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All of these comments are inspiring me to re-finish my Alex Bishop. It's got a French polish finish which has got dents and dings over the last 4 years. I have stripped guitars in the past, heavily finished with polyurethene finishes - horrible stuff and so resistant to chemical strippers. I ended up taking a belt sander to a Dell Arte and that was a bit harsh. I decided to say it was 'relic'ed' rather then wrecked.
Hey Crook, If it's French polish I don't think you need to strip it unless there is something really wrong?? I've never done French polish on instruments but I've used shellac on other stuff and you can just clean and lightly sand the surface and go right over the top in my experience.
I'd talk to someone who knows how to repair French polish finishes for sure.
Agreed, if it is only french polish, (or shellac) it can be lightly sanded back and touched in if there are chips and scratches or just add a couple of fresh coats. Obviously you don't use methylated spirits to clean it as that will strip it off totally. The disadvantage with french polish is it is easily damaged but the advantage is it is just as easy to repair or refinish.
I think Luthiers Mercantile may have (or used to have) some tutorials on finishing a guitar with Tru-Oil. After progressively finer sanding and surface prep, in applying Tru-Oil you spread it on thinly and (other than the neck) immediately wipe it off. Particularly for the top, you don't want the oil to soak into the wood and dampen the acoustic response. Then you wait, maybe fine steel wool or something, and repeat a bunch of times. Finally, wait a couple of days and apply lemon oil "treatment" (not lemon oil).
Thanks for the comments. Turns out I didn't have to do much more than what you all described. My only problem was removing a decal - a smaller version of the caraven Angelo Debarre had on one of his d holes . That needed more sanding. Anyway it's all done with a new scratchplate. Looks good.
I found a picture of the guitar with the top lacquer cracks nicely visible. You can probably see why it always bothered me...
Adjustable bridge! Nice
Yeah man, thanks! It's designed specifically for GJ guitar. Jeremy from NorCal made it and it was designed in tandem between him and Paul @pdg here. I love it. Guitar has been stable through the seasons so I don't need to raise/lower the action because of it but it's nice to be able to sometimes raise the height in a loud jam and get a little more volume out of the guitar. The guitar also sounds a bit open-er with it raised just a touch.
Dang, just from climate change? Looks like my last phone when I dropped it on concrete 😅. Nice job on the refinish too, I much prefer the look and feel of an oil finish.
Buco, that laquer cracking would have bothered me too, I don't blame you for refinishing.