French Polish Over Taylor 214ce

[Tom_B]

Hello,

I just acquired a Taylor 214ce and thinking of French polishing over the natural satin finish to bring out the shiny look.

Is that a good idea?

Your advices are greatly appreciated

Tom

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Tom_B

Is that a good idea?

No, not really.

Are you an expert French polisher? Is the finish texture-free, (i.e. been levelled)? If it is uses open-pored woods have their pores been filled? If not, chances are good it will look worse than it does now.

If you are planning to pay someone else to do it, I'd expect the cost to be at least $500, a large portion of the commercial value for a used 214.

[maxtheaxe]

Originally Posted by Tom_B

Hello,

I just acquired a Taylor 214ce and thinking of French polishing over the natural satin finish to bring out the shiny look.

Is that a good idea?

Your advices are greatly appreciated

Tom

Probably not necessary; if you prefer that sort of textural gloss, you'd be better served simply to buff out the satin. I've done this on a couple of my satin-finished guitars (1996 Taylor 412K and a 2004 Larrivee L-03), using Meguires automotive buffing cream (or anything equivalent, as long as it contains no silicon). I'm very pleased with the results.

I actually prefer the finish I got, even over full-gloss or satin. Just proceed cautiously at first and don't go through the finish. BTW, true 'French-polish' is a difficult and time consuming process, easily ruined, and even when successful it is quite a bit more fragile than any of the finishes commonly used on guitars these days.

Incidentally, I found the finish on my Taylor to be quite a bit tougher and harder to move than that on the Larrivee, so I used some 1200 grit emory cloth to gently knock the tooth down a bit before polishing; they may have changed their formula since '96 though; either that or it was simply due to the age of it.

[Tom_B]

Thank you both for your advices. I built several classical guitars so my FP skill is ok.

I probably will just leave it alone.

[JonWint]

If the finish is unaffected by alcohol, why not try a test section on the back? If you don't like it then wipe it off.

[The Old Anglo]

I used Flitz to polish the back of my Taylor 314CE and it came out very nice...But,it was a lotta work to get it where I wanted it,Good Luck!!.