Brodies IB-1 "V-Bay at Noon"

[west0288]

Thanks Wokka. I am rather proud of this gorgeous little Wudtone collection. Will hopefully turn my guitar into something gorgeous too!

Anyway, I bit the bullet and am going all black. Seems easier than trying to strip binding and apply new stuff.

Pictures will follow. If it works, pictures of the build. If it doesn't, pictures of me crying. :P

We'll just have to see what happens!

[pablopepper]

The binding is most probably ABS plastic. There is nothing that will 'dye' it effectively. I know this doesn't help the situation, but you should know before you get your hopes up.

[west0288]

Well....fudge.

Other options then pabs and co? Not confident in redoing binding at all...

[pablopepper]

This is a bit dodgy, but maybe mask and paint the binding white after you're done staining? The major drawback I foresee is the wudtone top coats might react badly to the paint. I would only consider this as a last resort.

[Fretworn]

Brodie, I think you need to decide whether you can live with a minor flaw or whether you must have perfection. Then you will know how far you are willing to go to fix this. If you must have perfection, you may need to investigate re-binding the guitar. If you can live with it, finish the rest of the guitar and then enjoy playing it.

The only other thing I could think of was would be to deliberately score the rest of the binding, re-stain and see if you can get an eccentric black pattern on the binding. Thereby making the flaw a feature. It's risk though, because it might just end up looking really messy.

[pablopepper]

That is a pretty good idea Fretworn. Revel in that which you cannot change.

[west0288]

I actually really like that scoring idea. :-)

I'll try it out I reckon. Worst that will happen is I completely screw the binding, and I'll be no worse off than now. Wish me luck.

[Analyst69]

Good luck with the binding Brodie. If you paint it or score it, I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

I have exactly the same issue with my current build, and being a hollow body, am reluctant to experiment with re-binding it. I decided I will live with it.

I do have a suspicion that this is an issue specifically relating to using stains, possibly specifically the Feast Watson stains. The way it looks on my guitar, I think it is not just cracks in the binding but a chemical run of some kind.

Cheers

Darren

[gavinturner]

Good luck with the fix Brodie! For reference, every one of my builds has some flaw or other that I have decided to live with. It's the DIY thing unfortunately, and is both the pleasure and the curse of learning from the ground up. After 10 minutes playing the thing you forget the issue you agonised over for weeks .

cheers,
Gav.

[west0288]

Cheers for the support lads, I appreciate it.

@Analyst: Hmmm... That is something I had yet to consider. More tests necessary methinks! I'll post results ASAP. Hopefully my mistakes can help you avoid catastrophes! :P

@Gav: You? Flaws?

I'd believe it if I saw it. Which I don't. :P

Just put coat 2 of FW on the binding, and it is actually holding colour really well. I have added 3 more score marks near the really bad lower horn ones to test the effectiveness of that process. Once this coat dries, I'll steel wool over the scores to remove stain and see what I think.

If I like the look, I'll do a few more patches around the binding, whilst leaving some of it pristine, to hopefully give it an edgy, arty look. If it doesn't work I'll keep applying FW coats until I get the desired colour.

We shall see what happens, but things are looking up, finally.

The neck is another story however... After my fruitless attempts to fix it, I handballed the matter to Nickosaurus for a go. He applied good quality G-clamps to the 7th, and tightened until he was sure it could take no more and the fret did not budge. I've already contacted Adam about it, and he's happy to order me a new one. Only catch is delivery would not be for another 2-3 months... Plus, I am loath to do so because I love the shell pattern in the dragon inlay, and don't what to risk getting a worse one.

My last resort is to see how much a pro (Nick Panousakis) would charge to have a look for me, with the intention of a possible re-fret. Otherwise, new neck it is, with a very long wait on finishing this build... Sigh.