Veneer questions

[etaeniura]

Working on a project guitar and am considering trying my hand at refinishing. The problem is that the strat body I have has a few dowel plugs in it. I want to cover it with a veneer of some sort and need advice from those who have done this.

1. Where can I order veneers from?
2. What is the best adhesive to use?
3. Will it take a finish as well as the original top?
4. Is it difficult to work with-i.e./breaking due to the thinness?

This guitar is going to be made primarily from parts bought here on the board, and is my first attempt at "ghetto" luthiery (if you can call it that!) Any help is appreciated!

[Evol]

Re: Veneer questions

Originally posted by etaeniura:

1. Where can I order veneers from?
2. What is the best adhesive to use?
3. Will it take a finish as well as the original top?
4. Is it difficult to work with-i.e./breaking due to the thinness?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. Ebay
2. contact cement
3. Depends,with trial and error you can make it look pretty good.
4. Absolutely [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

See this thread for a ghetto guitar I'm currently working on that can hopefully shed some light on the subject :
http://www.jcfonline.com/ubb/noncgi/...c;f=7;t=001186

[etaeniura]

Re: Veneer questions

Ok, I read the thread. Another question is:

What about the forearm contour on the strat body? (The angled part on the lower left half of the body) Will the veneer bend over it without getting a gap underneath? I was going to do a transparent finish, but i may end up doing it solid if the veneer is going to be a total PITA.

[Evol]

Re: Veneer questions

Originally posted by etaeniura:
Ok, I read the thread. Another question is:

What about the forearm contour on the strat body? (The angled part on the lower left half of the body) Will the veneer bend over it without getting a gap underneath? I was going to do a transparent finish, but i may end up doing it solid if the veneer is going to be a total PITA.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah it'll bend over the contour....the way I did it with contact cement is I got it nice and flat on the rest of the body first then did the contour last.....make sure when you cut your veneer that you leave at least 3/4" - 1" extra off the sides of the contour for safe measure.

[zeegler]

Re: Veneer questions

Yeah, Evol, you did a fantastic job on that. My own project is still on hold. I have a friend who has several large sheets of Australian lacewood and he's going to give me a sheet if I go with him to pick it up(it's at a friends house about a 2 hour drive away), but we haven't gotten around to it yet. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[etaeniura]

Re: Veneer questions

I saw a few sheets of veneer for sale on ebay, and it is pretty cheap to gat some flamed maple. I'm wondering if the sheets are big enought so I could cut them at an angle so the "flames" go up or down instead of straight out-like that purple one Sully had on here a few months ago. I guess since the body was only 20 bucks, if I F*&% it up tooo bad it is no big loss.

[straycat]

Re: Veneer questions

Yes make the body contour the last thing you do.After you do the flat part let it dry while you have it clamped or tied.I do this so the veneer does not move.once it s stable apply you adhesive and work the contour down evenly then clamp it down.I like to tie the veneer down it seems to put even pressure so you don't get any bubbles. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Evol]

Re: Veneer questions

Originally posted by etaeniura:
I saw a few sheets of veneer for sale on ebay, and it is pretty cheap to gat some flamed maple. I'm wondering if the sheets are big enought so I could cut them at an angle so the "flames" go up or down instead of straight out-like that purple one Sully had on here a few months ago. I guess since the body was only 20 bucks, if I F*&% it up tooo bad it is no big loss.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I would make sure the sheets are big enough,but also make sure the flame pattern in the veneer goes out as far as possible....on some flame veneers the pattern is really dense in the middle (if you are book matching it)...or the ends basically...........but they stop before the other end of the piece.I'll try and find you a pic of what I'm talking about in case this isn't coming out right [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

The reason being that if you are going to bookmatch it like the one Sully has then you would be cutting out wood from the middle of the bookmatched piece to get the same effect so if you wanted the flames to go all the way to the edges get a veneer that goes all the way out or some really big pieces that go out far enough to reach the end of the guitar.Oh,and get plenty of veneer from the same bunch to try it out first
before you stick it to the guitar.