Finish for a natural body?

[jj69]

I'm innthe process of converting my classic vibe 50s pine body into a 72 telecaster custom . I'm now down to the bare wood

Can anyone help/ tell me which oil/ wax/ varnish I should use to get a similar finish to the tele custom in this pic? I already have a can of amber tinted nitro left over from a previous neck spray.....would that do the trick?

 

[Cheap Trills]

I would sand that further until it looks even, otherwise the stain won't penetrate evenly.

good luck!

 

[jj69]

I would sand that further until it looks even, otherwise the stain won't penetrate evenly.

good luck!

Yeah u e got a bit more sanding to do yet

 

[Freeman Keller]

I have finished hundred year old Ponderosa pine in clear nitrocellulose lacquer and TruOil. I prefer the lacquer. I make it a point to experiment on scraps of the same wood, that way there are no surprises. I would also suggest taking your body all the way to bare wood before you start mixing finishes.

Here is the clear lacquer, yours is more amber

 

[schmee]

I've been using this with a brush! It levels really well and shines. It's actually more of a varnish although it's labeled "tung oil"

 

[jfgesquire]

I have an ash body which started out pretty "white" , but just one coat of shellac sealer made it very amber without any stain.

Before:


After:

 

[old wrench]

Good old lacquer is hard to beat .

.

 

[EsquireOK]

Doesn't look like you're to bare wood. You've got work to do, still.

With the number of man hours (unpleasant, difficult ones, at that) involved in stripping a polyester or urethane finished body, and the low cost of basic pine Tele bodies, you would have been better off just selling the CV body and buying a new pine one. Getting a 100 percent clean strip of polyester or urethane (with a soft wood like pine, no less), good enough to accept a clear finish, is almost an exercise in futility.

But, what's done is done. At this point, you'd be best off just sending the body through a plane sander front and back, at your local hardwoods shop or lumber mill.

But even then, you have that issue of the bridge pickup cavity being wider than the bridge, and that screw hole. Hate to tell you, it's never going to look great with anything but an opaque finish. Again, should have just sold the CV body and bought a bare pine body.

That said, for the '70s natural look, you want a thickly applied aliphatic urethane finish. Really easy.

 

[Jim622]

I used amber dye, pure tung oil and then several layers of wipe on poly

 

[stratisfied]

How are you going to plug the humbucker route from the old bridge pickup?

I have not had a lot of luck spraying neck amber aerosols on anything wider that a neck. I just don't get an even color when going for a light tint. By the time the finish is even in color, it winds up darker/yellower than I like it. I prefer to just use an amber penetrating stain and apply a clear finish over it.

Also, your body is not ash so it will look different than your reference.

 

[jj69]

How are you going to plug the humbucker route from the old bridge pickup?

I have not had a lot of luck spraying neck amber aerosols on anything wider that a neck. I just don't get an even color when going for a light tint. By the time the finish is even in color, it winds up darker/yellower than I like it. I prefer to just use an amber penetrating stain and apply a clear finish over it.

Also, your body is not ash so it will look different than your reference.

Yeah I'm not sure about the humbucker route yet.....might have to just leave it and have it look like the modified guitar that it has been ( plenty of players including Gilmour have done this to their instruments especially 70s era), just not a great look.
Still undecided whether to try the amber nitro, might go your route with the amber stain

 

[Freeman Keller]

Still undecided whether to try the amber nitro, might go your route with the amber stain

Amber stain and amber nitro will look quite different. The stain will highlight a lot of grain and end grain. It is much harder to apply and control, but the results can be outstanding (or a real mess). You do need to get to bare wood which your first picture is not. My rule with stains is to experiment on the same kind of wood as your guitar (ideally a cutoff) - stains are more or less irreverseable.

 

[stratisfied]

I agree with Freeman regarding end grain. If you choose to stain, be sure to spray a sealer coat on the rim of the body or even over the whole body. It keeps the stain from penetrating too deep, especially on end grain.

I have tried amber lacquer but the spray cans I've used don't fan the spray out enough for an even coat on a large surface like a body. They seem fine for a neck or a burst center, but I always get stripes on larger surfaces and have to apply more coats to get even coverage. By then I wind up with a deeper color than desired.

 

[Dismalhead]

I did real tung oil a few years ago. It took forever to cure. The process took like a couple of months as I remember. If I were to do it again I'd do Tru Oil.

 

[UPtele]

A couple coats of spray shellac and Spraymax 2k sanded back a few times to fill the grain