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I've been asked to do a pretty challenging repair on a French polished guitar after the client's well-meaning son pulled the clear pickguard off while he was at work. This was less that 48 hours after he'd purchased it...

The problem is my platina shellac is more yellow than what was originally used on the guitar, so I'm not getting as good a match as I'd like. In fact, the original is so not-yellow that I had a hard time believing it was French polished, but it is.

Before I contact the builder, I thought I'd ask here if anyone knows of a source for a very light, but warm, non-yellow shellac. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Ken


Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Not sure which one would work for you but this is a good guy to deal with.

http://www.woodessence.com/Dry-Shellac-P54C13.aspx

Hmmm. Platina is the lightest that I've come across in flakes but there is 'bone shellac' which they sell as ready mixed. It is difficult to buy the white powder because it has such a very short shelf life. Leberon do it as 'White polish'. I'm not sure how much lighter it is than Platina because it's years since I used White Polish.
Sandarac tends to be very clear but you might not want to use that by itself. It has a reputation for cracking if it isn't mixed with other resins.

It might be easier to strip the face of the guitar and french polish the whole top if a perfect match is desired. Good luck finding the matching shellac (perhaps the builder will send you some).

I do not have any experience French polishing, but Liberon pale shellac is pretty darned light.

http://www.liberon.com.au/?act=products&cat=17&prod=86

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sweat the small stuff.

I would contact malcolm ,google shellac shack. He answered a lot of my questions abt shellac .Prices vy reasonable.