Can you sand the finish off a Laminate Guitar without ruining the wood underneath?
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- In this video I take a junk guitar and find out whether it's possible to sand the finish off a laminate guitar without ruining the wooden veneer underneath.
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Andrew Kennedy is a Brisbane musician, teacher and UA-camr. He has released several albums of his of music, and performs regularly around Brisbane in various formats.
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Simple but VERY informative. Been considering this on a couple cheaper guitars I have. Good stuff man.
Water sanding with 220 grit water sandpaper is a lot faster to remove the finish' followed by 400 grit and 600 to smooth it out.
I’ll have to remember that for next time
Thank you sir!
I do wood Pyrography and have always wanted to do an acoustic guitar, my neighbor was throwing one away so I took the opportunity and saved it
Thank you for the informative video👍🏻
Great video 👍 👍 👍 🎉🎉🎉 Helps to demystify sanding off laminated guitar boards.
Really what i been searching for quite a while...
Brillant, so glad it was helpful. I made this video because I couldn't find this information myself.
My guess is the wood has been sealed with a pore filler before the finish was applied, which explains why it was so hard to sand through it. Interesting experiment. I'm planning to do similar my guitar (which has a solid wood top, sides and back), but only to remove the thick poly coat.
how did you go? what was your process?
@@MastersOfTheHeart Haven't gotten around to it yet! (It's not a guitar I play very often)
The back of the guitar always turns out the best . You just have to go slow and make sure you have the right kind of sandpaper I had to learn that the hard way .
You are a G! Thank you for throwing this Hail Mary for us. (I know you are British and may not know what I'm talking about. But what you did is a great thing! Thank you!).
I'm Australian, and yes I know what a Hail Mary is. Glad the video was helpful!
i just found one for $7 at goodwill lucked out been wanting to do a custom guitar for awhile as an artist im excited to get creative
I so got a lot out of this! Thank you sir!
I've been changing mine over the past 3 years I've sanded it three different times . But this past time I tried to use my roto tool with a sanding bit and it would have done really good if I could hold it straight but the sanding tool is only about maybe half an inch but I have gouged it to death it looks like I took a hammer and just beat the hell out of it because it's so uneven lol but I've gotten mine down to that last layer of wood and if you stain it with like a black stain it actually looks pretty cool if you can get everything even . Also if you want to make a cheap guitar look like a expensive guitar there's a company called neck illusions that can make you these stickers that it makes your fretboard look like it has a paint job and it's a very cool company he will email you and make sure everything is perfect before he sends it off . Literally anything you can think of he can turn it into stickers to put on your fretboard and it protects your frets while making your guitar look awesome I have some on mine and it changes the whole dynamic of the guitar I can't say enough about that company 🤘🏻
Can u do a video how to stain and varnish...using the same guitar will do...
I do plan to sand back and refinish a full guitar like this yes, but it won't be the guitar featured in this video as it's damaged beyond economical repair. The neck is warped, half separated from the body, the top and bridge are bowed/warped etc. I'll do the refinish on something like a Yamaha C40. Hopefully early next year.
Andrew, you sound Australian.
Is that accent real lol.
I actually do custom guitars sometimes when I am asked to revamp some of the cheaper models,.
Sometimes if the edges start to come of you can put an edging on the guitar it can make the whole guitar finish look appealing.
I sure am yes, I live in Brisbane, where the Olympics will be held in 2032.
> if the edges start to come of you can put an edging on the guitar it can make the whole guitar finish look appealing.
Ohhhhhh, that's a good idea. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Major upgrade!
YEAH I DID FIND THIS HELPFUL.
Thanks
This is a veryy cool and informative video thank you for the information!
You’re welcome. I always wished a video like this existed so I had to make it myself
Can you use citrus trip to remove the finish?
thanks... Can we see is the final result?
I wasn’t planning on refinishing this particular guitar as it’s beyond repair. However, I do plan to sand/refinish a similar guitar. Probably a Yamaha C40 if I can get hold of one second hand.
Very interesting! I have a cheap old Yamaha classical I was considering doing something similar. Would you think starting with an orbital sander with fine paper for the front and back would be ok?
I'm about to do a full guitar this way soon. So keep an eye out for a new video. But to answer your question, I suppose an orbital sander could work, yes. But you'd have to keep a close eye on when you break through the layer of finish and make sure you don't go any deeper or spend any more time around that area than you have to. Maybe use the sander to get rid of the bulk and then finish with hand sanding?
That’s exactly what I was wanting to know… I bought a cheap Vinci Signature guitar from a friend of mine who used to own a guitar shop… We worked on it a little bit at his house and got the strings way closer to the fretboard and it’s actually not a bad guitar to play…😂 I’ve been tossing around some ideas about how to make it look better… I was kinda thinking about painting it but now I’m thinking about going with a matte finish… I took the hideous pick guard off so there’s a lighter color where the pick guard used to be… If I did go with a matte finish what do you use to protect them? Thanks in advance.
Glad the video was a help. For a Matt Finish I normally use Danish oil built up in many many thin coats. Two coats will look quite dull and a bit disappointing. 10-20 will start to look pretty good. 20-30 will start to get a semi-gloss sheen. 50+ coats will get glossy.
There's also Poly finish (in spray or wipe on) which will look good as a matt finish. I prefer Danish Oil because it's more forgiving for someone with less experience and is very repairable. Subsequent coats (even around repair spots) blend in easily.
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials awesome, thanks for the info
Couldn't you use paint remover like the stuff used on furniture restoration
ive been eyeing the yamaha transacoustic but theyve got that awful plasticy finish :(
What can i do if i sand it until the second layer? Can i fix it by using wood filler?
Not really, that can’t be fixed. If you’ve got nothing to lose, maybe try sanding the rest of the top layer off so that the second layer is completely exposed. Risky though. Hope it’s a cheap guitar
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials oh nooo. Tq for replying
What would you use to seal it again after sanding it down?
My favourite finish is probably Danish Oil at the moment. Most people think that it only gives you a very dull finish, but if you apply 20-30 (or more) very thin coats, it can become shinier. I imagine if you took it to 100 coats it would be like gloos.
I like Danish Oil because it's very repairable. So if you have to re-sand a small area, it's easy to reapply Danish oil and it blends back in with what's around it.
You can also use Danish oil as a mild pore filler. When you apply the first couple of coats, you do it with wet/dry sandpaper which creates a slurry that fills the pores.
I'll admit though, all these coats are time consuming (not to apply, just waiting for each one to dry) so it's only something I do on my own guitars. Less important projects I just use a spray on Poly.
I used steel wool on my acoustic guitar to remove the gloss.
What grit did you use? And did it leave scratch marks?
I’m about to do it on beautiful Martin d41 wish me luck
Whoa. Good luck!
Would this be the same for a solid wood guitar like the Yamaha ll16d?
The stakes aren’t so high with a solid wood guitar. You can just keep sanding and the top/back/sides will get a tiny bit thinner but never look terrible. A laminate guitar only has one “good looking” layer, the top layer, and it’s ultra-thin. If you sand through it the layer below doesn’t look as good. Also, if you sand through the top layer of laminate in one spot, you really need to sand the rest away for it to look uniform.
In summary, sanding back a solid guitar is pretty safe compared to laminate.
Interesting.
How did you handle the edge bindings?
I don’t there were any. The “bindings” were just painted on. Sides and top just meet at the edge with no real binding.
Thank you!
Did you end up finishing one? I just started wet sanding a Lucero from GC. Seems to work so far. Thanks for video!
Hi, sure, but did you ever finish sanding off the rest of it and doing an oil finish? bit of a disappointing ending to not see how it turns out m8
No, as I said n the video this guitar is uneconomical to repair, it’s junk. It was the perfect guitar to experiment with sanding a small area for this video, that’s all. Sanding the rest, doing an oil finish, that would take a huge amount of time, 20-30 hours, and it would just be a pretty piece of junk.
I’ll do a full strip and refinish in another video with a guitar that’s worth the effort. Probably a Yamaha C40 or something.
idk, seems like a waste of time to sand a patch and go ok yeah looks like we can do that. that seemed pretty obvious? why do you need to check if you can do it if you're not gonna follow thru? the real experiment is if it sounds different when you do the whole thing? and how it looks when you do the full refin. thanks! @@HighRoadMusicTutorials
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials also I don't fully believe in a junk guitar. we shouldn't really be buying or making disposable guitars to start with. but once they exist almost any guitar is worth saving and worth trying to get it playing decently. sure it might not sound immaculate but someone can learn and have fun on it instead of it just going to landfill. so I don't appreciate you spreading the idea that it's junk just because it has a laminate top or is made in china or whatever. thanks
> seems like a waste of time...that seemed pretty obvious?
No, not at all. There's little information and no videos that I can find on this topic. If you read through the comments here you can see that it was appreciated by a whole lot of people wondering the same thing.
> why do you need to check if you can do it if you're not gonna follow thru?
Maybe google the word "testing". Go to www.google.com and type the word "testing" into the text box. (You don't need to include the quotation marks). Then press the button below that says Google Search. Next, a whole page of results will appear. If you have any trouble with this, you can also google "how to use google" with the same process. Good luck friend.
@@Obscurity202 > I don't appreciate you spreading the idea that it's junk just because it has a laminate top or is made in china or whatever.
It's not junk because it's laminate, or because of where it's made. It's junk because it's damaged beyond economical repair. If you'd like to see details of the damage, it's shown clearly in another video of mine called Why you shouldn't put Steel Strings on a Classical Guitar: ua-cam.com/video/f0-DqfLSZBE/v-deo.html
As you'll see in that video, the previous owner had put heavy steel strings on it and left them on for years. As a result, the neck was warped, bowed and cracked where it met the body. The guitar top was severely buckled/bowed and the (probably plastic) bridge was lifting off the guitar. A guitar in this state is not economical to repair, especially one this cheap.
I agree with you that even cheap guitars can be given a new life. But not this one, not as a playable guitar.
However, I have used it for educational purposes. Primarily for my own learning of guitar construction, and to share with my UA-cam followers.
Maybe go find something more important to rant about?
Could you use regular paint thinner or stripper
Nope! the issue is that stripper might also disolve the glue that keeps it together, but denatured ethanol will work perfectly becasu it dryes quick just open the pores first with sand paper just to remove the shine
@@StormUSA It's ok, but I already did all of it just sanding it all to wood. I knew with laminate wood-like that would probably destroy it. But if was regular electric guitar it would work. But I already finished with mine. Didnt do his exact method, but it works.
When's the part 2?
Not far away actually. I have squired a few junk guitars for this purpose and will be doing it soon.
how did you clear out all the sandust from inside?
Ohhhhhh, I forgot about that. It’s probably full of dust yes. If I ever get back to this guitar, I’ll probably use a leaf blower to blow the dust out.
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials you mean you've not been playing it...or you have been playing it filled with sanddust?
@@lisavento7474 No I haven't been playing it. It's pretty much a junk guitar that I was experimenting with. I hadn't occurred to me that it might still be full of sawdust from when I filmed this video.
Would sanding effect Sound at all of the guitar?
I guess I don't really know. It's reasonable to assume that a heavy polyurethane finish (which is what most cheap guitars have) would affect the tone. But I don't know how much, or whether removing the finish would change the tone for better or worse. My gut instinct is that if there is a difference, it's probably very minor.
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials hey thank you so much i actually vsaw a guitar once that was covered in bumper stickers 😂 and i always Wondered if that had an effect on the sound too, but loved ur video thank you for he advice!
Now i can safely perform my own art project that im planning on, Thank you brother ! ✌️
Hi there, can I use 150 grit sand paper?
Absolutely, it’ll just be a little slower than 120
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials I need natural finish on my guitar............ So, can lacquer affect its tonal qualties.......... Thank you in advance ;-)
@@ItsMe-db2wv On an Acoustic Guitar (as opposed to Electric) I would assume that yes, lacquer/finish does affect tone. But I don't really know how much. I would guess not very much.
Maybe I should do a video on that?
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials AND WHAT IF I APPLY NO LACQUER Or STICKER BOMB IT WILL IT AFFECT IT'S SOUND THEN.......... PLEASE TRY TO SORT MY PROBLEM HERE IN COMMENT SECTION AS I NEED SOMEBODY'S SUGGESTION QUICKLY....... AND THEN AFTER PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO ON THIS TOPIC AS IT WILL HELP MANY PEOPLE A LOT........ LOvE from 🇮🇳 MY BROTHER...... 💖
He never got around to doing the project he talked about at the end.
Not yet, but hopefully soon.
@@HighRoadMusicTutorials
I’d be very interested in that. I have a Fender FA-100 acoustic and I’ve been thinking about sanding the laminate off of it. It’s a perfectly fine sounding guitar, but I just hate the way it looks.
Hi, I’ve spent a few weeks repairing a Yamaha acoustic as best I could that someone’s foot went through top of at a party! Serious damage, split wood under sound hole in 2. The guy who owned it chucked it away. I took it. Despite the massive damage the sound was still gorgeous. Like you i hated the finish on it so I sanded the entire top layer of laminate off revealing beautiful, grained, mahogany below. I did most of it by hand but took a small power sander to it yesterday with fine paper on it. I’ve rubbed natural/un boiled linseed oil on it and it looks really beautiful. I don’t anticipate the sound will have changed at all from when I began as I put strings on it once sanded to check the sound. The only thing is now I’m down to the original layer of wood (albeit solid) the guitar will be flimsier/unprotected but given it’s had a foot through the front already and been given a 2nd life and a lot of love I think I can carry on looking after it and protect it from drunken people in the future!
Hope this helps.
Oh, in terms of tone and general sound - what I HAVE noticed is that when I tap different areas of the guitar (on sound board) the sound is different in different areas as you’d expect given bindings etc BUT I’ve noticed, to my ears anyway, the change in these sounds due to the now thinner nature of the wood. It’s strange as that surely would also affect the sound of the guitar with strings on - it probably will to a luthier’s ears, but to mine, this guitar still sounds very warm and full - possibly due to the sides and back having been lightly sanded and not taken right down to the original layer? 🤔
“Junk guitar” this is what’s wrong with America. This guitar could go to someone who can’t afford one. And really wants to play.
I'm not from America, so America's problems are probably not related to this guitar.
In a previous video (ua-cam.com/video/f0-DqfLSZBE/v-deo.html) I explain why this guitar has been damaged beyond economical repair by a previous owner who put heavy steel strings on it. It's neither playable, nor repairable for less than the price of a new guitar. Hence, it is by any definition junk.