Ben's RCA-4 Build

[BJMtz]

Well after the third round it's looking real good. There are only a few small areas on the sides that need some filling but sanding with 320 was a good idea. My only concern now is the clear finish I planned on doing may have to become something else because the filler is pretty light compared to the ash. I'm not sure how clear poly would look over it.

[wazkelly]

Damp it down with turps or metho as that gives you an idea how it could look under a clear finish.

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[Simon Barden]

Metho = methylated spirit.

[BJMtz]

I'm thinking I want to go with a vintage amber stain like stewmac's
https://www.stewmac.com/Materials_an...id_Stains.html

Does anyone know if this will work over timbermate and then accept either a minwax polyurethane or true oil clear coat?

[Andyxlh]

My guess is yes, I'm certain poly clearcoat will work, and the stain should take to the timbermate correctly. I'd do a little test piece with the timbermate and stain to make sure. Haven't used true oil before.

[wazkelly]

Tru Oil goes over most things just need to make sure any water based stain has fully dried out.
Nice colour but it may turn out rather yellow and not sure that is what you wanted as originally it sounded like you were going to do a traditional Ric Mapleglo?
Full strength Tru Oil adds a slight amber tint which gives an aged appearance as you can see on my MMB4 build where the body is Basswood and a Maple neck.

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[BJMtz]

Thanks Andy.

Waz, Mapleglo was what I wanted to do originally but I think I may have ruined that option by using a grain filler that doesn't quite match the wood. I haven't wiped with turps or metho yet but a rag damp with water and rubbed on the body shows some of the white spots that are filler, especially spots that are a bit larger on the horns.

I'm honestly all over the place in deciding a finish. Natural, amber, black, those are all choices I'm considering, in that order, but I'm hoping amber would hide some of those filler spots.

[wazkelly]

Yeah, it is hard deciding on a final colour. Usually natural timber mate should blend in with any stain but as you say it may be too white compared to raw timber to safely do a natural finish.
If you do go ahead with Amber as mentioned I suspect you may need 2 or 3 more stain coats on the neck to bring it up to the same colour as the darker ash body. Trial and error unfortunately but if you take your time and review after each stain coat it should work out fine.

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[Simon Barden]

With the concentrated Stu-Mac stain, you have the option of using either water or alcohol as the diluting agent. My experience is that water-based stain doesn't seem to affect the binding, whereas spirit/alcohol based stain does (probably down to less surface tension). But the alcohol based stain will probably work better with the grain filler.

[BJMtz]

I ordered the amber stain so that's what I will be going with. I figured the maple neck would take stain differently than the ash body. I'll watch closely to make sure I get a good match.

Simon, do you have a recommendation on which route I should take with this build, since I do have binding and used grain filler?