gr1sf problems

[sonnyallen]

hi guys im new here
i bought a gr1sf kit back in december and was finally getting somewhere with it
taking things slow as im new to guitar building
i am at the stage where the guitar is stained ready for clear coat
had a mishap.....dropped a couple of drops of black stain on a freshly stained bright gretsch orange guitar! bugger
i thought no problem ill sand it back and restain the top
sanded back carefully to remove black stain and bang the nice pitbull guitar woodgrain everyone speaks highly of disappeared to reveal a horrible raw wood completely different colour and grain pattern. are these guitars built from scraps with a paper thin veneer glued over the top?
im having to relic the thing now as the stain wont blend in and the difference in grain is miles away sticks out like a sore thumb
really disappointed by this i do not want to paint a solid color and in my opinion wearing the stain away to make it look old in an attempt hide the mess up is like admitting defeat
any thoughts cheers

[Simon Barden]

Sorry to hear that. A lot of the kits have a very thin maple veneer on them but the hollow body kits are made from 100% basswood ply. The outer layer has the pretty finish on it, the rest is much plainer basswood, and being a ply, the grain will be different. The top layer of the ply is thicker than the veneer tops, but not by much.

Have you got any photos of the guitar showing the damage? To post directly to the forum, photos have to be a maximum of 1500 Pixels on any side, so you'll need to reduce the pixel count for most photos in an editor. Or if on a mobile/tablet, use the Tapatalk app which I believe does that for you. Or host them elsewhere and use a link.

[JohnH]

Oh, man. What a bugger. Simon’s right, photos will help - hopefully some forum member can offer some creative solution

[sonnyallen]

hopefully this works....
first pic shows how it looked after staining
other pics show the mishap and what ive done so far to relic or age it/save it haha
im going to clear coat and again rub through in the areas
worst case scenario i will have to paint a solid colour

[sonnyallen]

more pics let me know what you all think thanks

[sonnyallen]

im hoping clear coat will make the orange pop like the first pic when wet, may even metalflake it like i did to my old bass

[Simon Barden]

It doesn't look that bad in the pictures, but it's really about how you feel about it. It's never going to look perfect. Another coat of orange stain might help cover it up but I do think it's going to be quite noticeable.

Yes, clearcoat should make the finish pop.

But if you can make the effort to do a metalflake like you did on the bass, then I think you could make it look spectacular.

You'll need to seal the wood, then sand it flat again, but that's not a complicated or long process.

[sonnyallen]

the paintwork is not a problem ive been a custom painter body repairer for years, just wanted to try something different out of my norm, i think ill clear it first and see how it looks, then go from there