I'm glad I got on board now.....I love watching builders do their thingI just started the thread yesterday and haven't done any work yet.I'm surprised there's this much already.
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Double Sevens
- Thread starter lbridenstine
- Start date
I am so jealous! I am going to do something quite similar to what you are doing, only I won't really get started for a couple weeks.
With respect to the black aniline dye, I have a Pau Ferro finger board that I aniline dyed black. I hand wiped it on, and then let it dry. On top of the dye I put a few coats of Linseed oil. It's been like that for a couple years now and nothing negative to say. More relevant, I also have a body made of quilted maple that I hand wiped with a blue alcohol based aniline, and coated it with Formby's Tung oil. That was about 2 years ago as well, and still look great.
Cheers
Have fun with these, I'll be watching
Thanks!
Yay, that's good to hear. I'm thinking about doing the black in between layers of tung oil if possible, just in case I mess it up and need to sand back or something. I might just do it straight on the wood though. I'll try to make myself test on scraps. I want to save what I can from the myrtle cutoffs though because it looks like there might be enough for a top for a neck thru build in there too.
None of my business of course, but as a long time ERB/ERG player, I'd love to see a gorgeous myrtle-topped 7 string in a 28" scale length. Especially since you already have those delicious Drop n Gains queued up and ready to rock... 
Lisa,
Aniline dye is great on wood. I love using it. I will have to admit that I haven't used it as you describe though.
On the bass below, I put the aniline right on the wood. It raised the grain ALOT when I put it on. I gently sanded it back, and then put Formbys on top of that.
My $0.02, I unsure if putting a layer of aniline on top of a piece of sealed wood get you the effect you are looking for. I'm thinking you might be better off with a bottle of Formby's with some black Trans Tint in it, and layer it until you get the "black" you are looking for.
Aniline dye is great on wood. I love using it. I will have to admit that I haven't used it as you describe though.
On the bass below, I put the aniline right on the wood. It raised the grain ALOT when I put it on. I gently sanded it back, and then put Formbys on top of that.
My $0.02, I unsure if putting a layer of aniline on top of a piece of sealed wood get you the effect you are looking for. I'm thinking you might be better off with a bottle of Formby's with some black Trans Tint in it, and layer it until you get the "black" you are looking for.
Wow, the visual texture on that blue bass are incredible. Great work @Scoops !
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
@Scoops , did you do just the blue color dye & sand back... or did you use black first & sand that back to enhance shading ? That looks positively electric!
None of my business of course, but as a long time ERB/ERG player, I'd love to see a gorgeous myrtle-topped 7 string in a 28" scale length. Especially since you already have those delicious Drop n Gains queued up and ready to rock...
Fretboards are already pre-slotted to 25.5". I do have more myrtle for more builds though...
Thanks!
Lisa,
Aniline dye is great on wood. I love using it. I will have to admit that I haven't used it as you describe though.
On the bass below, I put the aniline right on the wood. It raised the grain ALOT when I put it on. I gently sanded it back, and then put Formbys on top of that.
My $0.02, I unsure if putting a layer of aniline on top of a piece of sealed wood get you the effect you are looking for. I'm thinking you might be better off with a bottle of Formby's with some black Trans Tint in it, and layer it until you get the "black" you are looking for.
Nice job on that bass! That looks awesome. I really like the black fingerboard against the blue too!
I have a set of the water soluble aniline dyes and I've done brown, sand back, then amber on maple and it worked really nicely. I've also done tests of all the other colors and I love how they look and how easy they are. It would be way more convenient for me to just use my water soluble black dye instead of buying alcohol soluble, but I thought maybe I should play it safe and use the alcohol soluble since I'm not using a water based finish. I'm still not 100% sure though.
When I was researching, I came across this:
Aniline Dyes
Water based dyes can only be applied to unfinished and unsealed wood whereas alcohol based dyes can be either wiped onto unfinished wood or sprayed over filled and sealed wood. Water based dyes cannot be successfully sprayed over sealed wood.
and
The real advantage of alcohol based dyes is that they can be sprayed. Three colors; Cherry Red, Blue and Neck Amber are offered by the ReRanch in aerosols. For the other colors a Preval Unit can be used to spray them.
1. In case I don't like how the dye turns out, I figure it'd be easier to sand back if it's just on top rather than soaked in.
2. I don't want the dye seeping into the limba, I only want it on the myrtle, so I figured that if there's already tung oil on it and I mask it, that would work better at keeping the dye off of the limba.
3. I want to make the dye fade from black to plain myrtle. I'm not sure how well I would do this by hand, it could turn out good or it could go horribly wrong. I might have a better shot with spraying, but I really don't know until I try on scraps.
4. I don't think the myrtle has any flame/quilt so I don't know if there's any figure to "pop" by letting the dye soak into the wood. (EDIT: It looks like there's flame on the offcuts, but not what will end up being the top. I'll wet it sometime and check to make sure)
Still thinking though. Like I said, I'll do tests. I'll try the water based by hand first, since I already have it. I just have to find something to do the tests on...
P.S. I think the offcuts of myrtle might be enough for a neck thru top! And it has some nice figure/color.
Last edited:
Mockups:
Myrtle guitar:
Spalted tamarind/katalox guitar:
I made the mockups before I got some of the stuff, so all ebony will be katalox, all pickups will be Drop and Gains, and they'll both get toggle switches. I'm not sure what wood I'm using for truss rod covers yet. I'll probably match the headstock/top woods.
Myrtle guitar:
Spalted tamarind/katalox guitar:
I made the mockups before I got some of the stuff, so all ebony will be katalox, all pickups will be Drop and Gains, and they'll both get toggle switches. I'm not sure what wood I'm using for truss rod covers yet. I'll probably match the headstock/top woods.
Thanks,
@Lisa, curious, where did you get that info about the difference between alcohol and water based anilines? I didn't know it could go on top of a piece of sealed wood. I'll be really interested in seeing the results of some of your experiments.
@all - Thanks. I got that finish buy doing the following:
1) Sand body down to 400.
2) Liberally wipe on alcohol base Transfast Turquoise Blue aniline dye
3) let dry
4) Cautiously sand with 600 to get desired coloring and uniformity
5) 5 coats of Formbys Tung Oil (Gloss)
6) Buff out
Cheers
@Lisa, curious, where did you get that info about the difference between alcohol and water based anilines? I didn't know it could go on top of a piece of sealed wood. I'll be really interested in seeing the results of some of your experiments.
@all - Thanks. I got that finish buy doing the following:
1) Sand body down to 400.
2) Liberally wipe on alcohol base Transfast Turquoise Blue aniline dye
3) let dry
4) Cautiously sand with 600 to get desired coloring and uniformity
5) 5 coats of Formbys Tung Oil (Gloss)
6) Buff out
Cheers
BassHappy
Supporting Member
Those mockups look nice... But, I have a question- Is all in the pics true to scale?
Asking only because, to me, the pegheads look a little on the large side.
I realize 7 strings require more real estate, but those look a little off balance to me, visually.
Regardless, I dig what you've got.
Asking only because, to me, the pegheads look a little on the large side.
I realize 7 strings require more real estate, but those look a little off balance to me, visually.
Regardless, I dig what you've got.
Those mockups look nice... But, I have a question- Is all in the pics true to scale?
Asking only because, to me, the pegheads look a little on the large side.
I realize 7 strings require more real estate, but those look a little off balance to me, visually.
Regardless, I dig what you've got.
They're not to scale.
I drew these out first, then later copied the shapes to a different file and scaled just the outlines to the correct size for printing.They're not to scale.
Cool.
Nice. My 2nd was a 7-string. I am glad LMII offers 27.5" as a scale they will slot for you. I had to buy a 5-string bass board to make it long and wide enough.
Lots of fun.
Lots of fun.
Nice. My 2nd was a 7-string. I am glad LMII offers 27.5" as a scale they will slot for you. I had to buy a 5-string bass board to make it long and wide enough.
Lots of fun.
Nice! I went with 25.5" scale on a "standard" fingerboard size. The electric sizes were too small, but standard is just a tiny bit wider than what I need for these, so luckily it worked out.
