French polish repair

[John Link]

Renee,

You are the final judge of what looks so bad you can't stand it. Looking only at the photo, this does not look that bad to me. I've seen $100k vintage gits that look much much worse.

What I want to warn you about is simple, though. Should you undertake this repair, it is easy for me to imagine you might get into problems that lead to worse outcomes than what you have now. It is much easier to finish a new guitar than it is to repair one with a damaged finish.

So be careful and good luck.

[Renee Labordus]

Renee,

You are the final judge of what looks so bad you can't stand it. Looking only at the photo, this does not look that bad to me. I've seen $100k vintage gits that look much much worse.

What I want to warn you about is simple, though. Should you undertake this repair, it is easy for me to imagine you might get into problems that lead to worse outcomes than what you have now. It is much easier to finish a new guitar than it is to repair one with a damaged finish.

So be careful and good luck.

That occurred to me as well John.
Would it be easier if I lacquered it, instead of FP? After prepping the surface as new of course.

[Renee Labordus]

Thank you John.

[ken cierp]

I've searched for years for "blind test results" that have verified that a French Polish top actually sounds better than lacquer. As a matter of fact there are premier classic makers that use brushed applied "varnish" Kinkead uses Truoil, Doolin uv cured lacquer, Greven has his own process etc. I just don't agree with the idea that not French Polishing will result in an audible detriment to a guitar classic or other. I certainly see that FB is mainstream in classic guitar marketing. Sorry I have to be the devil's advocated on this issue --- FP is nice but if properly applied so are the other coatings including the modern water bore products.

[ken cierp]

As a follow up to my last post regarding blind tests --- of course a blind test comparing a "carbon fiber violin" to a Stradivarius would be for comedic reasons only -- almost sacrilegious, but is has been done and yielded some shocking results. This is a good read and evidence to me why its difficult to separate the myths from reality when it comes to comparisons of the subjective elements regarding musical instrument excellence.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notro ... -new-ones/

[Renee Labordus]

Repair as good as it is going to get.

[Dave Bagwill]

That's an excellent repair, to my eye at least! Good job.