Thijs' Les Paul that was supposed to be green...

[Thijs]

Well, my first post in this build diary will be a kind of a recap.

I’ve ordered a Les Paul with a flamed maple top & the gold hardware with cream-colored covers. Took a few weeks to arrive at my door in the Netherlands, so I had time to find out what I would make of it.

I decided to go green, like this one.



I had the opportunity to make my own stain-color with pigments at my work, because I’m in interiorbuilding & I came up with a color that looks a lot like what I had in mind. (note that the example is on a piece of ash, not on flamed maple…)



After first staining it black & then sanding it down again, I started to notice I sanded it too much… But I still wanted to see what it looked like with the green stain & 1 quick layer of clear.



As you can see I wasn’t too happy about the result… And that’s putting it mildly…

But I didn’t want to moarn about the loss to much, so I quickly covered it with a primer.



And that’s where I am right now…

So my plan has changed completely.
Now I planning on putting on a midnight-blue with a brown stained back & then polish the crap out of it. I thought it would look good with the gold hardware & the cream-colored covers.

Luckily I can do a lot the next few days because of a holliday overhere. So hopfully next week all of my green nightmares are gone.

To be continued…

[CascadiaGuitarGeek]

I'm sorry the green flame finish didn't work out. Hopefully you'll like a solid colour in the end. Doing a dyed/stained finish on kits can be tricky due to the thickness of the veneer. When I did my Les Paul I stopped sanding sooner than I wanted to because I was paranoid about going through the veneer so I didn't get as much pop to my flame as I would have liked.

For what it's worth your primer looks like a pretty unique weird and cool finish for a guitar. You could always try that out.

[FrankenWashie]

Ouch. That's a tough lesson to learn Thijs, but it sound like you have a really cool recover plan in place!

[pablopepper]

That sucks, I know the pain of sanding through. Save that green though, it looks fantastic!

[stan]

It always hurts to start again, but i agree, that green is awesome

[Thijs]

I'm sorry the green flame finish didn't work out. Hopefully you'll like a solid colour in the end. Doing a dyed/stained finish on kits can be tricky due to the thickness of the veneer. When I did my Les Paul I stopped sanding sooner than I wanted to because I was paranoid about going through the veneer so I didn't get as much pop to my flame as I would have liked.

For what it's worth your primer looks like a pretty unique weird and cool finish for a guitar. You could always try that out.

Haha! Yeah, the first primer coat looked pretty…. well, unique.
Because i’ve almost sanded through the veneer I got a few potholes in the top, so that had to be flattened out first. But it’s all smooth now.

That sucks, I know the pain of sanding through. Save that green though, it looks fantastic!

Haha! I won’t trow away the green.
One day there will be a green stained one in my yet to create collection. One day…

Ouch. That's a tough lesson to learn Thijs, but it sound like you have a really cool recover plan in place!

It’s my first try, but I didn’t thought the veneer to be that thin!
With any luck I can put on the color for the top today. Very curious on how it will look. Hopefully I can forget the failed green stain…

[Andy40]

I too know what its like to have to start again. sorry to hear about that. I hope it turns out great, I'm sure it will.

[JohnH]

What a bugger! Great green, but sounds like your plan b will be just as great (midnight blue with gold and cream sounds very appealing)

[wazkelly]

Bummer on sanding through but that is always a chance when sanding flame top veneers.

Just wondering what colour the timber was underneath as maybe that would have looked good enough with your green stain unless of course you are now too far down the path of doing a solid midnight blue.

Cheers, Waz

[phrozin]

Well, my first post in this build diary will be a kind of a recap.

I’ve ordered a Les Paul with a flamed maple top & the gold hardware with cream-colored covers. Took a few weeks to arrive at my door in the Netherlands, so I had time to find out what I would make of it.

I decided to go green, like this one.



I had the opportunity to make my own stain-color with pigments at my work, because I’m in interiorbuilding & I came up with a color that looks a lot like what I had in mind. (note that the example is on a piece of ash, not on flamed maple…)



After first staining it black & then sanding it down again, I started to notice I sanded it too much… But I still wanted to see what it looked like with the green stain & 1 quick layer of clear.



As you can see I wasn’t too happy about the result… And that’s putting it mildly…

But I didn’t want to moarn about the loss to much, so I quickly covered it with a primer.



And that’s where I am right now…

So my plan has changed completely.
Now I planning on putting on a midnight-blue with a brown stained back & then polish the crap out of it. I thought it would look good with the gold hardware & the cream-colored covers.

Luckily I can do a lot the next few days because of a holliday overhere. So hopfully next week all of my green nightmares are gone.

To be continued…

I did the exact same thing on my 1st lp-1 made a real dogs ass out of it soon learnt not to do the black sand back on a veneer, was actually looking at it today for what i will do with it as got some time on my hands