Building an ES-5V

Okay, this is my aim for the finish.
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I'm going for a water based stain finished with oil, which worked well for the resonator (see first post), and I do have some red Liberon concentrate left over from that and it gave a nice "shaded" effect with a little work. Right now I'm intending to start with a wash of basic golden pine wood stain, probably Morrells, which I will increase in density until I get the right colour, then add other layers using some of the red then black Liberon in increasing measures with each application, as other have done before. Would have liked to have gone the Dingotone route, but understand that cannot be shipped to the UK and my budget has already taken quite a hit with the UK's custom charges, so can't afford Colortone or the like. Doubt that there was much choice in the 'States back in the early 'forties so think this might give a realistic finish, but would welcome other opinions.

I could use some advice here. On rubbing down the body with fine grade wet and dry I have one specific area on the back where it appears it has already been rubbed, and quite deeply. A nice burnished shine is appearing elsewhere, but this area it stays rough to the touch and the grain is taking in some of the abrasive. I would rub down a little harder with a coarser grit but am aware that the final laminate will be thin, and don't want to cut through it. Seems too shallow for filler, anyone any ideas? (Quite hard to show in photos I'm afraid.)Attachment 27640Attachment 27642

Just finished an ES-1 recently and the bare timber on the back looked just like that on yours.

Weird timber grain pattern and structure. Supposed to be Basswood but looks more like a ply of some sort. I ended up using natural Timber Mate as a grain filler applied quite stiff and using an old credit card as a scraper to squeege into all the cracks.

If using water based stain be wary as this timber's grain structure swelled and opened up once wet in some places on mine and was a right proper #$%@!! to get sorted.

Cheers, Waz

That's really helpful, Waz, thanks.

I am intending to use a water base, although the area where the fault occurs will be under the dark area of stain, so I should get away with it.

Thanks again.

Natural Timber Mate does a good job of soaking up a darker stain.
Try not being too wet or damp when applying water based stain as that may cause swelling.

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I'm now about halfway through the finish using Crimson Guitars' finishing oil over a water-based wood dye, rather than stain.

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Several more coats to add, and a lot more rubbing down, but am pleased with the results (and love the smell).

Shaping up very nicely!

Wow! You did a great job keeping the purfling edge clean.

Cheated a bit, all were masked up well - at least I thought so - but there were runs... I scraped these off and rubbed down the binding with 800 wet and dry, then stained them honey pine, to give that nicotine look. Additional layers of oil have helped.

This is the scaper I used. I cut a 5mm section out of an old paint scraper - the result allows any stain to be easily removed from the plastic binding without touching the finish to the wood.

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