H's LPA-1. How much more black?

I'd just clear over that, it looks great and would darken up a bit with clear coats

I'm with Dedman - I think it looks great now.

If you want to stick with FW I reckon their Golden Teak would look great or otherwise tape up the binding and TO the top as that will provide a slight amberish tint.

Personally I would just add top coat over the bindings on both body & neck to help give it an aged antique white look same as you ended up with on the Quilted Tele. The pure white might be too stark a contrast.

Edit: In one of my mad professor colour experimentation sessions I added various stain/ink/dye to a small amount of TO to see how it would blend and discovered water based stuff is definitely no good but oil based was therefore you could mix up a brew of slightly tinted TO (use the Black if the FW Japan Black is oil based?) and still get that transparent black top you originally wanted.

A lighter colour or even just TO is definitely something I'd look at. Gonna ponder this one.

Is a burst feasible with the FW stains? If for example I wanted to do black to teak, do I do the teak or the black first?

Edit: If tinting tru oil with the FW black (sounds like a good idea!) would it be best to do it for a few coats and then go to straight TO? How would that interact with the TO method described by Andrew here? http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...?t=5955&page=4 I was gonna give that a try on this build.

No idea buddy but would tend to think lighter colour goes down first then bring the dark in from the edges. As always best to test these theories on scrap timber before launching on such a precious instrument with all that stunning popped grain.

Ink test!

This is Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Ink from a local art place. Says it's light-fast and waterproof. It seemed to thin with water just fine. Had a chat with the lady that runs the place, she plays acoustic and was interested in the idea of building a hollow body electric, so I wrote down the pitbull website for her. Reckon she'd have some unique ideas about final finishing.

Here's how the red/yellow burst came out on a bit of pine.

http://i.imgur.com/AtzR6zJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wYVt2az.jpg

Excuse the sanding marks, apparently my ancient inherited orbital sander is way broken.

I'm gonna pick up some black tomorrow and see if I can do black > red > yellow. I'll then throw some tru-oil over the whole thing to see what happens.

If that works, that's the final plan. If not, back to experimenting.


Edit: Or black > green! Hmmm....

G'day H, you will be happy to know that TO seems to go over the top of just about anything. It is only when you mix it wet with something else wet that funky things can happen. For example if you had a small amount of TO in a container and add a couple of drops of either ink then give it a shake, the end result would probably be little coloured beaded bits all through the TO solution rather than blended as a tint. Oil based ink, dye or stain should blend with TO and give you a tinted clear coat. FW website says that Japan Black is spirit based so in theory it should blend. Once you have the 'Tint' where you want it then straight TO over the top just like you did on the fretless bass.

Ponch's method was on a 'Nude' finish and not sure it would work on a burst as the sanding action in a wet TO solution with water based inks might end up in tears. Even if oil based the sanding action would just end up blending everything into a combined colour.

Burst...

I don't hate it, but I overworked it. Was a lot nicer earlier in the process. The more obvious lines and swirls don't actually show up in real life but they look awful in the pic. I guess the pickguard will hide the worst part.

Just india ink in 3 different colours.

http://i.imgur.com/nwytSjz.jpg

Actually, the more I look at this the more I hate it. Should have just oiled it.

What do you reckon would happen if I just chucked the FW black over the whole thing? Or sand first to get some of it off?

Wow, top effort.

What colour are you going to use for pickguard and PUP selector switch plate as cream would look good but would also require cream PUP surrounds too?