First build: GS-2Q (also featuring EX-1 custom)

[Chaosblade]

It's blue now.



I'm, uh, kinda surprised at how well the sanding did taking care of the glue spots. I'm also surprised at how horrible a job I did at sanding in general. I'll still try touching up the edges with black for a bit of burst later after another round of blue. But I can do it with dye instead of investing in an airbrush and learning to use it.

[Simon Barden]

That's a really nice colour.

I'd be tempted to do the burst with a spray can. It's very hard to do a good burst with dye, and you'll still have a take-up problem in those areas that still have some glue remaining (mainly round that lower horn).

Dye/stain bursts almost always end up with definite lines at the edged, rather than a gradual transition. I've only seen a couple of stained bursts on here that I'd personally deem to be acceptable, but even then, they weren't as good as a sprayed burst.

Whatever you do, I strongly suggest practising on some test bits of wood first.

[Chaosblade]

More blue. Not the best lighting though. Just need to figure out the burst, if I do use paint I need to find a spray can that won't be incompatible with the water-based poly clear I'm going to use.



Headstock shouldn't take long to do next, and I still need to grain fill the neck too.


Oh, and after the first round of blue dye I noticed the hairline crack in the veneer. It looks like the dye is penetrating too deeply on the right side of the pickups because of that.

[Cliff Rogers]

A burst would disguise the contours on that top I reckon, I'd leave it as is.

[Simon Barden]

A black poly spray would be compatible.

You'd certainly need to do a very delicate gentle burst that just covered the edges by 0.5"/12mm or so, not to hide too much of the top. Which means holding the can over the body and spraying outwards, aiming for a point well beyond the edge of the body so only the feather edge of the spray hits the body. This is probably a case where a cardboard mask held off the body by an inch or so would be useful.

[McCreed]

I'm with Cliff on this one...

I'd just clear coat it. I like the colour and the pattern.

[Simon Barden]

I certainly couldn't live with the obvious glue marks.

You could try a blue Sharpie. They are pretty good for covering up marks like that. Smudge it with your fingers to help it blend in.

A burst could be a solid matching or slightly blue (rather than black) which would make the burst less obvious.

[Chaosblade]

Lot of votes for no burst. Blue sharpie was only available in an assorted 10 pack, went with a different marker at the hardware store since it came out a bit cheaper and is supposed to work on more surfaces (I guess?). Color isn't exactly perfect but it's better than the slight remaining glue spots on the lower horn. Probably not noticeable unless you are looking for it.

Tried to dab some of the dye out of spots that were more heavily saturated. I think it helped slightly.

Headstock came out great. The glue at the nut is kind of gnarly though. Might be worth going ahead and removing the nut and trying to get rid of that and touch it up, the nut is getting replaced anyway.



Neck needs to be grain filled, then onward to clear coating.




Thinking on it, it might be better to glue and then clear coat.

[Jasper Blunt]

the blue is looking lovely

[Gabbolinaaa]

Thats looking awesome mate some really nice patterns showing up. Did you put a base colour down or did you go straight with the blue?
I think a burst would definitely look cool - I do see where Cliff is coming from though regarding the darkness around the contour. Maybe a gentle burst?

Either way its looking awesome. Difficult decision whether to mess with something that already looks good. Looking forward to see how you get on.