Repair And Restoration
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Blotch – what next?
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Blotch – what next?
First, I’m new at this so thanks for any advice.
I’m re-topping my Mom’s first guitar (it’s own story). My plan is to finish the top with lacquer and in preparation I sprayed shellac out of a can and then pore sealed with crystalac. I thought I had it all sanded evenly but when I sprayed the first coat of lacquer, there were blotches everywhere. Do I just need to sand down to bare wood and start over or is there a way to fix this?
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4 Replies
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I’m not picking up blotches in the pics. I see the natural stripes of grain pattern, but I’ll assume that there are blotches, which is a common problem.
It could be that in the stripping process, not all of the original finish was removed. This can lead to blotching because the UV of the top wood hasn’t been normalized and because the old finish may have become slightly darker with time etc. The only way to alleviate this is to re-sand. It looks like the wood might be cedar, in which case, that original finish can be really really deep. You may just take the blotches for structural considerations.
One thing also, I hand rub the shellac sealer coat. Spraying anything onto open wood like spruce or cedar can lead to blotching.
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Thanks, Ian! This’ll be that first top where, years from now, I’ll look at it and say, “I remember when Ian told me to do things differently. And I sold all my tools the next day”.
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I can’t tell if I really bummed you out bad enough to sell all your tools for real or if you’re messing with me.
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All good, tools are intact. Thanks again!
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