The Les Paul Junior TV finish is one of the classic vintage guitar finishes and also one of that has been re-interpreted in many ways on various reissues over the years. The worst interpretation in my opinion was Gibson's early 90's version, which was an opaque mustard color, with a slight greenish tinge.

In reality, the TV finish, which was also applied to Les Paul Specials and even a handful of SG-shaped Les Paul Juniors from the 60s - was similar to the translucent "blonde" finish applied to Fender Telecasters during the the 50s, 60s and 70s. Over time, depending on the thickness of the clear coat and the opacity of the color coat, TV finishes appear to yellow to different degrees - with some taking on a light tan color (the so-called "wheat" finish) and some turning a creamy yellow color.

A client brought me his 1990 Les Paul TV Junior for a refinish - initially precipitated by damage to the top of the guitar ( a number of deep dings from something falling on the guitar) - but also as an opportunity for him to replace the "mustard" finish with a 50's style TV finish.

After a bit of discussion and research by both of us, it was decided that the goal would be to show off the grain of the mahogany as much as possible THROUGH the TV finish - basically applying what was close to a 1956-style TV finish, as opposed to the more opaque 1959 style TV finish more commonly seen on double-cut Les Paul Juniors.



The dings in the top are visible in this view if you look closely.



The first step was to mask off the headstock and fretboard and strip the entire guitar down to bare wood. The finish came off fairly easily, with very little finish left in the grain. The mahogany of the guitar displayed a very tight grain, meaning it would be fairly challenging to really make the grain stand out through the TV finish.





Note the shadow of the pickguard on the top of the guitar - illustrating that the finish wasn't truly opaque - enough light penetrated to change color of the wood that wasn't covered by the guard!



Once the wood was bare - I used my dent steaming technique to remove roughly half a dozen small and medium dings on the face and edge of the body.



To emphasize the grain, I decided to use a technique described on the ReRanch website. This technique called for a thin fairly opaque coat of "blonde" nitro to be sprayed on the bare wood - more as a wash than a finish, such that the pores in the mahogany are not filled in with the finish.

Then a dark grain filler is applied OVER the light colored base, with the idea being that the filled grain will contrast strongly with the coated mahogany. This approach may very well duplicate the "limed mahogany" approach that's mentioned in reference to the TV finish. The challenge is in getting the filler ONLY in the pores - and removing the excess without removing the thin "liming" coat.

The finish that was used was based on the tint I used for a 1968 Telecaster refinish, but with some more amber and a little yellow dye added. This was then cut with clear lacquer and thinned down more than I would for a typical finish coat. A nice even light coat was sprayed on the entire instrument.




As you can see in this close-up, the grain was NOT filled by the wash coat.



Now came the grain filling operation - which is always messy. As a first step, a good solid coat of walnut colored, oil-base filler was wiped onto the guitar -working one surface at a time.



A scraper (and old credit card in this case) was drawn ACROSS the grain to remove the excess filler while leaving the pores of the wood filled.



There was still a lot of extra filler on the surface of the wood after this scraping, but the filler was allowed to dry for about an hour before the next removal step was carried out, using a soft cloth that was just a little damp with paint thinner (which will not attack the nitro wash coat). A very light touch is required for this step and work ACROSS the grain - take off less rather than more, otherwise you WILL pull the filler out of the pores.

After the guitar sat for another hour, I gently rubbed the surface - across the grain again - with a dry cloth to polish off some more of the excess filler. The picture below is the guitar after this step.



A few days later, I used 400 grit and 600 grit sandpaper - and a VERY light touch - to remove the rest of the extra filler and even out the color of the guitar.





The grain is well emphasized on the front and back of the body, but the tight grain of the neck isn't as emphasized, because it simply has smaller pores.



The next step will be to clear coat the guitar - and then slowly build up a translucent "TV" finish on top of this base.

This is a follow-up on a post on a Musicmaster bass that a client wanted me to do in the style of an early 70's Dodge Superbee - in a bright yellow with black racing stripes.

The original post can be found here.

The client did order some black racing stripes, loosely based on the Fender Mustang "Competition Stripes" of the late 60s and early 70s, but when they arrived they proved to be fairly thick vinyl stickers, as opposed to waterslide decals.




I decided to try to make waterslide decals myself, using some clear decal sheet material I had left over from another project.

I made the decals by first spraying a sheet of decal material with gloss black lacquer, in two very light coats to avoid dissolving the decal film. I then cut the decal material into strips of the appropriate width.

In hindsight, there are a few things I should have done differently: I should have clear coated the finish to make it a little more robust & I should have tried cutting the decal material into strips first and THEN sprayed on the layers of black lacquer.



As it was, the decals chipped and cracked in some areas as I applied them to the bass body - which I fixed by actually layering the very thin decals in areas that were damaged.

I applied the wider center strip first, using a decal setting solution (basically white vinegar) and letting it dry before I added the two thinner outside stripes.





The results looked ok - but as I said before, there were crack and chips visible - so I layered on small segments of the decal material. I knew I'd have to clear coat over the decals several times to protect the decals and to achieve a smooth surface.



Once the decals were set, I sprayed several coats of clear nitro over the front of the body - starting light as I was worried about dissolving the black lacquer on the decals, but then building up heavier coats. After letting the lacquer set, I finally was ready to wet sand and then compound and polish the front of the bass (again ! - since I had done this when I originally finished it in yellow!).



The bass's owner brought over the rest of the bass, and without even the use of a soldering iron, I was able to re-assemble the bass in the space of about 20 minutes. And it looked very sharp with the black guard and knobs - and a neck with a little bit of flame in the maple!