Can you dull down a poly finish to lose the shine?

[dsguitar1]

Can you dull down a poly finish to lose the shine?

Want to make a sunburst poly strat and dull it down to take the shine off but keep the under color intact, can this be done?

[Dave Sloven]

Use one of those green pot scourers.  That's what I used to take the shine off of the poly finish on the back of the neck of my Epiphone Explorer.  Steel wool is too coarse.

Test it on the back of the neck first!

[lyonk55]

I tried a pot scourer on a guitar neck once: took away the glossiness, but didn't quite have the slickness I wanted. So I took a nail-filling pad thing to it (basically fairly fine sand paper) to rough it up a lot more, then went over it with the scourer to buff out the scratches.

I'd try the scourer first (starting on a hidden spot) and see if you can get the result you want. You can always move to something courser after if it isn't working out, but you can't go back if you go too far from the start. Best to take it gently.

[JacksonRR]

You can do it even slower than that with toothpaste and a LOT of rubbing. More or less a very light abrasive compound. +1 for those cheap nail sanding sponges.

[gwEm]

If you use the finest steel wool you can find that works well. I use Liberon 0000 - Liberon seems noticeably finer than other brands.

The problem is though you get little bits of wire that come off and can stick to pickups if you aren't careful.

So the idea of using a scourer seems attractive, but I never tried it myself.

[darkandrew]

Another way would be to apply a thin coat of clear satin lacquer.