Marze take 2 - TLA-1 Rosewood/maple neck

[Marze]

400 initially, then 600 for later coats of the intensifying coat. Mostly 0000 inbetween coats.

[Marze]

BTW are you using DT neck finish coats on the neck or just general finish coats?

I have just tried the general finish. I do have a bottle of the neck finish which I was going to use for the last two coats. Haven't cracked the bottle yet.

And thanks for the advice on the staining. Looks like a start again job. :-*

[Marze]

I think you are right in your thinking weirdy, it looks like you sanded after the timber mate up to 600 grit? unfortunately the DT stain coats will not soak in enough as there is not enough "tooth" in the timber especially the maple neck. I would sand it no more than 320 grit on the body and 240 on the neck.

You should be able to get the maple neck darker than that creating a bit of tooth by sanding with 240 and then re-staining. I'd probably do more like 4 stain coats and 4 intensifying coats.

I never use steel wool on DT anymore. I think there is petroleum substance in it to prevent rusting which reacts badly with DT. plus its messy. a bit of 1200 grit & 2000 grit wet & dry on the intensifying coats and final coats (no sanding required in between stain coats) will work wonders lightly sanding with the grain in one direction once cured and before applying the next coat.

Let me know if you have't read my previous posts (somewhere in this forum) about applying ultra thin coats of intensifying coats and finals which aid with curing faster and non streaking.

I have not read your previous posts Andy. I will go hunt for them.


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[wazkelly]

Haven't yet seen a Bondi Blue axe where there has been much colour absorbed into the timber.

Headstock faces are hard to colour up as they already come very smooth and shiny. In my personal opinion if you want to colour necks and headstocks all they need is just a very light 180 or 240 to knock down any obvious lumpy bits but never bring the timber up to a sheen as that just then repels all attempts to get stain into the grain.

Share your pain with the DT blues after using steel wool, know it all too well. Andy is on the money with finer grade wet sands after a few intensifiers however I never had any luck with the top coat and reverted to a naughty product that cannot be mentioned. Tend to think the DT Neck finish may work better all round as it is supposed to cure into a harder finish.

If you are happy with the neck colour just lightly wet sand it back to take the streakiness out and proceed with DT Neck finish or another product. Both my explorers were done with DT which coloured both necks and headstocks quite well too and proves that it can be done.

[Marze]

Next update since the, well, staining failure with the DT. There will be multiple posts so I can upload the photos of each step.

It was sand back to bare wood and start again time.


I decided to put a 45 deg bevel on the edge of the body (hey, what's the point of building your own guitar if you can do some mods). With the help of #FredA and his trusty router the bevel was on without any dramas.


Back to sanding down from 240 to 400 grit and we are ready for staining.

[Marze]

Here we are all ready for the wood sealer.


Before that I checked the pickguard to make sure fit was OK after the bevel edge was put on. It needed some reshaping so out with the 240 grit to cut it back and then 400 grit to shape it to the body nice and neatly.


This time I went with artist dyes, a black and blue ocean. I needed to seal the timber so I mixed up some of the colour into the neutral timbermate for the blue faces and black sides as a thin slurry and applied liberally.

[Marze]

While the timer mate was drying I masked up the fretboard on the neck as prep for staining.


First coat of the dye on the neck was watered down about as 1 part dye to 2 parts water. Results were a bit thin.


Re-adjustment of the dye mix required ....

[Marze]

For the next 2 stain coats I doubled the amount of dye and the result was much better

[Marze]

Now back to the body and sand back the timebermate. After a lot of sanding (again) we are back to 400 grit and wiped down ready to do with the stain.


Unfortunately my eye sight must be worse than I thought. When it looked all nice and smooth before the timbermate application, once sanded back it appears I missed the router marks around the edges.


So back to more sanding to clean them up, more timebermate and NOW we are ready for staining.


First stain coat came out nicely, need to work on the black burst a bit more to blend it out.

[Marze]

A couple more layers of stain and we are now ready for the clear top coats.


These look a little dark as they were taken at night. It is actually close to the previous post colour is just a little deeper.

For the top coat I have opted for a wipe on polyurethane finish. I do some some DT neck top coat, but not feeling brave enough to try that after the previous dilemmas.