Renk Build: Second Siren

[metaldoggie]

Love it dude.....but this shape is screaming to become a seven!

 

[Renkenstein]

Worry not! A seven is on the docket. I've got Xmas Eve through New Years off work and I'll be wrapping up this build and making templates for a seven and a bass.

 

[Renkenstein]

Adam mentioned I needed a better way to hold the neck when carving, so I whipped together a little carving buck that can be held by my vise. Used an old MDF fretboard template, an offcut of mahogany, and a bit of cork to protect the frets. I carved the neck some more, giving me an offset profle that's a bit thicker under the bass strings, with a lot less shoulder under the treble strings.





You can kind of see the offset in the curl of the maple.









Adjustments required tweaking of the heel and volute transitions.

 

[KnightroExpress]

That's one sexy neck.

 

[Renkenstein]

Thanks dude! Almost as clean as yours....almost!

Looking back, I wish I would have had some black veneer to put in between the 'hog and maple. I love that look. That's why there's always a next build, I reckon!

 

[Renkenstein]

Back to finishing. On the left, 1 coat of an oil/poly mix finish that I rubbed on. On the right, 3 coats of spray shellac that I'm using as a spray finish example.





Bottom, Oil....Top, Shellac. I like the warm tone of the oil over the black, while the clear coat sample seems like a much cooler tone. With all the warm amber of the maple binding and bevels, and the complex browns and reds of the mahogany, I'm thinking the oil over the black will look a lot better. I'm going to do a couple more coats of oil on this sample piece and then I'll be ready to do something crazy.






After finish sanding, I taped up the top and the mahogany portions of the body and sprayed a couple coats of shellac to seal the bevel binding from dye.






Did the same for the headstock.






4 coats of oil on the left. Same spray shellac on right...no change there.






The oil is getting there, but the reflecting ability of the shellac just destroys the oil. I did wet sand the shellac, while the oil is still in the application phase, so there is that. I may try using gloss poly in the formula and testing before moving on to finishing the guitar.






Removed the masking tape. Any shellac that made it under the tape got sanded off the top using a corian sanding block and 220. I also wet the top to raise the grain and knocked down the fuzzies by sanding. I'll be slingin dye tomorrow morning!

 

[BlackMastodon]

I gotta say, I like the way the shellac leaves the edge of the black dye much darker than the oil. Great idea with sealing the bevels with shellac, too! Definitely' going to use that method for when I want to do natural binding.

 

[skeels]

This is just the bee's tits, Renk!


I mean, ahem... skeels likes this.

 

[Renkenstein]

I gotta say, I like the way the shellac leaves the edge of the black dye much darker than the oil. Great idea with sealing the bevels with shellac, too! Definitely' going to use that method for when I want to do natural binding.

Got that idear from Heretic, or Hammerhead as he's known here(I'm pretty sure that's the same fella?!?). Next time I think I'll forgo the masking, brush it on, then sand the top so the line will form itself. That'll save me a couple hours of taping. Might wanna try that BlackMastodon.


Thank you Skeeeelz!

 

[Renkenstein]

Oh, and I think I went heavier on the black on the shellac piece. I wasn't very consistent when working with the two pieces, so I may have lifted some dye on the edge on the oiled piece. You can see a slight difference in the pieces in post# 178 above.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I thought it was especially strange since on my first build I used shellac to seal the grain and when I touch the maple that was dyed green, the dye began to run. But that was because both the dye and shellac were alcohol, though, don't remember if you used water based dye or not.

 

[Renkenstein]

Yes...water based dye. Alcohol based would have melted right into the shellac. I'm using water based because of the oil finish. I was wondering if I should use shellac as a sanding sealer after the dye, but I'm not sure how well the oil would work over that as far as uniform adhesion is concerned.

 

[Renkenstein]

Dye Day #1: A Leap of Faith.
I left the shellac coated bevels untaped to apply dye, still have a clean line. It's a little sketchy at the butt-beak, but I think dye is just sitting on the shellac and I didn't want to wipe it and risk cocking up the dye on the top. I taped up the edges to prevent dye from getting on the mahogany, but it was unnecessary. Letting this sit overnight.





Not going for the burst to natural on the headstock. It'll just get a normal black burst, so I slopped some medium black in the middle and went around the edge with dark black.






I think she'll look really nice. Lots of grain peeking through the darkest dye. That's a good sign, right? Pretty flippin jazzed about how clean the dyed edge is. I was really worried about that. After I snapped this pic, I took a bit of water and a cotton rag-ball thing and drew some of the black into the center from the medium to the natural and from the dark into the medium just to get the transitions started a little earlier. I'll be sanding and blending(and reapplying) tomorrow.

 

[KnightroExpress]

Dude, this is gonna look spectacular. Awesome work!

 

[Renkenstein]

Thanks dude! I'm pretty stoked. I've got a lot of time off coming up and she'll be buttoned up before year's end!

 

[immortalx]

Your attention to detail is amazing man. I don't have a picture in my mind of the final outcome, but I've great faith in your skills and I believe it'll be an eye candy!

 

[Neilzord]

Such a great build so far. Bursting to see that Burst blended and sanded back!

 

[Renkenstein]

Sanded back the first layer of dye.





Applied more dye to get the edge darker.






Sanded back the dark stuff and blended further.






Burst finalized and ready for finish. The black/gray beard approves of the black/gray burst.






Mixed up some oil/poly/spirits according to The Drunken Woodworker's formula and applied the first coat. Interesting observation. Water based dye is not 100% safe from being lifted by oil. There will be a little color difference, and I did notice a bit of the black being lifted on the application rag.






The oil made the mahogasapele look REALLY nice.






Finished the neck with the same stuff, but I left the fretboard untouched. I'll be applying fretboard oil to that.

 

[ghost_of_karelia]

Absolutely beautiful. Well played, sir.

 

[MikeK]

I wasn't thinking the black would look too good with the brown of the body wood, but that turned out great man. Nice work all around.