Finishing poplar

[61fury]

I have made a Poplar body from scratch, and finished it in nitro lacquer. Here are some tips & suggestions from my experience building & finishing guitars in lacquer.

a) IMO Poplar is best used under a solid color, unless you like the variations in color and the green tint.

b) I drill ALL holes and pre-fit everything first, so there are no surprises down the road.

c) I highly recommend a sanding sealer before any finishing begins.

d) I use either paste wax or melted birthday candle wax, dripped in the smaller holes, to keep the wet sanding liquid from swelling the wood during finish sanding. I also use foam ear plugs in the larger holes (like bridge studs & tuner holes) for the same reason.

e) My finishing schedule:
> Complete all woodworking operations, including drilling holes.
> Figure out a way to hang or support the body prior to finishing
> Wipe down the body with naptha to degrease
> Sanding sealer; LIGHTLY sand with 320 when dry. You just want to skim off any fuzzies.
> If doing a solid color, apply enough coats to make sure the body is evenly opaque. Dry overnite, and do not sand.
> Apply clear coats, starting with a light coat first, then a little heavier on the following coats. Apply 3 coats per day for 3 days, with about an hour between each. Lightly sand if you have drips or fuzzies the following day.
> Here's the hard part- you really need the lacquer to cure for 2 weeks (some say longer) before starting any finish sanding. That's always the hard part for me!
> Start wet sanding with 600, then skip by 200 numbers (800, 1000, 1200, etc.) until you end at 2000. This assumes you don't have a mega-buffer and some serious compounds. I use water with a couple of drops of dish soap as a lube.
> I use Meguier's Ultimate Compound on a Griot's Garage 3" orbital polisher for final polishing.

I hope this helps, and I recognize others may have different ideas, but this has worked well for me.

Here's a few photos of some I've done; the first two are the Poplar body:

View attachment 697034View attachment 697035View attachment 697036View attachment 697037View attachment 697038View attachment 697039View attachment 697040

I've seen some of these before, you've got a great eye, those designs and attention to detail are spot on. I especially like the pickguard and the cut of the pickguard to follow the bridgeplate on the Jazzcaster. And the paint on all of them looks perfect.
Really, really nice.

 

[Crobbins]

A poplar body Strat I had built in 1983.

 

[Snfoilhat]

Big box hardware store poplar

Sanded and finished with a few coats of boiled linseed oil.

I thought the worry about poplar was in buying a board or a blank or a body sight unseen because it may have mineral streaks. Are people here saying that the wood may turn streaky after finishing or with age and be an unpleasant surprise?

 

[Dynaman]

My understanding is poplar doesnt look great unpainted, as previously mentioned.

To finish your guitar, check out: https://www.reranch.com/solids.htm

Lots of info on there.

Scott

 

[dougstrum]

Poplar is strong, light, and easy to work.

For finishing it's great for painting, and also takes stain well. For an example of how nice poplar looks with stain just look at AndyPanda's pic of his P bass.

 

[beerguy]

Sorry; the first two photos I posted in post #17 were not a Poplar guitar, they were NW Alder.

Here are the correct photos of the Poplar guitar I built, and you can clearly see the green tint. Probably wouldn't be too pretty under a clear finish.

 

[beerguy]

I've seen some of these before, you've got a great eye, those designs and attention to detail are spot on. I especially like the pickguard and the cut of the pickguard to follow the bridgeplate on the Jazzcaster. And the paint on all of them looks perfect.
Really, really nice.

Thanks 61fury! Are you a Mopar man by any chance?

 

[61fury]

I like MOPAR's but don't claim any special relationship with them. My 8th grade teacher had a 61 and it was ugly until it became oddly beautiful. Parents had a 69 Satellite Station wagon. I love Valiant convertibles and 68 roadrunners. Of course I found Christine totally badass. Other than that , my wife and I inherited a 78 Chrysler Lebaron, white with red vinyl top and crushed velveteen interior. Like a sofa on wheels it was, one finger steering and invisible to cops back when we needed it.

 

[old wrench]

Is poplar a hard wood. I've never seen it bare bones as a guitar body, but notice it is very green and streaky.

Yes, poplar is classified as a hardwood, although it is one of the softer of the hardwoods.

It works very nicely, and is pretty stable after it's dried. I like working with it much better than the more expensive pine which poplar is generally used for as a replacement .

Some poplar is greenish or even purple colored and occasionally streaky, but there is also a lot of it that is more of a cream color or a light tan. I think some of that green or purple or streaky-ness comes from what sort of soil the trees grew in.

Occasionally, you'll find some really nice stuff with a pretty grain, or burling, and even birds-eye.

There is more poplar used for guitars than you might think. Both Fender and Gibson have used it. Fender used it on some solid-bodies and Gibson uses it for layering up some it's plywood which is used on semi-hollows.

Poplar takes stain really well. I used poplar for all the stained trim on a series of 12 different Fifth/Third banks I built. The color sample we matched up to was a faux-cherry color that looked very nice and even surprised more than a few people when they found out it was just regular old poplar that we were using .

I still have over 1,000 bd. ft. of poplar stashed up in the attic. There is an assortment of crown molding, chair-rail, and door and window casing in the pile, but most it is plain S4S 1" stock. I've been slowly working through the pile, and you'll see it show up in a lot of my jigs and fixtures.

I think poplar has gotten a bad rap, it's a good reasonably priced wood.

Some folks might even consider it a "tone-wood" .


.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

There are a number of species that are called "poplar". From the standpoint of woodworking, most of the poplar is Tulip Poplar/Yellow Poplar/Liriodendron tulipifera which is a member of the magnolia family. It's a huge part of the domestic furniture industry in the US. It's a hardwood for sure, but certainly "less hard" than cherry, maple, etc. I've had a few thousand board feet of my property milled since the early 2000s and I really like working with it. What I like about it is that it can "become" other, more expensive species, visually through dye and other finishing techniques and it works easily. I do not like using pigment stains on it, however...it can get "muddy" like pine does. The heartwood when fresh cut/milled may have a greenish tinge to it, but that fades to a warm brown fairly quickly. Some material (usually from box-store sources, etc) may have mineral staining (darker blue/black/green streaking, so those particular pieces are not often used for show pieces but are perfectly good to use for secondary wood purposes.

Small trivia...the Tulip Poplar is an important early season nectar and pollen source for honey bees. Professor Dr. SWMBO keeps honey bees so we're thankful that we have so much of this tree nearby.

 

[PapaWheelie]

I've made many guitars from poplar as it is more readily available in 8/4 than most others around here, it wood works well and sounds good. I think much of the poplar has a more interesting grain pattern than a lot of alder guitars I have seen - not all definitely - but some alder and pine can be pretty plain Jane. Although I haven't done any butterscotch, I have finished several using only lacquer by applying coats of lacquer toner under the clear and over the lacquer vinyl sealer. Think of it like applying a tint to the wood. You can still see the grain but in a see through tinted finish. Behlens lacquer toner in a rattle can worked well for me. By applying coat after coat of tone you can get the finish you want and even do a see through burst by applying the same tint in more layers around the edges. Looks good. The toner is available in several shades.

 

[jrob3fz]

Thank you all for the information! I decided to go with a solid blonde, until a new problem arose- lack of a respirator or mask (and I can't imagine getting one will be easy given the current situation), also, no real nicely-ventilated area aside from outside, but I don't like the idea of spraying outside, too much dust/things that may stick to the finish. As this is my first build and certainly not the prettiest, I am considering playing around with a Zinsser Bulls-eye shellac as a primer, followed by a gel stain and finished with polyurethane.
Does that sound like a good idea? I only have one green streak in the body, and its not terribly green; I would attach a picture, but my camera is currently out of order...

Thank you all for all the helpful tips, and I hope everyone is staying safe out there!

 

[Jim_in_PA]

If you use the shellac, use wax free, especially if anything with polyurethane resin is involved. It doesn't even like to stick to itself...

 

[jrob3fz]

If you use the shellac, use wax free, especially if anything with polyurethane resin is involved. It doesn't even like to stick to itself...

Thanks for the heads up! I'll post a pic once I finish it (still waiting on the supplies, since I had to order them online)

 

[Preacher]

Mine looked like yours when I started.

Turned out like this.

 

[Rob L]

White poplar body. Haven't seen the grain yet. Haven' even gotten the body yet!
IF the body looks good I want to keep it natural, no color, no stain just natural with a high gloss.

I have a can of General Finishes water based high gloss top coat. Would I just get it to the final sanding them start applying the GF?

I've read and been told poplar does not need a grain filler so that step is cut out. Again no stains no colors. (Of course if it winds up with green in it or a terrible grain this is all a moot point).
This stuff is pretty easy to use. Brush on a few coats. Wet sand, another coat or two, wet sand until I have the gloss I want. Then polish and buff.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Rob, that's a good product.

Whether or not you need to "grain fill" the poplar depends upon the stock you used. Some tulip poplar (most likely what you have given where you live) is smooth as a baby's behind. Some is prone to tearout. When in doubt, there's no downside to sealing/filling. The better your prep before top-coating, the better your end result.

 

[Rob L]

Rob, that's a good product.

Whether or not you need to "grain fill" the poplar depends upon the stock you used. Some tulip poplar (most likely what you have given where you live) is smooth as a baby's behind. Some is prone to tearout. When in doubt, there's no downside to sealing/filling. The better your prep before top-coating, the better your end result.

Hi Jim.
So I'll probably grain fill it just to be safe. So I'm assuming once it's all done I can just start brushing the top coat on and go for that natural look with a gloss.

Unless the body looks like crap right out of the box and then it get's stain..

 

[Jim_in_PA]

The smoother you get it now, the better the gloss will look. Glossy finish shows surface imperfections more than non-glossy because they interrupt the reflections. So yea, I'd "fill", and sand and smooth and so forth before starting those top coats.

 

[Rob L]

The smoother you get it now, the better the gloss will look. Glossy finish shows surface imperfections more than non-glossy because they interrupt the reflections. So yea, I'd "fill", and sand and smooth and so forth before starting those top coats.

Well I have an entire tub of Aqua Coat grain filler I can use up. I'll use the whole thing if need be. Then sand it. Now GFS says their bodies are sanded to like 220. If that's true then a good sanding with 320 maybe 400 should be me a smooth surface then I'll hit it with Aqua Coat. Sand that down and do it again until I feel like I have that super smooth glass finish. Then start with that GF top coat. 2 -3 coats..wet sand..2 -3 coats wet sand. I'm thinking close to 10 coats with the 10th coat being the final. Give it a light sanding then use the car polish on it and see what I get!

Jim I wanna thank you for all your help and advice.

Oh I'm getting a drill guide so I can drill all my holes straight now and not crooked.