Gavs ES-2T Florentine

[gavinturner]

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement! In the flesh the top is a little more purple than the photo shows, but I'm hoping that a more red top coat will bring it back from prince territory. I'm considering just continuing the same colour that I use on the top through to the back and sides too. It wouldn't provide contrast, but it would match. What do you guys think of that?

Cheers,
Gav.

[gavinturner]

Sanded off the second trace coat this morning. Looks even more purple now that the dye is completely dry and has lightened up but that's normal. I have taken quite a bit off with 360 grit and polished it off with 400. It's ready for the last dye coat (I hope) which will be more of a standard cherry. I'm thinking of darkening it with 10% blue, but I'm not sure. Maybe the dye already in the figure (which had 20% blue) will make the end-result dark enough. Hmm..





cheers,
Gav.

[Andyport]

Hi Gav
Red+Blue=Purple.
I had also read on the net that some people use a small percentage of blue into cherry to darken it.
But to me, if you put any blue into red it will turn it purpleish. When doing my ES I had the same dilemma.
I ended up using a few drops of both Walnut and Mahogany dye stains (FW Prooftint) in with the Cherry.
It darkened it without losing too much red. Don't know if this is the type of colour you are after?
If so, hope it helps.
Cheers
Andy

[gavinturner]

Thanks Andy,

Yeah I did a test before starting with 90% Cherry + 10% Blue and it looked pretty good. Just a hint of wine but definately not purple. I really wasn't thinking when I decided to darken this up with more blue for the trace dye. It's been that kind of week. I really should have used mahogany or even black. Oh well, you live and learn. I think I'll do a couple of tests on pine to see what a) 100% Cherry, b) 90%+10% Blue and c) 95%+5% Mahogany look like over my trace. Fun times!

cheers,
Gav.

[gavinturner]

Ok, so I forwent the testing. Instead I went straight ahead with the finishing off this quilted dye job like a bull in a china shop. I used two colours in the end as part of the job - a 100% Colortone Cherry, and a 90% Cherry + 10% Blue 'Wine-Red' mix. I kept a 90% Cherry + 10% Medium Brown mix on hand (as per Andy's suggestion) in case I needed it, but in the end I didn't.

The Cherry was wiped on first as the 'base' colour for all the non-figured parts of the grain. The wine-red mix was wiped on next to highlight the more figured parts of the quilting. I have used this technique before in my other dye jobs and it seems to work well. What happens is that the base colour settles into the wood where there is no figure. These wood fibres remain saturated with stain, whilst the figured parts of the grain soak in the dye and are ready for more. When the second colour is applied (usually a more concentrated solution of the first) it is wiped lightly across the surface and is taken up by the figure only. Of course this only happens whilst the first pass is still wet. If you take too long, or do too many passes with the more concentrated colour then the whole surface slowly begins to darken.

Basically this is how I worked today, but after the initial pass with the darker shade I kept temporarily changing back to the 100% Cherry to touch up any areas that still looked too purple from the trace dye. In the end I got the dark red I was looking for (or at least a close approximation of it).



I'm sure it could have been achieved with other colour mixes, but the Blue as darkening agent worked well enough for me in this case. The photo shows a little lighter and 'redder' than the colour is in real life, but it does show the figure standing out quite nicely. The next step will be 3 or 4 coats of Tru-Oil to really get into the grain and bring out the 'chatoyance' (oo la la) of the quilted figure.

I certainly can't take any credit for this method of applying dye to figured maple. I learned about it from this you tube video from Bill of Canadianbreed Guitars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=q1n_g6PA_c0

It's a great video and a great technique - I recommend you check it out if you are using, or are thinking of using, dyes on your guitars.

cheers,
Gav.

[jarrod]

Looks stunning Gav

[Tim]

WOW looks great Gav another great build in the making

[Andyport]

Well done Gav...the colour looks excellent, beautiful red, glad you got there in the end.
Getting the colour to how you originally envisaged it in your head is far from easy.
This is going to look superb when finished...not an easy build by any standards, but you are so onto it!!

[lawry]

Man, the strength of the colours and grain is fantastic Gav. This is going to be such a bold guitar. Can't wait to see it in the line up.

[gavinturner]

Thanks guys. I'm not sure this one is going to be to everyone's taste, but hey .

I got the dye on the sides and back today. I used the same wine-red colour that I mixed up for the front - 90% Cherry and 10% Blue Colortone dye.



The grain on the back of the guitar has come up really nicely, and the contrast with the front of the guitar (I wanted the back of the guitar a little darker) is good. It's amazing that even though this is only basswood, there's some real flame figure happening there! The colour is looking rather pink on the front now that it is fully dry, but both will darken up a quite bit as the Tru-Oil goes on.



The dye went on without incident (it's uniform at least), although there were one or two minor glue spots that I missed during sanding. For these I'll have to do a bit more sanding and then patch up the dye job.
After that, the next job is to scrape the binding!



cheers,
Gav.