Refinished Old Home made Guitar

Brent Dowell

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Reno NV
So, I made this guitar a while ago. All of it from scratch except the tuners and the the bridge.

I had left it pretty much 'unfinished'. At the time it was just supposed to be a little beater travel classical nylon string guitar I would toss in the camper.

I didn't want to have a finish that would be fussy. I think I might have put a little BLO on it. So it was always pretty rough.

I've been working on a few things lately that needed finish and I found that using a couple of coats of seal coat and then wipe on poly would yield a pretty good looking and sturdy result (Thanks Rennie for the tips!).

So I decided to redo this old thing with some gloss wipe on poly. The pictures don't really show it, but I'm loving the new look. Sure there are the old dings and glue stains and what not, but this little refurb made it look a lot nicer. Glad I did it.

FWW-8026.jpg
 
Looks good. Just curious - did the new finish have any effect on the guitar's tone? Some say that it will, although my tin ear was never able to discern any change in the two or three I've butchered over the years. Now, with two hearing aids, I'd never hear a tone change unless it was about half an octave...:rolleyes:
 
It's a compromise instrument at best. Kind of small to have all that great of volume or tone.

I basically made it to toss in the camper and not take up too much room.

I just strung it up last night and played a little, but I don't see a huge change in tone. And I'm sure Poly is not the preferred finish, but it should be durable enough to take the kind of hard knocks I expect this to encounter.
 
Cool-looking little guitar, Brent. Although poly wouldn't usually be my guitar finish of choice, I think for this one, with its intended purpose, poly is perfect. :thumb:
 
The scale is the same as a regular Classical guitar and the width of it is the same as the 'bout', or curved section.

That way it sits on you leg the same as a normal classical.

I was just happy that it plays in tune when I made it!
 
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