How to do a "sealed" paintjob on swamp ash?

[shai-ga]

What do you guys use in order to achieve this kind of finish on swamp ash?

I don't like the grainy look you normally get when you just spray a few coats of lacquer, and wonder whether to apply a lot of poly coats, or to use a sanding sealer \ pour filler first.

Any suggestions?
(Materials \ how many coats from each)

Thanks!

 

[Hopkins]

Two wash coats of sealer, pore filler, then lacquer

 

[Musiclogic]

I do a wash coat and full coat of finish(usually lacquer) to seal, as I don't care for vinyl sealers. Sand back and use either natural pore filler or epoxy filler. Sand back, fill a second time if needed, sand back again, spray a sealer coat over the filler, scuff with 400 and 600, then start the burst and finish coats. If I were doing a cherry burst as pictured.

 

[johnk_10]

to seal swamp ash, i use fullerplast. i shoot it pretty thick, sand almost all of it off, then shoot it again and sand it with 320. here's my most recent one in mary kay white nitro (there is zero grain relief on this one):

BTW, this body weighs only 3lbs!.

 

[sonic assassin]

to seal swamp ash, i use fullerplast. i shoot it pretty thick, sand almost all of it off, then shoot it again and sand it with 320. here's my most recent one in mary kay white nitro (there is zero grain relief on this one):

BTW, this body weighs only 3lbs!.

that finish just made me moist.

its so simple but SOOOO cool

 

[David Jayne]

to seal swamp ash, i use fullerplast. i shoot it pretty thick, sand almost all of it off, then shoot it again and sand it with 320. here's my most recent one in mary kay white nitro (there is zero grain relief on this one):

BTW, this body weighs only 3lbs!.

Very nice, John. I have to ask: with all that routing, what's going in that bad boy?

 

[johnk_10]

it's my custom version of a jazzmaster bass:

here's a pic of the underside of the pickguard:

here's the body of the first (shoreline gold)one:

and here's what the controls do:

 

[ThrashMaster]

sand, raise grain, sand, epoxy pore fill, dry, sand, clear coats, melt coat, dry, sand, buff

i soooo prefer epoxy over the tradition pore fillers (mcfadden etc). No shrinkage!

 

[Meatrus]

If you use Epoxy how much of a pain is it sanding it level?

 

[ThrashMaster]

not too bad. I apply it with a thick piece of card stock used as a squeegee, so youre 90 percent of the way there already. Also, I am firmly of the opinion that 5 minutes spent doing a better sanding job early saves 10 minutes of frustrating 'fix-it' work later on...get the porefill situation sorted out properly and thats a lot less level sanding etc to do later on on

 

[Meatrus]

Thanks, I have been using an oil based grain filler made by Rustins which I'm guessing contains Silica. I havent had any trouble with it so far, but I have heard great things about Epoxy as a grain filler.