Here is a 1976 Gibson Marauder I've had for a number of years. I recently refinished it in Cherry red using 100% nitrocellulose lacquer. These first two pictures are the "before" images. You can click on any image on this page to see a larger image.

After stripping the old finish off (which was worn almost completely off anyhow) I block-sanded it. There were lots of little dings around the edge of the body, especially around the input jack area and the rear strap button, and also some discoloration to the wood because the old finish was worn through in a lot of places, so this took some time.



After sanding the body as smooth as possible without gouging the wood, I began the process of dyeing the wood. Because this body was a beautiful piece of solid mahogany with nice grain, I decided to do it in a translucent red, similar to my Les Paul, so I mixed a custom dye solution using a concentrated liquid dye and lacquer reducer, which  I wiped on with a soft cotton cloth.

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Wood will only absorb so much dye (or stain), so once I reached the saturation point, I let it dry thoroughly and then sealed and filled the grain with a clear sanding sealer, and wet-sanded using successively finer grades of paper. I had to shoot about 6 more coats of tinted lacquer to get the depth and shade of color I wanted, since it still looked kind of orange.


 



After reaching the color level I was looking for, I wet-sanded again using successively finer paper and began clear-coating. I lost count of how many coats of clear I sprayed (too many fumes I guess! Actually, I really did wear a respirator, and a big floppy felt hat too) but I'd say it was somewhere around 15 coats of clear lacquer. After every three coats, I let it dry overnight and wet-sanded, again, using increasingly finer grades of paper. After I finished the final coat, I let it dry for 3 days, then finish sanded it with 1200 through 2500 grit paper. I let it dry for another 3 days, then hand polished it with a fine-cut  rubbing compound, then a few days later I hand polished it with a swirl remover and a soft sponge to get that mirror-like gloss. That's a  lot of elbow grease, let me tell you! But  it turned out incredible. Here's the final product, and please note that the light spots are reflections, not flaws or defects in the finish!, These pictures really don't do the instrument justice, because it's really gorgeous, and although these pictures made it look like an opaque (solid) color, the wood grain is easily seen.


Notice that I did NOTHING to the neck, as in my opinion it was beautiful as it was! It would detract from the instrument to remove the front decal and serial number decal on the back of the headstock The finish was worn completely off the back of the neck from years of lovingly being played, and it would be a shame to cover up that silky smooth feeling of "vintage" well-worn raw wood. It's part of the character of the instrument. I have refinished some other necks, though. I have one on this next page if you would like to see it. Also check out this 1967 Baldwin/Burns I'm working on. If you are interested in having your whole instrument refinished or an old neck redone or a new neck done, please drop me a line! I've been doing this for myself for a while now, but I am just starting out doing it for others, so I'll do the job for a lot less than what  others might charge. Email me at jcarnell@hiwaay.net for further details. Thanks for checking out this site!

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