Marcel's ES-1TL

Some shots from today...

Maybe I'm being a bit of a worry wart... and maybe the black may not cover it or could make things worse by possibly highlighting the faults...

More shots of the ES-1TL under flouro lighting (and where things look much worse),

And while I was out there with the camera I took a couple of family shots with my LP-1SSP, my rebuilt Ason plywood Strat, the au-natural Alder HotRails Strat build , and my Gibson studio LP '50's tribute that I thought you guys might like to see....

I'd still do the neck and sides black (leave the from face of the headstock blue) , burst the back and leave the front.

wait, just spotted the glue on on the front near the f hole. I'd burst the front too.

From previous experience I know I'm not good on bursts there Dedman, so I doubt that will happen.

Actually I was thinking keeping the front of the headstock and the edge of the body as is, and doing the neck and front/back of the body Black or very dark or Walnut Brown...

The mark on either side of the pick guard side F hole is the grain of the wood which hasn't taken stain. The upper F hole does have a glue mark that runs beside the binding and makes the binding there look a bit fatter. All the 'marks' on the back are where grain hasn't taken stain. Similar on the neck where next to the scarf joint and at the foot of the neck have absorbed extra stain so look darker...

Hi Marcel, looks fairly typical for Basswood as it can tend to be quite a tight fine grained timber species. To me it looks to as if sanding action has over polished the timber thus preventing stain to fully penetrate. As Dedman pointed out some parts almost look like glue spots as they also repel stain too.

Solutions? If you want to stick somewhere near that colour hopefully there is no other clear or finish over the top of last stain coat because if there is that needs to come off. 1st step would be to keep adding more stain coats all over and if after 2 applications no significant changes this means you sand back with 180 to open things up a bit but not too aggressive to strip off too much colour. Presume it is water based stain and suggest don't be afraid to wipe off the excess when still damp, and after 24 hours run a damp rag over the whole body to lift off what was just lying on the surface. This really helps to get the stain into the grain and pores with each fresh application and should artificially help to pop what grain there is.

Slow and steady trial and error process until you get closer to where you want it to be or you could always run with the alternate darker contrast as suggested by others.

Cheers, Waz

Nice herd Marcel!

Thanks Andy... One day I'll do the sheep dog thing and get the whole heard together in a much prettier setting.... ;-)

Not much sanding there Waz... basically the only sanding was to remove raised grain after damp wiping... and I'm learning the 'joys' of basswood with this being only my 2nd Basswood build. The first being a much simpler solid body Jazz Bass.

Thankfully there is nil clear coat as yet as I knew any clear would just complicate any fix.......

My daughter had a look at it with me today... Despite suggesting the various Browns and Black shades I have available She agrees with me that after sanding as much of the colour off as reasonable going a deep Black front and back and on the back of the neck is the best option, and it will allow me the opportunity to correct some other minor surface issues at the same time. I will attempt as best as possible to keep the body edge and headstock face the Turquoise colour, which hopefully will give this build an interesting look once the Shellac finally goes on.

Good luck with the color change.. I'm sure it will turn out good whatever you do.. nice looking collection..

Hope the colour change works out better for you and that you can keep some of that sweet looking turquoise.

So giving it a sanding was the way to go.

I hit it with 180 for a while, then moved on to 240 for a little bit on sections that needed more.... and gave it a damp rag mop over, and I felt so much better with the overall look...

I let it dry and gave it the first coat of Shellac (See pix...).. It has gone a little more Green but that was always to be expected with the Shellac.. Only a few more dozen coats to go...