Brite Tone Instrument Finish - quantity?

[Chris Lounsbury]

To anyone out there who has used Brite Tone Instrument Finish - how much does it take you to finish a flat-top guitar? How many guitars could you finish with a gallon?

Thanks, Chris.

[Brian Evans]

I think once you got the hang of it, two instruments to the quart would be easy. So far I usually screw up and have to redo a bunch of coats.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I build electrics, but the last gallon I bought finished 6 or 7 guitars.

[Greg Martin]

Are you wiping or spraying brite tone is spraying what nozzle size ?

[Steve Sawyer]

I think once you got the hang of it, two instruments to the quart would be easy. So far I usually screw up and have to redo a bunch of coats.

Brian - hate to resurrect an old thread, but what caused your re-do’s?

Plan on using Brite Tone on the current build. Did a test piece a couple of months ago. Brushed eight coats, sanded and buffed. Results were outstanding.

I did a little sand-through on the test piece’s “headstock”. I’ll be trying to correct this, but because this had been curing for several month, I anticipate some issues because the existing finish has to be completely cured at this point.

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

I bought the one quart kit, that comes with a quart of sealer, quart of finish and grain filler. What are your best guesses on what that will finish. I was planning on using that to finish three electrics. Is that not enough?

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

Actually, I just looked at their site, and the starter kits is pints, not quarts. I probably need more to do three instruments. I emailed them to ask what they estimate the coverage of a pint is.

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

I contacted Crystal Lac on Facebook, and they responded very quickly. They said that with 2 to 3 coats of sanding sealer, then 2 coats of pore filler, and 5 coats of Brite Tone finish, the pint starter kit will do two guitars, and maybe a bit more. So, since I am working on 3 instruments, I am going to buy another quart of each.

[Brian Evans]

I think once you got the hang of it, two instruments to the quart would be easy. So far I usually screw up and have to redo a bunch of coats.

Brian - hate to resurrect an old thread, but what caused your re-do’s?

Plan on using Brite Tone on the current build. Did a test piece a couple of months ago. Brushed eight coats, sanded and buffed. Results were outstanding.

I did a little sand-through on the test piece’s “headstock”. I’ll be trying to correct this, but because this had been curing for several month, I anticipate some issues because the existing finish has to be completely cured at this point.

My re-do's are myriad - usually level sanding issues that I could not see until I had several coats of gloss on - my eyes can see the issues with the increased reflectivity. I also managed to scrape right through some binding getting it level with the side, so I redid the bonding on a whole top. I found Brite-tone to be very forgiving, but I am pretty sure it's a cross-linking finish so later coats won't burn in the way a non-cross-linkng finish might.

[Steve Sawyer]

I found Brite-tone to be very forgiving, but I am pretty sure it's a cross-linking finish so later coats won't burn in the way a non-cross-linkng finish might.

Yeah, that's my understanding. This is a test piece, so no harm if I re-coat and re-sand and polish and have issues. I didn't deliberately let it cure for so long before sanding and polishing, that's just the way things worked out. If I finish the build in the normal manner, curing for 5-7 days before sanding, it may not be an issue if I get any sand-throughs there.

On the other hand, after being that well-cured, I was able to wet-sand without any issue. I keep getting conflicting opinions on dry- vs wet-sanding on waterborne finishes. Crystal Lac says to never wet-sand their finish, but as I mentioned, it worked fine with the finish well-cured. I've also successfully wet-sanded GF's Enduro Var and High Performance waterborne finishes, and some claim that you're not supposed to do that.