How to STAIN and LACQUER a GUITAR, a complete guide | Quilted maple LES PAUL build | E4/4 

Relaxing to watch and nicely done although I'm not sure I learnt much from it. I wish there was some sort of commentary either as you were doing it or added afterwards, just explaining what you're doing, what you're using and what sort of things your thinking of/looking out for/taking into consideration as you're doing it. That would be really helpful and add a lot of value to the video.

The look on his face (new owner), priceless. Making the world a better place, one guitar at a time.

I'm a fine furniture maker of 30 years. This video makes me want to make a Les Paul... That Quilted Maple was Bonkers !

VERY well done! Thank you for sharing your expertise for other Luthiers. That is the sign of a true master of their craft.

Never seen your videos before, but definitely appreciate the silent approach. Those of us who are visual do not need endless babble. Very cool, and nice touch with the reaction at the end. Love that wifey was just as excited as hubby to see it. Wholesome moment and your work was at the centre of it.

Its amazing that purple guitars aren't way more wide spread because they always look incredible

Congrats! Watching this beast being made was as fun as watching the new owner receive it. Absolutely beautiful.

Beautiful, beautiful instrument. Hope you enjoy it for years to come.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Beautiful guitar! Thanks for sharing your experience and techniques.

Purple and gold hardware . Wow . Now some Gold pickup covers

Great detail to the color and lacquer! Going to look like a piece of grape candy when done!

Wow that is the most gorgeous guitar I’ve ever seen. Love that color which was one of the candy colors I had painted on my blown gas flat show quality drag boat .

One word : Professional.

What a lovely and nice master-piece of artwork ...! Thanks a lot ffor this delicious video-clip! Love and peace on earth ...!!!

Another great video! I am learning a lot. You do make things look easy which I know is NOT the case. 😄

Love the colour and finish

This is a AWESOME video...and guys...for those of you who made negative comments....look this isn't a hold your hand how to video....by the time your watching this...these skills should already be in your build knowledge...using tools...setting up necks and gluing...using stains and airbrushes...these are things that should be mastered on individual levels...this is a fantastic presentation showing a professional at his love.....well done....and BTW...beautiful purple quilted maple LP 👍👍👍👍

It was pleasure watching your work.

Beautiful guitar, great work

Amazing, thank you so much for sharing your process and knowledge.

One of the best Ive seen! Really Great Work!

Amazing video, that dudes joy when seeing his new guitar was awesome. Proud of you buddy 🤘🤘🤘

I really enjoyed the video. Thanks for the time and effort you spent making it.

Stunningly beautiful.

Great job!Excellent

What a beautiful guitar, amazing work!

Great video, what a stunning finish. So good to see you back here. Looking forward to catching up with the other videos. All the best and keep up the great work.

Stunning guitar! I currently have a hollow body LP type on my bench waiting to be carved. I'm loving your channel!

Excellent job!

Thx for the video. You’re such a careful craftsman.

Love the fact you have posted some more videos recently mate. Been a fan of your stuff on here for a few years. Always build amazing looking guitars

What a lovely purple

Great work.

Freeking AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love that Tiger picture on his wall , I want a guitar like that !!!!!!!!!

That’s a gorgeous guitar.

For the people complaining about commentary, he has a link to his full video with commentary in the description😂

Que bello trabajo, gracias por compartirlo. Felicidades 👍

A Very talented Professional 🐝💤👍

No idea what’s going on in this video. Can you overdub and talk about what you are using, techniques etc?

Gorgeous piece of art, congrats 👏👏👏👍👍

Wonderful video and stunning work.

Thanks for posting.

To get the back plates to perfectly match you can cut them out of the mahogany body using a very fine blade in a scroll saw or fret saw before gluing the maple cap on. You can glue the block back once you cut the cover off, then machine out the cavity to give the needed recess for the back plate to sit on. This method will make the back plates almost disappear.

I do custom painting and airbrushing on the side and I have to say I'm not nearly as meticoulous as you are. You are truely an artist in your craft. Cudo's to you my friend. 👏👍👌

Thats perfectly pretty

巧夺天工真是人才。

So much of it is how it looks

Nice color....looks like one I did 👍

I really enjoyed the video and love the results. I read through all the comments you replied to, and judging by your level of sarcasm, you must be tired of answering why there's no commentary. I agree with the masses, but for a different reason. After reviewing the questions, most are about the products used and a lot less about your techniques, and I would also fall into that category. I think a simple matrix of what you used all in one place would answer the larger majority of users' questions and save you a LOT of time and frustration. Although I enjoyed the sarcasm, and you kinda earned the right IMO. I know I'm not immune, so fire away :) I have never built a guitar or attempted a finish, so after seeing this video, I became inspired and bought a guitar kit with a maple flame top. My only hope for my first guitar finish is that I don't completely botch it. I feel I can follow your techniques by watching the video, but, my inner beginner needs more specifics on the products. I took moments of your video and tried to piece everything together the best I could. Would it be too much to ask for you to correct me and fill in the blanks or add a bit more detail where necessary? 1000 thanks in advance. Sealing faux bindings - Chestnut Sanding Sealer Neck glue up - ? Grain fill DIY - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hx-6Mhd31qQ.html Preparing to spray some cherry shader - Spirit-based dye added to thinned-down lacquer Clearcoat to protect the color - ? Raising the grain before applying dye - Damp rag with water Applying dye diluted about 50/50 - Angelus Purple, diluted with? Acetone pulls out excess dye and helps to blend colour - ? Brand ? Sanding sealer to prevent colours from running - Chestnut Sanding Sealer ? Clear coat - Morrells lacquer Spraying the edge burst - ? Building up the clearcoats - Morrells lacquer leveling the laquer - After 3 weeks, 1200 on top and 800 on the back. buffing - Chemical Guys swirl remove

I like the way you put that black veneer between the maple top and the body. I'm doing the same thing on my current build.

Insanely helpful for a beginning luthier. Hope I can get spraybooth access eventually...thanks so much for this, subscribed!

Some commentary about what you are using at different steps would make this video a lot more useful. Otherwise, its just fun to watch.

awesome.

Very nice, especially if you're a Deep Purple fan.

Dude, your work is outstanding. It would be interesting to have a commentary on the video about the materials you use, why and also why you use the overall approach that you do. Beautiful work.

Nice! Got a double neck I got to do!

Absolutely awesome work. I want a strato, I live in Europe.

Amazing guitar! And The Running Mates are the owners. Nice!

Beautiful job, and very inspiring!

Brilliant! Though my Les Paul studio doesn’t have a figured maple top it could use a nicer finish.

Good job

Fantastic work as ever - would be great to know which make of stains and lacquers youre using here. The guitars just keep getting better and better !

Excellent work and stunning finish. Just when gluing the neck I would have have placed a block on the fretboard before clamping rather than clamp directly onto the frets themselves.

Awesome job on this!! Subbed :)

That is by far the best wood glue you can buy.

That was sexy, I am not a fan of the banding but it's not my guitar so it doesn't matter what I like😂😂😂😂. Plus I can't play well enough to buy a high end guitar like that. Very nice work

beautiful top on that guitar. the craftsmanship on the wood is excellent. I'm sure it was cleaned up, but there was noticeable purple bleed onto the faux binding. I'd be concerned if it wasn't...

Thanks for inviting us into your shop.

Nice job guitar looks good. I know one thing if I decide to do this stuff, I'm going to make different color guitars , not just black and white. Gives each guitar its personal touch and character . 😎👍👋✌️🎸🎸

When spray painting, make your first coat very light and leave it until it tacks up (tack coat) before spraying your second coat. Then when you spray your second coat, you can really flood it. If you don’t do a tack coat first you can only spray light coats and it makes getting a high build gloss finish really difficult. Also don’t finish your passes over the body itself, change directions upon an imaginary surface beyond the object you are painting.

Great video, thanks. Tip for others.. allow plenty of time for the finish to harden before trying to sand and polish. The harder it is the better the result. Learned that painting cars.

Definately not a complete guide to anything, but really cool to watch.

Absolutely love this guiitar, it is the exactly colour I'm hoping to achieve on my own build! Which dye are you using?

For a complete guide you need commentary for those like me that have never done this it would be nice to have tips. But video looks really nice.

Buen trabajo pero te daría unas recomendaciones, al copiar los agujeros del puente usar una agujereadora de banco o un controlador de verticalidad, la toalla que pongas debajo para lijar el cuerpo virgen deberían cambiarla o lavarla ya que Deja residuos de arena, la colocación del mástil provisorio para pintar, deberias usar un papel más rígido para copiar los agujeros y podrías poner unos tornillos de diámetro menor con un poco de cinta de enmascarar para no agendar los originales o instalar unos de mayor medida luego, el agua para lijar deberían aplicarlo a la lija en vez de a la guitarra así se humedece menos la madera. Son solo sugerencias para no correr riesgos es un hermosos oficio y un buen trabajo saludos!❤

Don't know if you've ever tried it but simple painters tape can help with tearout while drilling.

Subscribed just because of the grain filler description. Awesome work. Do you have like a signature style build, something not Les Paul or Fender?

Very good angles on al lthe techniques; I'm most interested in a list of the products (and potentially even the tools) you used for this process. What kind of stain, grain fill, poly coat etc. Are you using here?

What a great video. Questions lol what clear did you use and how long did you leave before sanding back. And what compound ?. Sorry for all the questions.

So many more questions

Fabulous video. Thank you! After using grain filler, you sprayed a red shader. What is that shader made of?

Fantastic process! How long did you let the clearcoat cure before adding on the hardware.

After a minute of watching it I realized I wasn't going to waste any more time.

911: whats your emergency? Me: This dude building a guitar is wilding!

Ok so many questions!!!! What and did you seal/prep before the color stains? Did you apply with a sandpaper? Sounds scratchy? Is it water based? Same for sealer? Need a supply list please!!! @A D?

Hi, thanks for the video. Superb! One question: when staining/finishing a headstock that has an inlay on it, how do you avoid staining the inlay itself? Do you mask it (some inlays are lines, so thin, that masking is difficult or not an option). If you sand it, you also sando over the finish... so, how do you do it? Thank you very much! Best regards!

Great work. I have a build I am doing, I want to put the faux binding on it, what to i use to seal it so the dye doesn't seep down on it? The finish is my Achilles heel. Thanks in advance.

Realy nice work! Thank you. One question left: did you don‘t do sanding between sealer and lack coat?

Terrific job, as expected. Well done. You inspired me to buy my first kit (les paul with quilted maple top). About staining: how do I get a light pink stain/grain in quilted maple under light grey? It is possible at all? Thanks in advance! :)

These have been a huge help prior to doing a stain job on a tele body that I have. One question that I have. Do you not sand the sanding sealer after it has had time to dry and before the clear coat?

美しい☆

What type of dye do you recommend? Ive seen Analine, water soluble powders, etc. Also, do you have a video on how to cut inlays?

Stunning work .Been a car painter 50 and that was great to watch . Is it two pack clear you use ?

Greetings ! That is a great video ,it greatly helped me understand the finishing routine. I would like to ask you if you have used automotive polyurethane and wether it mixes well with stains or not , to achieve a transparent look . Thanks in advance !

I have an issue with some pre drill holes on a kit I got and I believe the spacing is for a 51.99mm but I can only find wrap around bridges that are 52.5mm. Can you help me

Would it make much sense to use painters tape on the quilted maple top when drilling the bridge post holes to help prevent tear-out? Just a thought.

Awesome. Which grits do you go through when level sanding the clear coat?

? What did you brush onto the binding in the beginning and why? Beautiful work.

Nice job. I bought a kit and want to stain it but, its banded. Whats the best way to stain or paint a banded guitar.

Can you explain what type color dye you use & what liquid you mix it with?