ColorTone Aerosol Guitar Lacquer

this is a good product for some one who doesn't have a spray gun.and also really good for small touch-ups.

I do not do "reviews" often, however, I feel this stuff warrants the time/effort. Used the clear satin on a $300 neck and I could not be happier with the results! Keep it warm, shake it a lot/often, two or three shots onto scrap each time before you shoot your project, and be patient....you should have no problems. Purchased three cans, used 1 3/4.....I wanted a heavy finish. Turned out perfect.

I recently purchased 2 cans of color tone gloss clear laquer for finishing a new neck. I found that the spray is very rough and when I put a clear coat over black laquer it cause the black to crack. terrible results. it caused more work than the project was worth and still isn't done because I now have to sand it all off and start over. I have been doing fine woodworking all my life, including building my own guitar. I have never had these kind of problems working with laquer when I mix it myself and spray with a gun. I will never use this product again

I dont own a sprayer, so these cans make finishing a guitar easy. I have purchased this lacquer twice now and absolutely love it. It goes on easy, sands easy and polishes to a glass like finish.

I've had very good results with several products from StewMac in the past, and on my current refinish project I decided to stain blue and use the Satin Lacquer for the clear. I started with the sanding lacquer which worked ok, but when using the satin, the amount of drips, spits, sputters were totally unacceptable.

I followed the instructions and could not get this spray to be applied without getting 5-10 spits per pass. I thought maybe it was a bad can, but tried all 4 cans I purchased and each was as bad as the next. Temperature and humidity were fine, so I really believe this is a sub par product.

I sanded most of what I applied off, and switched to a brand I have used in the past (which can be purchased at local stores and is less expensive) and the difference was night and day.

I would highly discourage using this project, unless you would like to spend a lot of time sanding out the sputters (which means you will more likely need more spray, more sand paper, and more time).

Since I ended up removing what I did spray, I cannot review the final outcome of this product - it is just too frustrating to use.


By the way - the Blue stain from Stewmac came out awesome

This is ideal for necks, & other smaller jobs. I love the satin for the back of necks on electrics. I like it for that final touch after the gloss has dried. A sweaty hand doesn't stick to satin like it does to gloss.

I recently purchased several cans of Colortone Nitro for a DIY Strat project. They shipped quickly, and had easy to follow instructions and tips for first time users. I ran out, and while waiting for more to arrive from Stewmac, I made the mistake of purchasing a few cans of Behlen from a local woodworking shop. Not only did Behlen cost $6.00 more per can , but every one spit out globs of tacky half dried nitro onto my guitar body. I troubleshot every can, tipped upside down and used thinner to clear the tip, etc etc but the problem persisted with every single can I used. I had to wait and sand off these globs in order to recoat evenly. I have not used the quart sized Behlen, only spray cans.

This problem did not exist with any of the 11 Colortone cans I used. Colortone also coated more evenly and with a wider spray range.

I am new at finishing guitars, but I did a ton of research before I started, and just hoped this review would be helpful to someone else in a similar situation. Order enough cans of Colortone Nitro, and maybe even a few extra...and you will not be disappointed.

Still working on this project, but will post photos when finished here....

The dark colors were particularly easy to apply, and looked impressive immediately. The clear coats looked really good after several coats..

I ended up having to re-do the entire back of a body when I put it in the sun some 3 or 4 hours after I'd sprayed on the next-to-last clear coat (thinking it would dry faster), and big bubbles developed all over the back. Well, it looked dry, so I thought how could it hurt it? . . .. (I also found out that this stuff is really hard to get off!)

I put the cans in hot water before spraying. (They don't stay hot particularly long.) I think that helps with the clear coat, but the dark colors seemed to go on smooth whether cool or hot.

The only drawbacks are first, that the clear nozzles occasionally spattered. But I replaced the bad nozzles with one from an empty can and it sprayed just fine then. (All colors tended to spatter when they're almost empty.)

Second, the cost is a little more than I'd like to pay, when you include shipping. But you can't get nitro in California except by ordering out-of-state.

Overall a good product.

About as good as you'll get out of a rattle can. I really liked the feel of the final product.

Great for smaller jobs when you don't feel like hooking up the compressor and spray gun. Flows on nice and smooth and polishes up nicely.