Refinishing Guitar Top
 

Just bought this guitar on the bay, knowing that it could turn out to be anything from a diamond-in-the-rough to kindling. So I had this weird idea for refinishing the top, and I would appreciate some input on the good/bad things that might result. What if I sanded the top down to bare wood and then just went with an oil coating, lemon oil, tung oil or gun oil? First - would the guitar tone change markedly? Second- am I asking for any other problems by doing this? Thanks for any info.

Picture of top:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2NVgxNjAw/z/QkUAAOxyOMdS4L0L/$_57.JPG

Full listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Simon-Patric...p2047675.l2557

Hi John, Is there something specific you want to achieve by doing this or is it just curiosity? You are correct in assuming there are a number of things that can go wrong especially if you don't have a specific goal in mind.

Yes, my goal is purely about making the guitar look good; I have never refinished a guitar, and I thought I would try just the top on this one, because it seems to be asking for a refinish.

I have done one top with Feast Watson Chinawood Oil (tung + poly), and it looks very rough, I wouldn't recommend it. If I was doing it again, and lived in the US, I would try spray can nitro from Stewmac.

Careful with the sanding, tops are very thin to start and the wood is soft. I typically strip with chemicals or a heat gun depending on several things like what kind of finish is already on it and what will be going on, each has it's own pitfalls. I do not care for oil finishes on guitars.

That's going to be some amount of work if you want to do things correctly - but as another member said what's the goal? Do you want to make it just look nicer or attempt a home made thicker high gloss finish?

Do you want to fix that crack and the missing piece on the top as well? The top is also quite worn above the soundhole. Not sure how many coats of nitro it would take to get a levelled finish there.

My goal was just to improve the looks of the top. But after hearing the responses I think I just better leave it alone, except maybe to gingerly smooth out the rough edges of the break in the soundhole. Thanks everyone for your input.

Leave it alone and play it.

Yep, that's what I'm gonna do.

Cedar, like most softwoods, is not a good candidate for an oil finish. It is very absorbent, and probably won't look good. I also suspect that the absorption is not good for sound.
The chip in the soundhole can be repaired relatively easily, especially if done by an experienced repairman. And if I did anything at all to the finish, it would be limited to just sealing the bare areas with shellac. That is because of the wear, which looks deep enough to cause problems if it is sanded out.