Spraying a Custom Finish - Part THREE

Nice - everything is clean and prepped. Well, almost. Since I am using an all maple neck, as original, it won't need to be grain filled. The pores in maple are tight enough that grain filling wouldn't really accomplish anything, so I'll skip that step. The ash body (one piece swamp ash, as original) is another story. This wood has loos grain that would leave giant craters in the final finish if left alone. Part of the look of these original blond teles, too, is the fact that neutral grain filler was used under the finish. The white-grey color of the grain filler almost gives a bit of a "pickled" look to the grain.

Oh yeah, I taped off the neck pocket on the body and the neck at first. Tone-wise, it's been said to keep a good wood-to-wood connection in the neck pocket. I actually ended up taking the tape off of the neck and spraying it all with lacquer. I didn't want an edge where the lacquer left off and the bare wood began. I'm keeping this finish super thin anyway, so I thought I'd be fine untaping the neck. I did leave the neck pocket of the body masked off, though. When I dry fit all the parts, the neck was already a very snug fit, and I was afraid of making it so tight that the finish might crack. We'll see, I may need to do some sanding there during the set up.

Now we're grain filling. The trick here is to squeegee filler into the grain (I used an old credit card) while scraping the excess off the top at the same time. Do this ACROSS THE GRAIN. Otherwise, you'll pull your filler out of the grain you just laid it in. Your consistency here is extremely important, and since this stuff is water soluble, and I live in the desert, I had to work fast. You're looking for a jam-like consistency - too thick won't stuff the pores, and too thin will just soak the wood.

This is a messy job at first. Mind the edges and weird curves - look at it in different types of light (sunlight, artificial) to see your missed spots.

After you slather it on, it should look something like this.

Or this. 

Now, let that dry for an hour or so, and come back with a white scotch brite pad and a spritzer of water. Spritz your pad, and LIGHTLY work the grain filler around on the surface of the guitar. You ARE NOT sanding here. No hand pressure is needed. You are simply reactivating the grain filler, and moving it around until you get a smooth, even surface. Look for areas that seem whiter than others, and smooth them until you see wood grain reappear. Let that dry overnight.

I ended up filling in all of my pre-drilled holes, and these string-thru holes. You'll want to take care of these now, with a small scraper. I used the back end of and ex-acto blade. The small pre-drilled holes I'll deal with after the finish cures.

Then give her a light sanding (no pressure again) with 220 until you see the haze of the grain filler give way to the satin sheen of your vinyl sealer. BE CAREFUL NOT TO SAND THROUGH TO THE BARE WOOD. Not a huge deal here, but if you had stained the bare wood previously, it would make fixing a sand through EXTREMELY difficult.

Once everything is sanded down nice and smooth, blow off your piece with the air hose - get up close so you can get all the nooks and crannies cleaned out, but don't hit the wood with your air hose, you could marr the surface. Are you still wearing rubber gloves? Good. Never let your bare hand touch the surface while you're finishing. Spray another light coat of vinyl sealer here to help the water based grain filler blend with the nitrocellulose lacquer you're about to spray.