Aqua Coat

[Alex Q Guitarworks]

I had, many times, and I had many problems.

First time I used was on a roasted white ash body, and it completely messed the natural finish. Somehow it turned the grain of the wood sort of red-ish.

Second time I used on a black limba body. Somehow it created ‘blemishes’ on the wood in terms of color changing. I assume that I either did not applied it evenly/missed some spot that later showed as ‘bi-color’ specially on end grain or I not evenly sanded the body for the finish. I then completely bare sanded the body and re-applied it succesfully.

Later, I only use it as filler for solid color, as I don’t trust it enough for natural finish.

I also tried to use it before the sealer coat over korina with mixed results (but in Aqua Coat defense I was using nitrocellulose which has poor coverage). Probably it’s best usage is as intercoats, as you said.

[Robert Schmidt]

Thanks for the response. I just saw it. I also got light blemishes especially on end grain and had to sand it all the way back and re-apply. It is easy to use, but I am not sure i trust it going forward.

[Scott Liebers]

I’ve used it a few times. It seemed to work well on mahogany. I recently used it on East Indian rosewood and I got dark blotchy spots in various places. I probably won’t use it anymore.

[Chris Fayland Fayland Guitars]

I like to use ZPoxy thinned just a smidge with denatured alcohol on the second and third coats.

[Robert Schmidt]

Thanks Scott and Chris, It seems there have been enough issues reported with it that I will probably not use it going forward. I was avoiding Z poxy because of the mess, but that may be what I will try next since most who have used it seem to like the results.

[Scott Liebers]

I’ll probably go back to using Z-poxy. It is messy, and it has an amber hue to it that looks uneven on ivoroid or white bindings if you don’t get perfectly even coverage and sanding. Not sure how others deal with that?