Spray Paint Over Shellac

guitarfeak

New member
Hi I would like to paint the headstock on my neck but it has shellac on it. Would I be able to paint right over the shellac or would I have to remove it first and then primer and then paint? Thanks
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

The rule of shellac is that shellac sticks to everything and everything sticks to shellac.

Shellac makes an excellent barrier coat for incompatible finishes.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

It should be OK. I've heard of people using shellac as a pore filler and sealer prior to painting. I have never used it myself.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

My favorite way to finish figured woods and open pore mahogany, korina etc, is to apply several light coats of boiled linseed oil (increases the movement of the grain and increases chatoyance) after the grain has been filled and any water based dyes have been applied. Nitro doesn't stick to oil at all. The best way to move forward from coats of boiled linseed oil to a nitro finish is to use a barrier coat between the two.

The barrier coat is shellac (because shellac sticks to everything and everything sticks to shellac). Once the BLO has dried and cured, shellac can be applied. I like thinning it down with denatured alcohol and using a preval sprayer to get nice thin and even coats. Shellac, when applied by hand can give rise to swirls, ridges and streaks. Shellac is really hard to take down with sanding if the hand rubbed coats are a bit too thick when one wants a nice thin coating of shellac. So, spraying it on is soooooo much better.

Coats of shellac melt into each other like nitro does, so it's a great barrier coat underneath nitro (shellac and nitro melt into each other too).

Once the shellac is dry and cured, you can finish the piece with nitro to your heart's content.

I love shellac even though it's not the easiest to work with. : )
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

Good shellac rocks. Bad shellac does not rock.

If your neck is finished with a spray can shellac, it may not have dried properly. If your neck is a little tacky or can be scratched easily, your shellac may not have been fresh and the nitro you put over it may not ever cure properly.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

Good shellac rocks. Bad shellac does not rock.

If your neck is finished with a spray can shellac, it may not have dried properly. If your neck is a little tacky or can be scratched easily, your shellac may not have been fresh and the nitro you put over it may not ever cure properly.

Absolutely!!!!!

The spray can shellac has WAX in it... good shellac does not. The spray stuff is sort of an all in one finish. I use the Bullseye that's in the pint or gallon.

If it did indeed have wax in it, you can remove it with simple 91% rubbing alcohol... it;s actually stronger than denatured, which is shellac's traditional carrier.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

That stuff's iffy. How does the neck feel? Can you dig your fingernail into the finish?

If you're going to use premixed shellac, this is really what you want:

http://http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10310

This stuff is 100% dewaxed and is guaranteed to work like "fresh" shellac for, like 3 years or something like that. According to Rockler it is also guaranteed compatible under all finishes. Maybe that is what Musikraft really used?

Zinsser has been making the SealCoat stuff for a while, but I've started to see in the local home improvement stores and Rockler...

It's probably fine and you said you're just doing the headstock, so it probably won't be a big deal regardless of which Shellac was used.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

The neck feels smooth. I can't dig my fingernail into the finish. What kind of harder finish could I put on the headstock and the rest of the maple of the neck? I would prefer something that could be rubbed on because I always tend to cause runs when I use spray cans.
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

Just sand it lightly then put the paint on you want. Sand lightly in between coats then a good clear and your done
 
Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac

Would it be able to be put over the lacquer paint on the headstock?

Well... if it's nitro lacquer, probably not, but it goes over shellac just fine.

As a rule, you can usually put nitro over poly, but poly over nitro is usually not a good idea.
 
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