Acoustic Guitar Construction

I thought the mirror in the Hubbell telescope was flawed?

Well duh - look at the reflections, they are way distorted..:-)

I knew it!! You're setting this guy up!!

Tony's point of using many layers of the top coating as the pore filler is a very simple method often over looked. Using a brush you can lay on some pretty thick coats (nitro) -- take care not to make bubbles -- allow extra time for complete drying. Sanding is a little more difficult, use a few more final coats and allow a good long time to cure, there will be more shrink back -- but it does work fine.

Tonight I finally got the kit guitar project onto the workbench and I started inspecting the parts and vendor's pre-work. I think the makers got paid for assembling with the least possible amount of glue. Lots of gaps everywhere. Moving right along, I looked at the 'laminated' back/sides of the partly-preassembled body, wherein the back is assembled to the kerfed sides. These 'laminated' sides and back are described as 'sycamore' by the vendor, and is 3-ply with the visible sycamore layer being roughly .010" thick.

And this is the question I'm posing: If I give the surface more than a lick with 320/400 grit sandpaper, I'll be cutting through the surface layer into the center core layer. Any suggestions as to what I ought to do to achieve a serviceable surface quality while respecting the extreme thinness of the layer I'll be sanding on will be most gratefully received.

Thanks, folks.

Well...bondo comes to mind, but that will obscure your wood!

In this case, you will need to accept some small surface variations in the finish. Use a smaller sanding block to sand out the lacquer. If the wood has been finish prepped, leave it alone and get to the finish part. For the back and sides, you can apply the finish pretty thick and it wont hurt the sound, so use that to your advantage and put a thick finish on, then sand the finish level, leaving the wood beneath untouched. Capisce??

Tony, I think I get it. This ain't a project that will tolerate trying to blocksand dead level, sounds like. Build up a thick-ish finish and sand carefully so's I don't cut through the veneer.