New NZ member: locally available finishing products?

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Moose
Gidgee
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:09 pm

New NZ member: locally available finishing products?

Post by Moose » Sun Nov 14, 2021 4:12 pm

Hi all, new guy here down south in NZ. I've been playing for over 40 years, and now become interested in building. I've assembled a few kit guitars, and now I'm tooling up to make my own purely for hobby. I'm fortunate to have resources to throw at my hobby. I intend to build solid bodies for a while before moving on to acoustics later. I have to develop my wood working skills from scratch.

I've tried staining and oil finishes to nice effect, now I'm thinking about lacquer and colour finishes. I will be able to set up a small spray booth, so I'm curious about what specific products kiwis are using, clears and colour finishes. I use Stewmac a lot, but they only ship water based products. I'm by nature attracted to the unconventional. and I very much like the effect of wood and paint together. I'm a total beginner at this stage.

Btw, I'm keen to make a T style guitar body from macrocarpa, which is a bit soft. Is there any meaningful protection from dings available from modern clear products? Anyone tried the Solarez laquers on softwood?

Advice and guidance on specific products would be very much appreciated. Also, are there any native wood species I should avoid for whatever reason? I don't know if matai is suitable neck material, but it feels very nice when polished.

seeaxe
Blackwood
Posts: 768
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:20 pm
Location: Auckland NZ

Re: New NZ member: locally available finishing products?

Post by seeaxe » Sun Nov 14, 2021 6:38 pm

Hi Moose and welcome aboard.

Greetings from the lockdown province!!

Woods- As you are probably already aware, there are different schools of thought on how much difference the wood makes in a purely electric guitar. I don't say I am right but personally I don't think it makes a lot of difference or rather that the pickups will make a much bigger difference. I'd save money on wood (within reason) and spend money on pickups, but its up to you. Hence I think any wood is fair game, as long as its stable and not too heavy. My experience is heavier, denser woods will give you more sustain which is nice as long you don't have to gig all night with the thing. I used heart rimu for my first tele, and kwila for the second (cos I had it lying around). Sounded good but much too heavy. I ended up chambering the kwila one. Next ones will be mahogany (cos I had it laying around) and my first "proper" guitar blank of black limba, which I bought from Stewmac in a moment of weakness. Necks, I found some rock maple at Timspecs early on and have some of that left so have been using that. I don't see why matai would not make a good neck, I'd try to find some quarter sawn if you can. Lots of old matai flooring about in recycle places.

Finish, I have used rattle cans with some success on the electrics. I don't think they will protect a very soft wood much. You could try a coat of epoxy resin? If you are really concerned, I would avoid the soft woods as solid body guitars do get dinged, pretty easily it seems.

The pros seem to use a product called Mirotone, if you search on this forum you will find many references to it. If you are good at spray painting and you can handle the environmental issues, that would be worth a try. Don't know where you would get it down there but its available in a 4l can in Auckland. Google Mirotone and you will find them in East Tamaki.

Looking forward to seeing some pics of your builds! Dont be shy!

Cheers
Richard
Richard

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