WATER DYE and SEALER ON GUITAR

Email from: Brett 6th Jan 23

Hello , I am going to buy your set of water based dyes , and I am looking at your sanding sealer. This is for a guitar application that I am looking to use Nitrocellulose as the final finish. Will the U-Beat sanding sealer be ok with Nitrocellulose over the top ?  (I’m planning to use Aqua Coats water based grain filler also during the process for the sides , back and neck of the guitar) Any help you can provide will be much appreciated.

Regards,
Brett

My response: 6th Jan 23

Hello Brett

Sanding sealer will happily work with Nitro. However if you’re using water based grain filler the dyes won’t  work as they need to be able to penetrate into the timber and the sealer will stop this. If used first the dyes will more than likely end up being diluted by the water based filler and using the sanding sealer over the top would be a waste of time and energy as it wouldn’t help at all.

Ideally the sanding sealer is used on the raw timber after sanding to raise the nap of the grain, torn by the sanding. This when dry should be wiped off with fine abrasive, 1200 grit or above. Wiped off with the abrasive not sanded as sanding will tear the grain again.

The dye can be applied after using the sanding sealer has been wiped off and will penetrate through the sealer into the surface of the wood. Your nitro coats can then be applied over this and if grain filling is needed, do it with subsequent coats of nitro and sanding back between coat.

I have never used Aqua Coat so not sure how it will work with what you want. Had a look at their video and looks good but I still can’t see how it will help with what you want to do.

I would suggest doing a trial with it on a scrap piece of the wood first. Also looks like it needs to go over a finish rather than under it in the video I saw.

The water based filler really shouldn’t be needed unless the wood is very open grained with deep pores.

If the guitar is acoustic then it’s a good bet that the water based filler may also deaden the sound quality somewhat.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Kind regards

Neil Ellis

Reply from Brett: 7th Jan 23

Hello Neil,
Thank you very much for the email and comments , it helps me out .

The guitar is an electric with figured maple top , and raw mahogany sides and back. Therefore, I will only be dying the top as it’s closed grain and won’t need the filler .

I will order the dyes now and the sanding sealer , I will evaluate the requirement for the  filler some more for the back and sides.

Once again , I appreciate the help !