Simon B's Custom ES-1/ES330 style build

[Simon Barden]

Would be interested in hearing what you think of the pickups as I was looking at their Jaguar set for a future build.

I'll let you know, but it won't be until the guitar's been put together.

Well, can you guess what colour the guitar is now?



I was trying to do the top, back and sides all separately, so put my gloves on and did the back. I then took the gloves off, peeled off the masking tape on the sides and found that there were dark runs under the masking tape on the sides and some stain had run onto the front, so had to do an emergency all-over stain and didn't have time to put the gloves back on.

I'll take some pictures of the body tomorrow as it's too dark now.

[chrissyinbkk]

I go that colour when i'm on holiday... don't worry it soon wears off

[Simon Barden]

I'm due to slough my old skin soon anyway...

[king casey]

Black & Blue?

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

The air was certainly blue at times.

[Simon Barden]

Well, the new day has come, the water-based stain has dried and..



It's less than wonderful in my eyes. No proper popping and it's more purple than red. I thinned the stain down by about 10:1 with water, so it shouldn't have been too strong a solution. This is more what I was hoping for (via photoshop):



I damped the top down with white spirit, to see what a clear coat is likely to do, but it didn't really do much and if anything made it look an even deeper purple (duh duh duhhh, duh duh der duhhh etc):




And there were a couple of areas on the back, one big, one small, that didn't go as dark, even when I tried touching them up with extra stain.



So I'm in the process of sanding down the back (as it's ply, not veneer) and then seeing if my new pot of spirit-based vintage cherry stain looks any better/redder.

At least a good soak in the bath, and then a good go with a scrubbing brush, removed most of the red stain from my hands.

[Sonic Mountain]

What clears are you going to use?A poly would introduce a yellow colour that would make it look closer to the red you are after. A lot of red stains seem to be pretty pink when they first goes on.

[Simon Barden]

I'm trying Tru-oil on this. that gives a bit of a yellow tint but not much. I stained the face of the headstock the same colour (it will be painted black when finished) and put a couple of coats of tru-oil on, but the colour didn't change much, it mainly looked darker.

I have got some yellow stain, which I might try mixed up with some of the red on scrap wood and see what that gives me.

Orange fingers probably.

[Sonic Mountain]

I think that would be worth a shot. It wouldn't take much to knock it towards a more 'orange' red.

[king casey]

I'm gonna stick me neck out and suggest that you haven't put enough dye on yet.
Can still see the wood base peeking through. Once you have a decent coverage then about 30-odd coats of Tru-Oil should get the desired hue.
I had a similar red india ink applied to my epi junior.

cheers, Mark.