Behlen stringed instrument lacquer

[gilamonster]

Here is a copy of an email I sent to Behlen in the US. They haven't as yet replied:

"I purchased 1 can of vinyl sealer and 4 cans of stringed instrument lacquer (aerosol) from an Australian supplier (guitaraust) to finish my french polished Warmoth guitar body. I spent at least 100 hours on the french polishing and after extensive research decided the best finish would be your product. VERY DISAPPOINTED. I followed your instructions to the letter: temperature, shaking (more than 1 minute), application method etc. All of the lacquer cans spluttered at some stage in the spraying process resulting in what I would describe as 'globs' landing on the wet surface.
During application I shook the cans regularly so this can't be the problem. I also cleared the nozzle as instructed. Sanding won't help as the shellac is dyed and I risk sanding through to the wood (this happened!!). The end result is all my hard work on my expensive body ($300) has gone for nought. All I can think of doing is labouriously sanding everything back to bare wood and starting over. NOT HAPPY.
Any thoughts?"

Guitaraust replied sympathetically and are looking into it. I've so far applied 10 coats, sanding in between to get rid of the globs, but for the final 2 which I'll leave for weeks before rubbing I have no confidence in using the Behlen product. Any solutions/thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[_fly_]

you can only hope yours was an old stock here in Aus and they will send you 2 new ones to do final finish.

[Arron]

Sorry to hear about your experiences.

I'm curious about what you're doing though. You have a guitar body which you french polished and then are spraying Nitrocellulose lacquer over the top. It sounds, though, like you spent a very long time on the French polishing - which is normally regarded as an elite finish in its own right - so why spray nc over the top ?

Also curious. The subsequent 10 coats, after the mishap, what were they ?

cheers
Arron

[gilamonster]

Hi Arron,

Shellac, even with hardener added is too soft for electric guitar bodies. You could get away with it with a classical but electrics tend to have a harder life. (It is a beautiful finish and worth all the time-I tend to be fussy)
As to the finish I persevered with the Behlen and sanded the goobers off between coats. As the layers built up it wasn't so risky. Just don't want crap for the final application.

Cheers, Tim

[gilamonster]

Further developments: Behlen replied to my email and it appears they did have a problem with earlier batches but my cans came from a later run. Maybe I've been unlucky. Guitaraust has been very helpful and are going to give me some rubbing compound so I'm happy with that. Below is an excerpt from Behlen's response for your info:

Tim,


I apologize for the performance of our product. I realize this does little
to rectify your issue but I truly regret this situation. Behlen's Stringed
Instrument Lacquer does have a strong reputation on instruments but has
only been available in aerosol cans for a couple of years. The
nitrocellulose resin product contains a natural gum type resin as a
secondary material to provide the necessary flexibility required for
heavier builds on instruments. While this posed no issue in the bulk
product it did create an issue initially when loaded into an aerosol and
charged with the liquid propellant. This issue has been corrected but
unfortunately some of the first batches of this product where distributed
and its my belief that you ended up with some of these cans. If correct,
your care and use of the cans was not a factor. The chunks of material
would be suspended in the product and would be picked up by the dip tube
and spit as you've described. Not all cans of these batches where affected
and we did attempt to remove them from the market but unfortunately not all
were recovered.

[KJ401]

Hi Arron,

Shellac, even with hardener added is too soft for electric guitar bodies. You could get away with it with a classical but electrics tend to have a harder life. (It is a beautiful finish and worth all the time-I tend to be fussy)
As to the finish I persevered with the Behlen and sanded the goobers off between coats. As the layers built up it wasn't so risky. Just don't want crap for the final application.

Cheers, Tim

Hi Tim,

Curious as to how this went in the end. Also, whilst Behlen has a great reputation, I'm a bit leery of buying OS manufactured products which have a volatile thinners base. If they're shipped poorly (high temps in containers on ship topside for example) they're likely to be a bit suspect. Have you tried Pylon Coatings 94 WW Gloss? As close to a true NC lacquer as you'll find anywhere, goes over shellac really really nicely and after curing buffs out to an eye-watering gloss...

Cheers
Kim