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Finishing of Faded Cherry (Gibson LP Lefthand)

Here I show the repainting of a Gibson Les Paul from "worn cherry" to "faded cherry". 

This guitar here was not old yet -but if you are not satisfied, you look for a solution. The problem here was that the left-handed version was not available in the desired finish. The paint used here is called "worn cherry" - it is a simple - and quite delicate because thin - paint. The wish was for a color similar to "faded cherry". And it should be much less sensitive. I did it with high gloss Nitorlack from Rosner Lacke - type "Polirol".

The origin of this type of paint is the light sensitivity of the red pigments used in the 60's. These pigments fade. These bleach out and what remains is a somewhat transparent brown.

All the hardware is dismantled and the varnish is sanded off by hand. Under the brownish layer of paint came some wood discoloration zuschein - of course, only visually a flaw.

In my search for the perfect lacquer pattern, I discovered that there is no such thing. Because depending on whether or not the guitar has been in the sun over the years, the shade of red may or may not have faded as well. Let's give it a try.

The pore filler used by Gibson has reddish color. To create a heavily faded look, it is enough to spray the wood with some brownish colored varnish. That's what I did.

It turned out that the wood discolorations already mentioned above stood out more than desired. So, color tinted more reddish, some amber over it and then finished with nitro clear lacquer.

Intermediate sanding, finish painting, sand with water.

I polished the paint as usual on the buffing wheel, some rework was also necessary with hand polish and then reassemble.

And what a pretty guitar it has become now!