Rooks RCA-4!!!

[Sonic Mountain]

Great work on the burst!

[rook]

Thanks @Sonic Mountain much appreciated!

[rook]

Thanks for the kind words, @Bass Guy!

[rook]

NECK STAIN

Working on matching the stain on the neck to the body. This wood has been stubborn in ways I was not expecting. Pretty hard to get the wood to accept the stain!

But I beat it into submission! Sorta. I sanded back, even applied a wood prep for water based stain.

Still not super excited with the results on the headstock, but I'm digging the back of the neck.

And as my awesome girlfriend pointed out - i"m loving doing all of this... so yeah, sometimes I'm annoyed, but still having fun. And I'm stoked to have found this forum with so many people enthusiastic about their builds and willing to share their knowledge. I'm a big lurker, and constantly inspired by the stuff I see you all are doing!

HERE'S MY NECK STAIN:


ANOTHER PIC:


ALSO... as a weird side bar--

I had some left over maple veneer so I decided to make some wooden picks.



The HOW TO was simple -- I glued 3 pieces of veneer cross grain. Sanded and shaped.

WORK IN PROGRESS:


Just a fun little side project and thought I'd share. I tried one out at practice tonight and it worked great.

[Fretworn]

Great job so far Rook!

[rook]

Great job so far Rook!

Thanks man!

I just want a rad instrument, ya know? In any case, I'm enjoying the process and learning new stuff.

[Simon Barden]

A great stain job on the neck. You've done some really good fading/blending. It's going to look even better with some clear finish coats on it.

It's a bit late to mention it now, but it is better to leave the parts of the neck heel that need to be glued unstained. You certainly want to mask those areas off before you add any clear coats. You'll want to clear coat one or two mm past the join lines, but no more.

You'll probably need to rough-up the parts of the neck heel to be glued with some coarse sandpaper before you glue the neck on.

[rook]

It's a bit late to mention it now, but it is better to leave the parts of the neck heel that need to be glued unstained. You certainly want to mask those areas off before you add any clear coats. You'll want to clear coat one or two mm past the join lines, but no more.

You'll probably need to rough-up the parts of the neck heel to be glued with some coarse sandpaper before you glue the neck on.

I knew this and still made the mistake. Not sure what happened actually - I had it marked with pencil, but accidentally went too far while focusing on the blending. I hope I haven't created a problem for myself. I really should have taped it off.

I sanded it back a bit, but don't want to lose too much wood either.

I'll definitely rough it up before gluing. Hope this doesn't create too an issue down the line.

[Simon Barden]

I don't think it's too big an issue, certainly not compared to putting a gloss finish on.

[rook]

So I have a weird problem....

After letting my stain dry for about a week I started to apply some Tru oil.

I've done this in the past with no problems, but this time the stain is bleeding.

Perhaps bleeding is not the right word. Blending together perhaps.

The black edges are nearly gone and the light colored middle part of the burst has gone brown.

At this point it's starting to look like I stained it a single color.

Pretty disheartened at the moment. Likely going to sand it back and try again.

But any idea where I went wrong?