An Old Pearloid Guitar Body

[Alan Peterson]

The always interesting Guitarz Blogspot recently featured an old German Musima bass with an all-over pearloid "mother of toilet seat" finish:

http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2012/08/196 ... migma.html

I remember reading in another MIMF posting that those finishes were applied by softening a sheet of material with the fumes of heated acetone. Besides being horrified by the disregard for human safety, I'm also fascinated how they were able to cover the entire body with the stuff with no sign of a seam anywhere. When they wrap drum shells with pearloid plastic, there is always a seam. I don't see one here. On other guitar brands, backside and frontside applications were held together with a decorative beading forced into a routed slot all around the side edge of the body.

Has there ever been any newly-developed or refined (safer) way of applying this sort of finish? Even so, how do they get a coating like this to look as if its painted on with no seams, wrinkles or a bead?

[Dan Warren]

Do you know for sure the whole thing's not cast out of bakelite? It looks pretty bowling-ball-y.

[Paul Rhoney]

You usually can find a seam on guitars like this. You might not be able to see it in pictures, but it's usually there along the sides somewhere.

[JC Whitney]

That's a beauty. Check this out (about 50+ seconds into the video): Weltmeister acordion factory - softened celluloid application, then scraping and buffing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYsSifiDapo&NR=1
Looks like fun, but my lungs and eyes hurt just thinking about the working conditions...

[David Robinson]

Wow, JC, that is cool. I have always wondered how they formed it. You can see the use a glue first before they lay down the celluloid. I have welded chips and strips with acetone, but never sheets that size.
Also what they are using is probably Cellulose Acetate. I have many different sheets of the stuff. Some of the funkier looking sheets smell more like ping pong balls.
more on celluloid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkuDnd0D9_o