Soundboard Finishing

[bases-loaded@juno.com]

HI Lance -

Boy, do I wish I could say "use product x and you won't have any
problems", but I haven't found a solution that simple.  

What I do is use alcohol-based dyes.  Firstly, I always shim before I
strip the board, so that the old varnish and dyes get a chance to
'mingle' with the new shim during stripping.  After the shim is in place,
leveled, sanded, etc.. and the board is stripped and ready to finish, I
wipe the board with lacquer thinner or alcohol to get an idea of the
color hues that will be present when finish is applied.  Then I tape off
neatly on each side of the shim so that I can wipe a dye solution of the
appropriate color and intensity so as to approach the inherent color in
the board.  Only takes a minute or two.  After doing alot of finishing
and color matching, you begin to get an eye for using dyes.  Usually in
soundbaords you need to add a brownish orange dye to the shim to even out
the color, but some boards have more orange, some more yellow, some
lighter, some darker, etc... 

After that, if more color is desired for the board in general, again I
use dyes, and this will be compatible with the dye used on the shim, and
will even aid in evening out the colors.  I NEVER use stains for color
matching -  you only get one chance.  With dyes, you can continue to
"dial it in".

It's a 'feel' thing, and I am still working on acquiring it...

Mark Potter
bases-loaded@juno.com 

On Sun, 5 Nov 2000 18:51:14 -0600 "Lance Lafargue"
<lancelafargue@bellsouth.net> writes:
> I know this won't be as much fun as all the bantering on the list 
> lately,
> but the last couple of soundboards I've repaired came out very 
> inconsistent
> in color.  I usually use the Spurlock shimming system and put a 
> light coat
> of Deft to finish.  I have tried oil stains, touchup pens, dyes, 
> etc.  The
> last one had a couple of previous shims in it, so I had old 
> soundboard color
> (varied), old shim color, new shim color.  Yikes!  I tried a 
> softwood
> preparation by Minwax (for even stain absorption), then Minwax 
> stains, but
> __as soon as anything is put on the board, it gets dark__ and 
> inconsistent.
> Any suggestions? I don't have this problem with some boards.  
> Thanks!!
> 
> Lance Lafargue, RPT
> Mandeville, LA
> New Orleans Chapter, PTG
> lancelafargue@bellsouth.net
>