Gavs ES-2T Florentine

[gavinturner]

@Stan: yeah it's acceptable. I sanded the heel of the neck a little on that side to drop it. Still not perfect, but as it drops on one side it's opening up the gap on the other. I'm pretty happy with how it is now. I am still planning to apply Gavin's suggestion, but I'm still digesting how to go about it..

Cheers,
Gav.

[gavinturner]

Lots of progress on the Florentine today. I don't think I've written a line of code all week! Anyway, I finished sanding and grain raising to 360 grit yesterday and managed to get my first trace dye onto the body to see how it looked. The purpose of the trace dye (at least for me) is two fold. Firstly it starts to pop the grain, but more importantly it shows any areas where glue persists.

I am still undecided about what colour to go with. I initially thought wine red, but also i'm considering amber. I have gold hardware on its way so these are the best choices I think. Anyway for the trace dye I used Red Mahogany Colortone dye as it was still possible to change my mind after this.

The trace dye did indeed show many many areas where glue persisted. Even a water wipe didn't show these to me! Oh well it was back to the 240 grit paper to give the top (and especially those glue spots) a rite seeing to.

[gavinturner]

My gold hardware turned up from Guitar fetish today and it looks awesome. I have a 335 style trapeze tailpiece, tune-o-matic bridge and GFS Dream 180 humbuckers in gold surrounds. Should sound bloody awesome!



They'll certainly look great with the wine red colour that i have finally decided upon. After testing the look of the new bling, I set to sanding off the first trace dye with 240 grit sandpaper. 2 sheets (and a little of my sanity later) the trace dye was all but gone. I paid special attention to the glue spots. Hopefully i wont see them again. However, only another dye will tell me whether I've managed to get them all!



Well see for yourself. The new trace dye is 80% Cherry Red and 20% Blue Colortone dye.



I think it looks pretty good. Some of this will come off again as I sand back with 360, 400 and 600 grit papers. A final dye of 90% Cherry 10% Blue will finish off the colouring process once the sanding has been completed.

I still haven't decided on a colour for the back/neck. I was thinking just natural (with a little amber from the Tru-oil), but I'm also considering Amber or even darker brown. What do you guys reckon??

cheers,
Gav.

[pablopepper]

Wow, that top... Is that quilted maple? Shame about the glue, but you gotta be happy with that top.

[gavinturner]

@Pablo: yeah it's quilted. I hope I do it justice, but to remove the glue I did sand the crap out of it. Hopefully it will look good in the end.

cheers,
Gav.

[pablopepper]

Lucky boy. Love the colour you've gone with, I don't think you'll have any problem about it 'looking good'. I reckon it'll look amazing.

[wokkaboy]

yes as Pest says Wow oh Wow. Love the colours Gav and your forearm must be looking like Popeye's after all that sanding you've done lately. The gold bling on that cherry top will look amazing. Love the technique to find the glue - very clever idea.
As for neck colour I'd start with an amber and then if you need to darken it you have the option

[stan]

A nice deep brown back and sides would compliment it well. Looks great

[robin]

That top looks so nice Gav. Going to be awesome.

I'm sure that whatever you decide for the back and sides will look good. But if it was me I wouldn't be going for a dark stain, I think a light amber would show off that beautiful top. If the body is basswood, from my experience with Tru-Oil, I think that TO without a stain would be too light. Just my 2c worth.

rob

[lawry]

Man that looks absolutely stunning Gav. The strength of the colour is beautiful. Personally, I hope it maintains it's boldness.