Winter Buildoff 2022: Still A Diva

[TerribleTim68]

Question, are you using water based or alcohol based dye? I've only used alcohol to mix with transtint dye, and use straight alcohol to blend the colors, I assume water based would work the same way.

These are the Crimson Guitars "Stunning Stains" that @BishopJP was kind enough to send me. They are water based. I tried using Denatured Alcohol to wet the wood, per some guidance, but it wouldn't stay wet very long. The DNA was flashing off really fast. So I ended up just using water to wet the wood. In the end it is wet enough that you really don't need to do much at the blend area, it'll sort of blend on its own and you can keep pushing it back and forth as long as you keep your rag wet.

For instance, there was one point that I wasn't paying attention and spilled some blue right in the middle of the purple, like right where the pickup goes, dead center, big puddle of blue. I just wiped it completely over the purple area and then came back over it with more purple and it totally went away. So as long as it is still "wet" you can really move it around. I never came back over it with straight water to do any blending, I only blended with the stain on the rag.

 

[postalflunkie]

Very nice that it blends so well on its own. Excellent color combination by the way

 

[dwizum]

Kudos to you for diving in with it. I've spent countless hours pushing stains around on scrap wood experimenting with bursts but I have yet to work up the guts to do it on an instrument!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Very nice that it blends so well on its own. Excellent color combination by the way

Thank you. Honstly I wasn't sure if it was crazy or not. I tried it on some scraps and the wife said "Yeah" so I figured that was the blessing. She purchased that top, so if she is okay with it then I'll call it a win. It's a little "edgy", but that's what I was going for. I'm not really into "subtle".

Kudos to you for diving in with it. I've spent countless hours pushing stains around on scrap wood experimenting with bursts but I have yet to work up the guts to do it on an instrument!

Yeah, I hear ya. I had a ton of fear, but at some point I just have to take a deep breath and "do it". Like I said, just tell yourself "worst case, I sand it back off" and it sort of helps.

 

[RichterScale]

I really liked just purple. I'm a little upset that you didn't do what I liked, on your bass.
Can't believe you'd listen to your wife over a guy on the internet.

 

[darren1970]

The burst is going to look epic...!!!!
I use Crimson Guitar Stains to. Great saturation.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Looks really good. I’d be hesitant about waxing next for the same reasons as you, I’d be concerned about long term top coat adhesion. If you’re following Derek’s usual process the next step would be to hit it with 0000 steel wool then sealer and oil last. That process works for him.

 

[Flying B]

Nice work, I'd love to see a high gloss lacquer over that.
Fwiw, Imo etc I absolutely would not wax it before putting any other type of finish on it. I'm not a luthier but I've been in the furniture making business for a good while and wax is only ever the final coat in any finishing process I've ever done or seen.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Yeah that looks great! Did you find dye wicking in around the volume pot hole? Im wondering if it isnt better to stain the headstock first and then drill? I use forstner bits on my headstocks, but theres always a wee bit of fiber tearout around the holes.unless the forstner is razor sharp. Maybe jt doesnt matter since the hole edges get covered by ferrules anyway.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Looks really good. I’d be hesitant about waxing next for the same reasons as you, I’d be concerned about long term top coat adhesion. If you’re following Derek’s usual process the next step would be to hit it with 0000 steel wool then sealer and oil last. That process works for him.

Thanks Matt. Yeah, I know Derek hits it with the 0000 steel wool, but I think it might be better to do the white scotch brite instead. I worry about the steel wool leaving tiny fibers in the grain that later rust.

Yeah that looks great! Did you find dye wicking in around the volume pot hole? Im wondering if it isnt better to stain the headstock first and then drill? I use forstner bits on my headstocks, but theres always a wee bit of fiber tearout around the holes.unless the forstner is razor sharp. Maybe jt doesnt matter since the hole edges get covered by ferrules anyway.

Didn't seem to be a problem. I may go ahead and stain the headstock anyways since the tuners are still a solid week and a half out at best, maybe even two weeks.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Nice work, I'd love to see a high gloss lacquer over that...

Ideally, I've got this fresh can of 2K sitting here...

 

[TerribleTim68]

Okay, I went ahead and kicked out a routing template for that tune-o-matic. It's going to work, but it isn't going to be as clean as building and acoustic style bridge like Marleaux does. But I want the intonation ability that it has rather than just compromising on that.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Acoustic-style bridges can be intonated, but it helps to have a bunch of spares of the actual bridge bit when you over-carve one section and have to start over...mechanical bridges are certainly easier to adjust.

 

[dwizum]

Are you mounting it on posts or just fixing the height?

 

[TerribleTim68]

Are you mounting it on posts or just fixing the height?

I'm gonna go ahead and mount it in posts. It'll be a bit awkward anyways, because with the intonation adjusters in the "end" of the bridge it'll need to be raised up above the fretboard to adjust that, then lowered back down in the fretboard to get the action playable, if that makes sense. So I'll need the height adjustment of the posts anyways. Like I said, awkward.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Blame @Gilmourisgod -
So I decided to just throw caution completely to the wind and stain that headstock. Partly because I don't know how to leave well enough alone, partly because...why not? Same process, wet the wood, apply dark color first, bring lighter color to it. First coat looks muted -

And then we wait 15 minutes and apply the second coat -

Yeah man.
Let's see about an overall image here -

Haha, I like it. It's edgy, it's bold, it's far from traditional. It's right up my alley.
Okay, it's gonna sit until tomorrow. I want this to dry really well before I screw it up. I think I'll go turn a wood bowl of something.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Thanks Matt. Yeah, I know Derek hits it with the 0000 steel wool, but I think it might be better to do the white scotch brite instead. I worry about the steel wool leaving tiny fibers in the grain that later rust.

Didn't seem to be a problem. I may go ahead and stain the headstock anyways since the tuners are still a solid week and a half out at best, maybe even two weeks.

I think he’s said that Scotchbrite doesn’t have the same effect as steel wool but I could be remembering wrong. As long as you clean the top thoroughly it should be ok.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I like it. I think that was the right decision on the headstock, no diddling around holes to worry about, just a nice gradation. Props for a successful burst, ive only tried it once and sucked at it With Authority.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I like it. I think that was the right decision on the headstock, no diddling around holes to worry about, just a nice gradation. Props for a successful burst, ive only tried it once and sucked at it With Authority.

I appreciate the kind words. Part of me wishes there was more "blend" between the colors. But A LOT of me is scared to mess with it any further. One of those "just leave well enough alone" moments. When I tried getting more blend on my test pieces, it just created this odd super dark blue line that didn't look good at all. I'm sure alcohol based stains would have blended better, but I'll take this, it's pretty dang close to the vision I had in my head. I'm for sure gonna hit it with either steel wool or probably the white scotch brite and see what it looks like. I had a short chat with Derek at Big-D and he said "If you hit it with the steel wool it'll feather that blend more". SO I for sure wanna try something there. I'm also telling myself it'll jump out more once I get a gloss clear on it, so there's that too. It's so hard to know exactly where you are because it still changes so much throughout the rest of the process.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

When I tried getting more blend on my test pieces, it just created this odd super dark blue line that didn't look good at all.

Trust your test pieces. That's why you do them....and you can keep using them to test the next steps (well, probably not 2K clear with a pot life in minutes.)