Cellulose lacquers are the second oldest version of paint that we use today to spray paint musical instruments. It is available in a wide range of glosses and types, we mainly use two types of cellulose, Natural Cellulose and Nitrocellulose. There are differences between the two and some applications suit one type over the other, although things can be done either way around.

Nitrocellulose is used for solid color instruments. Natural Cellulose and Nitrocellulose can be used for clear and translucent finishes, natural cellulose is a bit more flexible than the more modern Nitrocellulose that tends to crack as it crystallizes. Natural cellulose takes longer to dry than Nitrocellulose. Cellulose does not cure it only dries, this vintage style of finish will be susceptible to solvents and acids throughout its lifetime.

With Cellulose the best finishes are generally low lacquer finishes, high builds are more prone to checking and cracking if the paint build is done too fast. This is why people often sugest that cellulose is the best instrument lacquer, by the nature of the material most of the thinest finishes are found on cellolose instruments.

Bolt on neck bodies to replicate the vintage finishes can either be based in cellulose base coat or a polyurathane base coat - polyurathane provides a hard solid base to work upon that helps the top coat of nitrocellulose to be resistant to checking in the future.
Nitrocellulose and cellulose are available in glosses from 90% to 5% gloss and also in dead matte finish. 10-30% gloss polished gives the instrument a nice vintage shine.

Time scales are very open-ended when we take on a cellulose finish as the build level will determine the drying time. If a perfectly flat finish needs to be achieved this can take extra time to achieve as the paint needs to fully harden before moving on to the next layers. Spray finishing work in cellulose is best completed during the warmer months to help with the drying times.

A great alternative to the standard cellulose is this two-pack lacquer that is already used by several manufacturers in the music industry. AC or acid curing lacquer is a natural hard-wearing lacquer that uses a variation of cellulose lacquer as its base, now it is its own unique formulation. Acid cured lacquer is best used for faster finishing times in natural finishs that maintain its gloss and does not check or craze as much as standard cellulose. It does behave like normal cellulose sinking into the timber and checking over time yet this can take a longer time than standard cellulose.

AC Lacquer is a good choice for doing burst and paint effects it also is available in a wonderful special dead matt finish. The 90% gloss is very nice and this is my preferred lacquer to work with due to its ease of use, polishing attributions, off-the-gun finishes with low builds lacquers, it comes in a range of glosses 90% to 10% the dull lacquers polish up nice for a nice low gloss vintage look. It maintains a natural paint feel for the instrument and can be delivered in a range of different thicknesses of builds and is a very versatile paint to work with.

Acid Catalysed lacquer cures this means it is solvent resistant, it is still susceptible to acids with extreme fluctuations in temperature it can crack and check over time. It maintains its gloss without any further need for polishing and ages appropriately. This lacquer has been used in large amounts by the British instrument builders and acoustic makers so we have good records of how effective it has been.

Below are some of our options, with guide prices:
Bolt on neck instruments  

Body of a Bolt on Neck from £280

This can either be clear, singular colour or translucent tint to the laquer.

Body of a Bolt on Neck - Bursts - Metallics, Paint Effects - from £310

Necks of Bolt-on-Neck Instruments

Neck - from £120

Neck and Body Refinishing

Neck and Body of a bolt-on-neck from - £370

Glue in Neck instruments - 

Full instrument from £400 Carved top instruments from £430

Bursts, metallics and other paint effects can be applied to a full instrument

Time scales, from 6 weeks, it is a chemically curing laquer that is cellulose based and does take a while to fully hardern. It may even gas off for a couple of months when new. It polishes very well to multiple sheens and mantaines its gloss very well over time.

Acid Cured Laquer is great for restoring and preservation work on guitars, with its range of glosses it is ideal for refretting work.

I find it to be one of the best laquers to work use with paint effects and metallics and other unusual finishes.

After two decades of restoring guitars I have tackeled about every type of paint work possible and am able to advice on the best course of action for you instrument.

Please get in touch about the kind of job you have with as much detail as possible and we will advise you on the course of action to take and costs involved.

We are always looking into new finishing techniques and have always been at the forfrount of progress with finishes. If you can not find what you are looking for on our price list then please get in touch.

Image printing

I am now able to offer image printing on musical instruments, both on the surface of the finish/under the finish to protect the image and on the plastic parts, have your favorite artwork printed in high quality on your musical instrument, I think this will be extremely popular with artists and customers alike as it will give them the able to print, album covers, artwork, or anything you would like on to their instrument.

The printer is not limited to printing on a flat surface it is capable of printing round corners, armrests and the contours of carved and shaped tops, we will need to experiment with the process for carved tops if a full top is to be printed as this is something we are yet to do. Small prints are very possible and achievable at this stage whilst we are still learning.

There are limitations on colors as it can only print in colour so gold, silver or copper hues are unavailable, only the shades of these element colours are available.

You are guaranteed the exact image you have selected, you do need to be careful that the image quality is high enough for this process to be successful, so it may be the case that we have to refuse to print your image if the image provided is not of a high enough quality. We will advise you during the process about the image quality and any scaling issues that may occur when it comes to spacing and positioning the art work.

It works out at a very good price over hiring an airbrush artist. Airbrushing is incredibly labour intensive and requires a very high level of skill to get a good image created and even then it is the artist's interpretation of the image where as this is an exact print of the art work provided. Please be aware that I hold airbrush artists and all spray artists work with high regard, as they provide incredible work.

We do hope to one day include in our range of services airbrush finishing work. I am very happy to spray templated work although free hand air brush is a bit too much for myself, hopefully as we expand I can introduce an artist in to the company.