My HM Refinish

[wrs]

So I found this site when I was doing some research to refinish my HM I've had for 13 years. I still haven't found a guitar that has a neck like my HM, so I've never sold it. (plus I think their value is greater than their resale price)

I diassembled, sanded and cleaned it up. My sister-in-law is a great artist, so I had her woodburn a design. Here's the results.

Design idea transferred, then woodburned to the bare wood: Man, if I had a dark fretboard, I would have just sealed it and been done. It needs to go down a few shades, to look right agains maple.



Prestain applied, since I've heard basswood can be pretty bad at taking stain


Only 1 coat of stain applied. I wanted to match the aged look of the fretboard.


**forgot to take pics from there on out, haha**
-Wiped on 3 very thin coats of satin poly to get that non-gloss tung oil vibe.
-since the poly was thinner, I didn't sand, but went straight to finishing polish to smooth out.

Done!



Now my HM looks like it came from a company much nicer than Fender!

[heem6]

That looks great, Will ... thanks for posting those pics!

P.S. Your HM probably DID come from a manufacturer much nicer than Fender - Fuji Gen Gakki!

[rickblacker]

That has SERIOUS WOW FACTOR!
That is a beautiful guitar!

[Bodaggit23]

Wow! That turned out AMAZING! Very nicely done!

Btw, it looks to me like you could use some Knobs! ;D

[stratznhatz]

Fantastic job on that, beautifully done and really classy!

Must have taken a while to do?

[wrs]

Thanks guys!
It was surprisingly easy once I got the sanding done. I did it over 3 partial nights, it probably took 6 hours to sand it. Stripper did absolutely nothing to remove the super-thick poly that was on it. (DEFINITELY make sure you sand away all of the sanding sealer, cause it won't take stain at all)

The design transfer and woodburning took her about 10 hours I think, but luckily, I didn't have to do that!

Once it was done, the prestain wiped on with a rag in minutes, a few minutes later, I was staining.
3 light coats of poly took about 5 mins each, and took 2 hours each to dry.
Final polish, maybe 15 mins.
So, waiting aside, it took about 10 scattered hours with disassembly/reassembly over the course of 2 weeks.
Not bad for a first refinish!

[halo71]

Welcome to the forum!

That looks pretty nice!

[crumbs]

gaddang, I love it!