Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Wait on VaSSallos

Nice to see you on the forums Steve.

From my limited experience, I can say that I'm pretty sure super high grit sandings between each spray is critical to piano finishes. For satin, I think you still sand, just not as fine.

I don't think they need 20 coats, but maybe they do. For musical instruments I don't think they use that many, and they should have more abuse.

That number was pulled out of my ear. I know it's a high number, but I don't know how many it is.

When I did the finish on my towers, I read the how to, and for nice guitars I think they did 6 to 12 layers. But you have to dry half a day and sand between each.

Piano finish turned out much harder to do than the instructions implied. Big fan of satin now. Probably why Axiom adds a 25% up fee for Piano over satin - sanding is tedious job of perfection. Hell, maybe they do go up to 20 layers. That would explain a long lead time.

I remember that when the Audiobytes came out, Amie was talking in the ol' shout box about how they were doing gloss blue and gloss orange ones for magazines. She said they didn't plan to actually produce them because they took so long to do and had x many coats. Of course, they're producing them now...

Hi kcarlile and all,

For the high-gloss finishes it's between nine and twelve coats, with the sanding and polishing between each coat. And yes, one guy at a time does the custom work ("Chunk") or Mike. When I visit the plant, I go in the back, and one of them will be there sanding and polishing--it seems endless--but I'm dazzled by the workmanship.

We tell customers that custom orders will take six weeks or less--it's usually less, but it depends on the time of year.

Regards,
Alan

They have to know exactly how much to sand: rub too far and you get an obvious hole in that layer and must respray; don't go deep enough and it does not shine.

I respect their work, amazing finish from what I have seen. But, on purchase page, Axiom should show a picture of the piano finish. You see the 25% charge but the pic does not show what you get for that up-charge.

Just my two cents!

Completely agree. When it comes to product pics, I don't think there's such a thing as too much information. Well, yes, there is.

Fot the high cost finishes, I think a 360° rotating and interactive pic/movie would be killer. Only then can you truly see how the light plays off the surface.

That and I wish they would show the finish on the actual speaker you are buying. I'd like to see how the grain pattern looks on a floorstanding speaker, not just the M22.

You guys just want them to build photo samples of every speaker in every finish so they start showing up cheap in the user's club!

You guys are awful!

::sneaks away, quietly hoping for gloss orange M80s::