Eve: A Guitar 3 Years in the Making (kind of...)

[BlackMastodon]

Silly question, though I think it's worth a shot to ask:

Can I dye the top of the maple piece on the headstock but leave the sides natural?

I know that the dye will sink into the wood (obviously), but if I tape off the sides and carefully put several thin layers of dye on the wood, will it be possible keep the sides completely or mostly natural? Or will there be dye visible no matter what?

 

[espman]

^Yes, and if a bit of the dye/stain does leak through, you can use the edge of a stanley blade to scrape it off and get it back to a natural finish. IIRC that's what PRS does on their tops since they don't mask off anythingduring the staining process.

 

[Solodini]

Alternatively, you could bind it with undyed maple, if it all goes wrong.

 

[chipsta21]

that red is amazing!

 

[BlackMastodon]

@espman: Yeah I think it should work if I take my time.

@solodini: definitely another option but it's not that huge of a deal and I would like to finish the guitar as soon as possible. I'm getting antsy . I may try my hand with maple binding on a future build but so far I have no plans of using it. Maple/natural binding would be a prefered one for me though; I'm not big on white/cream bindings and can't stand abalone.

@chipsta21: Yeah the more I see that red the more I want it. Future builds though! I still have plenty of the dye left and shouldn't need much for my brother's strat.

 

[Pikka Bird]

I've heard that some guys just shoot a quick coat of clear onto the sides if they want it to stay natural while dying the front. Just make sure to sand a little on the front so there's no overspray left there before dying.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I've heard that some guys just shoot a quick coat of clear onto the sides if they want it to stay natural while dying the front. Just make sure to sand a little on the front so there's no overspray left there before dying.

Definitely a possibility, but I plan to mask off the sides and be EXTRA careful when dying the top. My main concern is that the dye will sink in deep enough around the edges where it would be visible from the sides. Though I think I may end up taking your advice as I have most of a can of satin spray around which I was going to use on the neck before anyway. Up until now I was thinking of tung oiling the neck but I do love me some satin neck .

 

[BlackMastodon]

Sanded the body and neck up to 150 today. Will sand the back of the neck up to 220 some time and then everything should be ready for dying. Here are some pics of the body and neck with mineral spirits on.

Yeah, so I'm pretty damn excited to get this puppy finished after seeing that mahogany.

Also, does anyone have any tips on fine sanding the inner horns? I can't seem to get the gouges out even though I'm sanding with the grain. I'll try to get a dowel and sand it that way but if anyone has a secret or two they want to share that would be sweet.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I have a fairly fine half-round file that I used for smoothing the inner horns on mine...lemme see if I can find a link. I got it at home depot.

Here it is:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

~$10. It'll get the rough gouges out, and then you can use sandpaper to get the file marks out, and so on.

Looks awesome, btw. Your mahogany is much prettier than mine. But I bought paint grade, so there you go.

 

[BlackMastodon]

^ thanks man! I got that mahogany blank for $50 from my local wood mill and I did not expect it to look that nice. I'll give that file a try. I have a half round file too but I don't know how fine it is.

 

[Pikka Bird]

I know it was accidental, but man, I love the way the top wood has been carved away. Are you done with that aspect or will you sand a little on the remaining edges so the part that's showing at the ass-end is joined with the other exposed bits?

 

[BlackMastodon]

I might do a tiny bit more on the ass-end of the maple but it's going to look like this for the most part. As good as that mahogany looks, it would be a shame to get rid of most of that maple.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Small update:
Put the black dye on and then spent a couple hours sanding it back:

This is with mineral spirits of course. I still have some work to do in some troublesome spots.

'Course that's gonna wait a while:

Got a couple blisters on my thumb so I'm gonna take it easy for a few days. Oh well, more time with Skyrim .

I think next time I will leave it natural and/or not do such a deep carve...

 

[brynotherhino]

Looks awesome man!

 

[Metal_Webb]

Small update:

Got a couple blisters on my thumb so I'm gonna take it easy for a few days. Oh well, more time with Skyrim .

That's not a blister, just a baby callous
Looking sweet mate, can't wait to see (and hear it) finished!

 

[Solodini]

That's not a blister, just a baby callous :lol

So go play Tosin/Reggie Wooten thumb things!

 

[crow]

I'm sorry to say. very nice started making guitars. But when the plastic, do not have to step around the bite.
The edge should be just a little bit around the bite. 5 to 6 mm of the edge.
The next guitar will just work


PRS Private Stock Manager Joe Knaggs

 

[BlackMastodon]

So go play Tosin/Reggie Wooten thumb things!

I wish .

 

[jarnozz]

dude, that flamed maple top is just orgasmic! omg staring at it for 5 minutes and still love it! love to hear how it sounds when it is finished

 

[Swyse]

The only thing I would do is even up the amount of mahogany showing through on the end of the guitar. I think the mahogany showing through makes it its own guitar. Everyone has seen a flame maple top, you made it interesting. Accident or not I like it.