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You are here: Home / Building A Monarch / Building a Monarch: Spraying Lacquer

Building a Monarch: Spraying Lacquer

Most guitar players want instruments with a high gloss finish. Nitrocellulose lacquer is the traditional finish for the best guitars. It is durable and unlike some other finishes, it can be repaired later. Oil, poly, and water-based finishes are also used, but the ‘king of finishes’ is solvent-based nitro lacquer. Using lacquer carries with it the responsibility of safety and environmental consideration. All Dogwood guitars have a sprayed on, high gloss nitro finish using a special instrument lacquer that is less brittle than standard lacquers. Spraying is very much a learned art, and getting flawless gloss finishes takes a lot of preparation and patience. See a Monarch go through the finish process in the gallery below.

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Building a Monarch: Spraying Lacquer

Most guitar players want instruments with a high gloss finish. Nitrocellulose lacquer is the traditional finish for the best guitars. It is durable and unlike some other finishes, it can be repaired later. Oil, poly, and water-based finishes are also … [Read More...]

Lutherie Classes: Voicing and Tuning

Acoustic Guitar Voicing and Tuning Class (Discontinued due to my heavy repair schedule) This is an advanced class that explores the principles behind great acoustic guitar tone. This class is intended for the experienced builder, and … [Read More...]

Voicing and Tap Tuning of Acoustic Guitars

Voicing and tuning are important elements of great tone. A great guitar has great tone, great playability, and great appearance, in that order. Fancy wood, a high gloss finish, and lots of Abalone inlay are visually beautiful but have … [Read More...]

Customer Testimonial:

"My stage guitar had buzzing strings and the sound from the pickup was unbalanced. Greg made me a new bone saddle to replace the poorly fitted plastic oneĀ and did a setup, now I have a guitar with no issues. His knowledge of guitar geometry is … [Read More...]

Blog: 1932 Martin Repair

Its not often that a luthier has the opportunity to work on a pre-war Martin. This 1932 0-18 parlor guitar needs a crack repair and a neck reset. Great care must be taken when working on such an old and fragile guitar. Get out the hot hide glue. … [Read More...]

1975 Gibson Hummingbird Restoration

While meeting with a customer and his daughter about designing a guitar for her, he showed me his Gibson Hummingbird that his daughter had been playing. Using the serial number and other identifying characteristics, I was able to date the guitar … [Read More...]

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Technical Articles

Why do old guitars sound better?

Why do some old guitars sound so good? Even inexpensive guitars can age into really good sounding instruments, and some old guitars attain legendary tone. Why is this? The answer can be found in one of three factors and the best … [Read More...]

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Viewpoint Articles

Exploring Common Guitar Myths

I am going to divide this article into two sections: Myths and misunderstandings about playability and care; and myths about tone. We will take these two topics in order. Playability and Care So, your guitar is a little hard to play, the … [Read More...]

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