We’re spending many useful hours working on wood finishing and repair techniques. Besides understanding the fundamentals of film finishes (what we use for musical instruments), we are building the groundwork for excellent touch up work by working out basic color theory. While it seems funny to be mixing finger paints in a guitar repair class, it is a fantastic way to understand the workings of color matching (hue, value, intensity, etc.). Our instructor is a self-proclaimed finish nut, and it means that we are getting a great in-depth look at the hows and whys of wood finishing.

Making a color wheel, and exploring what happens when you mix white or black with another color

In Repair class, we’re perfecting our Fender-style nuts, which are a little different from your average nut. They often have a curved bottom, and need to be precisely cut so as not to buzz. Soon, we’ll bring in our own projects to set up, perform fret dresses, fix cracks, etc. This definitely feels like the rubber hitting the road as far as what we’ve been trained to do this year. The biggest trick seems to be having realistic expectation of what can be accomplished in the next month of classes.