Hi All, first post on here.
I've a Yamaha BB4 NF4iii - what a mouthful! 😝
I bought it from Ebay a few years ago and it was the natural lacquered finish but was dinged up and scratched in places, so I decided to remove the lacquer and sand down to bare wood (Alder). I'm a huge fan of Osmo as you can see in the pic lol and the body was treated to 3 coats of polyx natural matte a couple of years ago. The head stock had to be done too, as that came with a few dents as well. I love the feel of the body now, it feels beautiful and not like some manufactured slab, but the neck and headstock are maple so I will be revisiting that again to deepen the colour.
I found this site while searching for whether you can apply a clear matte lacquer to Osmo, I didn't get an answer but there was a similar thread here about whether you can put osmo over lacquer so I thought I'd give it a try here and ask the experts. 😉
As you can see from the headstock, I had to sand the Yamaha lettering off to remove the old lacquer and I was thinking about getting a water slide transfer to put it back on then spray a clear coat lacquer on it to fix it. But I know nothing about applying decals to guitars so am unsure whether I'm barking up the right tree. I will be applying over osmo so any advice would be gratefully accepted, also would anyone know where I could purchase said transfer?
Thanks
Tony
Hi Tony,
The short answer is to test your finishes on a piece of scrap first.
I've used Osmo on a couple of my builds, but not in combination with a lacquer. I'm not an expert, but my understanding is lacquer doesn't play nicely with oil finishes.
With the decal, you might find it won't stick to a surface that's been oiled. Similarly, wiping the oil over the top of a decal might mess with the inks.
Not sure how much that helps, but look forward to updates!
Cheers
Dan
@liebe Yeah, I figured it might be problematic on top of wax oil but I've a few spare water slide decals I made up for a previous guitar so I'll give your suggestion a try. I've got to take Mrs Tesee to hospital today for a check up but I'll prepare a couple of pieces of scrap with a couple coats of Osmo over the next couple of days then see whether they'll adhere.
Regarding a lacquer which type should I purchase? Would it be nitro or something else?
Cheers
TC
Hi @teesee,
I'm not an expert on spraying or the pluses and minuses if different types of lacquer. Wish I was!
On my last builds I used a brush on melamine lacquer I had decent results with and it was safe with my decal. As with other finishes there was a steep learning curve.
My workshop is pretty compact and I don't really have the facility to spray a full guitar, but having said that I'll probably give spraying nitro another go. 🤦🏻
If you're just thinking of lacquer just to bury the decal, then I think that's an easier proposition than spraying the whole body. I've used fill and finish (a super glue brand, but I'm sure others would work) to build up layers, sand flat and buff. I've even used it as a seal coat for the decal to go on and then sprayed nitro over the top.
Hope all goes well with your wife and best of luck with your experiments!
Cheers
Dan