Ibanez Blazer Re-Finish

Local guitarist Bob Patterson recently dug out his Ibanez Blazer from a ten year coma and brought it to me for a re-finish. The plan was to strip the body back to its natural state and re-lacquer.

Here is the instrument in its initial state:

I used a hard block and 150 grit sandpaper to remove the lacquer and colour from the body, serious elbow grease here, being very careful not to lose the original shape and contouring of the guitar:

Once the body is clean I sand and smooth up through grits 240 and 320 until:

The body is now ready for grain filling and the lacquer spraying process.

Below is the finished body. 21 coats of waterbased lacquer, each one cut back and flattened by hand to its minimum thickness. The final coat then polished with micromesh through the grits from 1500 to 12000. Finally the last spell of elbow grease to rub in burnishing cream for the final polish.

Glorious!