Non-PBG RBX Style Bass Guitar Kit RBX-20 from DIY Guitars

[Simon Barden]

How do you plan to finish it? Stain, Dingo Tone, TruOil, poly, acrylic or nitro sprays?

It's a lot easier to spray a good sunburst than to do it with stains - though Gibson did use to use rubbed alcohol-based stains for doing their sunbursts back in the 1920s (though I'm sure their stainers got a lot of practice first before being allowed to do it on real guitars). Alcohol isn't absorbed as readily by wood as water is, so you are less likely to get darker patches where the grain is more open if you use an alcohol (metho) based stain. End grain soaks up the stain more than the lengthwise-grain, so it can be worth pre-soaking end-grain with water (or metho if an alcohol based stain) so that it doesn't soak up too much stain and appear significantly darker than the top (unless you want that effect).

[Alkay]

How do you plan to finish it? Stain, Dingo Tone, TruOil, poly, acrylic or nitro sprays?

It's a lot easier to spray a good sunburst than to do it with stains - though Gibson did use to use rubbed alcohol-based stains for doing their sunbursts back in the 1920s (though I'm sure their stainers got a lot of practice first before being allowed to do it on real guitars). Alcohol isn't absorbed as readily by wood as water is, so you are less likely to get darker patches where the grain is more open if you use an alcohol (metho) based stain. End grain soaks up the stain more than the lengthwise-grain, so it can be worth pre-soaking end-grain with water (or metho if an alcohol based stain) so that it doesn't soak up too much stain and appear significantly darker than the top (unless you want that effect).

Hi Simon,

I'll be doing the finishing coat in poly but I'm waiting on my brother to decide on colour first. If I do a burst I'm quite confident I can do this by hand but I will test on some offcuts first. Might even try the airbrush as a test too. I have seen quite a few videos on doing bursts so they seem fairly straight forward.

I have some water based airbrush paint that says it can be applied to wood. How suitable it is for a guitar body I don't know? Maybe mix a bit of mineral turpentine with it?

Cheers,

Alkay.