mentioned that Martin uses nitrocellulose lacquer on its guitars and Larrivee uses a polyurethane finish.  Both finishes can be glossed successfully but I have no idea how thick they are or whether one responds better to glossing than the other.  'My apologies for such generalities.  I'm sure there are several who cringed at the sight of this omission. 

Sorry Peter, thanks Steve.

[stuco]

 

I've been polishing STEP 1 for six hours now(that's right) The finish looks closer to a gloss than a semigloss already.  I am truly amazed so far by the results.  Whiskey Jacks directions are very good.  I wll let everyone know how it goes and try to get my hands on a dig camera to show some pics!

[stuco]

 

I finished after 9 hrs or so polishing my l-03.  I am very happy i did it.  No swoosh and it is very close to the gloss finish on my yairi.  Just barely less reflective

[stuco]

 

OH yes, I did the top too. I don't know what everyone is talking about, I got around the same amount of shine off of the top.  Didn't take the pickguard off. the bridge and pickguard are a huge pain i must admit. I also did the headstock and had to take the tuners off.  I put a light shine on the back of the neck.  NO need for steel wool.  Just a LOOOOOOOTTT!  of elbow greese!  I used meguiars scratchx  first then deep crystal paint cleaner, then the polish.  the last two steps didn't do very much but the scratch x worked wonders. when you think you've polished enough keep on going in one spot to see what can be done.  About 35 strokes 3 or 4 times in the same spot should do it.(and you wonder why it took me 9 hours)

[whiskeyjack]

'Looking forward to the pictures.  Make sure to take the pics outside for the best lighting.

[red]

I just buffed out my OM-01 and it looks pretty good. All it did was use a buffing wheel (like the one pictured above) and work through some medium and fine compounds. Then I polished it up with guitar polis to get rid of the leftover wax. It looks nice and glossy now! I'll post some pics soon.

[HangFire]

I can do five guitars an hour with one of these babies!

[stuco]

 

talk about a buffing wheel! ^_^

[roknroll]

talk about a buffing wheel! ^_^

HAHAHAHAHAA!!! TELL ME ABOUT IT!!! HAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHA