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Preparing the neck and body for nish is just as important,
if not more important, than the nish application. The key
to a great looking nish is patience and lots of it.
Inspect the body and neck for any dents, chips, or other
imperfections and repair them. Small dents can be steamed
out by placing a damp cloth over the dent and applying
heat with a soldering iron. Chips, tear out, and knotholes
will need to be lled.
Sand the body and neck
Using 150-grit sandpaper on a at sanding block, sand the
entire body working only in the direction of the grain.
After a complete sanding, wipe the body with a damp cloth
to raise the grain, to reveal bers that need more sanding. Let
the dampness dry, then sand the raised grain with 220- grit
sandpaper. After sanding, raise the grain again and sand a
third time, using 320-grit sandpaper. Follow the same pro-
cedure while prepping the neck, using care not to sand on
the fretboard face or fret tops.
Run your ngers lightly along the edge of the fretboard and
feel for sharp fret ends. If the frets feel sharp where they
meet the edge of the neck, gently sand them back with long
strokes down the length of the neck. Use care not to change
the bevel of the frets in the process.
While sanding with 320-grit slightly break any sharp edges
on the fretboard body, ngerboard, and peghead. Soften-
ing these edges promotes an even nish build. It also helps
prevent sanding through the nish if ne sanding is needed
at the end of the job.
Degrease with naptha
When you’ve nished sanding, wipe the body and neck with
a naphtha-dampened lint-free rag to remove any oils or
grease. From this point on, wear clean gloves when handling
so you won’t contaminate the wood.
Tape o the string nut slot and fretboard face, they do not
get lled or nished.
Fill the grain
The body and neck of your guitar kit are made of mahogany,
which is an open grained wood. The grain will need to be
lled before nishing in order to achieve a at surface. We
suggest using our Ebony ColorTone Powdered Grain ller
following the instructions on the label. 2-3 applications
are recommended to get a nice at surface to build nish
coats over.
Prep for nishing
stewmac.com search: i-0269
TIP! Make holding handles for the neck and body. These can
be clamped in a vise or to a bench for lling and nishing, a
hanging hole can be added for drying. Nothing fancy, scrap
wood will do.
For more info on grain lling, see our article #i-0269 "Using
ColorTone Grain Filler" at stewmac.com.
