Do you have to put a sealer on an alder body before spraying with nitro lacquer?

Hi there,
Building my first guitar and got the kit, the water based dye, and the gloss nitrocellulose lacquer. Then I got home and my dad thought that I might need a sealer, do I? :confused:

On a close-grained wood like alder, sanding sealer can be optional, but you will use more lacquer, as alder can soak it up a bit. As a barrier, you can use a washcoat of shellac.

Alright, I don't want it to affect the resonance of the wood, so I'll get the sealer. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to buy yet another product, but I don't wanna cheap out and mess it up. You know what they say, a guitar is a big wallet that you put money into, but don't get it back... Okay, that was dumb... I just made that up.

You won't need grain filler but sanding sealer is a good idea. It's cheaper than coats of clear lacquer and builds quickly so you get a good flat-sanded base for your clear coats.

Oh, and don't worry about the "resonance of the wood" :shock:

Alder will soak up more shellac, IME, than it will lacquer.

Is that bad, or good? Shellac is neat because it can be sanded fairly soon after application; much faster than you can get to lacquer and sand it.

The main reason for a base coat IMO is adhesion. Lacquer adheres beautifully to shellac, and shellac to woods.

I like to grain fill all the woods I finish ( obviously not rosewood, ebony ) because it'll fill tiny voids all woods have, and the tint to the grainfiller warms up the woods appearance a really helps me pre-view the body and also spot stray marks, scratches. Then shellac, then lacquer. The extra effort at the outset will produce enough of a better result to keep you pumped up and motivated through the tedious later stages of completion.

Can you use Waterbase dye with a Nitro Laquer? I was under the impression you can't mix them.

Can you use Waterbase dye with a Nitro Laquer? I was under the impression you can't mix them.

Actually I was wrong about what I had, it wasn't water based.

On all the alder bodies I have finished I have used a nitro-based sanding sealer. Alder is IMHO a very "thirsty" wood much more so than ash and it really soaks up the first couple of coats of lacquer. Sanding sealer has additives that help build up a sandable finish much faster. Using it could save you a bit of time...

It came in the mail today, so I'm good to go! The consensus seemed to be that it would be best, so I ordered it yesterday (Wednesday) and it came today (Thursday). Pretty nice to live in the same state as grizzly. Sadly shipping was like $7.50! 23 something for a $16 sealer... Come to think of it, with all of the overseas builders on here I should quit whining. :)