veneering a guitar

[Johann potgieter]

Hi

SO joe from veneersupplies sent me here in my quest to obtain information on veneering

i recently started a guitar building project and after a lot of reading and thinking, i decided that i was going to veneer my guitar(seeing as the wood i chose to make it off is not of the best looking), but then i started to run into a bit of a dilemma. It seems to me that you can only veneer flat surfaces...strictly no if and buts... i had a look around and people only talk about flat surface veneering

Now my question is that is it possible to veneer a uneven surface like a rounded guitar? i will upload a picture of what it looks like, if someone could please inform me of how to go about this, if its even possible then it will be very much appreciated

Cheers

P.S i have never worked with wood really (unless chopping fire wood counts)

[Jamie Buxton]

You can veneer a flat surface. You can veneer a surface that bends in just one direction. That is, you can veneer a cylinder. But you can't veneer a bowl shape.

Here's a way to check the feasibility... Try to wrap a sheet of paper on your proposed substrate. If you can wrap the substrate without crumpling or ripping the paper, you're good.

In your pic, I'm not sure what surfaces you're thinking of veneering. But maybe you can use several pieces of veneer to cover the guitar. For instance, you could use a piece to cover the back, a different piece to cover one of those bevels, and a third piece to cover the other bevel. But here's a caution...the veneer is thinner than a credit card. At the edges where those pieces of veneer meet, you're in danger of sanding through the veneer. On top of that, those edges may get dinged (I understand that electric guitars get used rather roughly...) and the dent might go right through the veneer. So you might be better off if you only veneer the back, and leave the bevels whatever they are now.

[Johann potgieter]

I was thinking of veneering the whole thing, but now it seems as tho i might not be able to...thanks for the advice ill go and have a look to see what i can manage...

[John Coloccia]

You CAN veneer compound curves, like a carved top. You need to account for wood motion, which means you used book matched veneer and then you carefully curve the center seam to account for the movement with lots of careful test fitting. It's not particularly easy, but it's possible with a bit of patience. I fiddled with this some years ago as an experiment. Someone recently posted a video on this technique. I got all excited when he announced he was going to post a video showcasing David Myka's technique for this. I thought he would have some brilliant trick for fitting the center seam. Nope. The only trick is learning to do something hard.

You'll never get the veneer to conform to your particular piece, though. The curves are too sharp. There will be seams at the sharp corners. The whole thing will look very goofy. As long of you do a good job with the finish, it will look good even with an otherwise plain piece of wood.

Here's that video, by the way.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuHFc3BNJYM