My guitar

[my porsche]

So, I've posted the wood in the "latest purchase" thread, but I figured I would start my own thread and update it with pictures as I go.

Here's how it looks as of now, I joined a 6.75x2" piece of African mahogany with two 4x2" pieces of soft maple, then joined two 7.5x5/8" bookmatched pieces of quilted maple, and joined the back piece (three pieces maple and mahogany) to the top piece (two pieces maple), and cut out the shape on the band saw, sanded the edges to get nice smooth curves with an oscillating drum and belt sander, and here we are. Up next is routing the neck pocket, humbucker cavities, electronics cavities, and drilling all the holes for the knobs, bridge etc, then maybe some carving on the top, then staining, any color suggestions? I'm thinking dark wine red.

Anyway, here they are:

[whiteballz]

With such a beautiful grain to work with this should turn out tops -

On colour, a really dark stain with a fade to black edges would be sweet - (think fender starburst without the paint)

[Zorlox]

I've always had a thing for either flamed or quilted maple tops in dark red with natural binding. I know PRS does this, I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. Something along these lines:

[my porsche]

Haha dark red is the color I was thinking of, and so far everyone I've asked has said that same thing.

[Zytek_Fan]

I was thinking a very dark green...

[NicFromLA]

Something akin to TC McInturff's Black Rose?

[my porsche]

Something akin to TC McInturff's Black Rose?

No idea what that is, pictures?

[Bob]

Quilted maple + dark red is wonderful... that's exactly what my LTD eclipse is

[johnnynumfiv]

That looks wild. Maybe a dark blue? Darker than this perhaps.


What about putting one color on the front, and a different on the back, with black inbetween?

[my porsche]

That looks wild. Maybe a dark blue? Darker than this perhaps.


What about putting one color on the front, and a different on the back, with black inbetween?

That was my first choice, but my Strat is dark blue, so I figure get some variety.

Maybe amber/gold? Light brown? Kind of earthy.

The two colors would have required either paint, or staining before gluing them together, as is if I tried to do different colors it would bleed into the other grain and make a kind of black gross looking blob where they meet.

[baddabang]

Looks good Colin. Are you using your own tools?

[my porsche]

Looks good Colin. Are you using your own tools?

I've used a combination of my grandfather's (well equipped) and my uncle's (insanely well equipped, name a tool, he has five of them) shops so far. The sanding, finishing and assembly I will probably do at my house since I have everything needed for that. Plus, my uncle is on a Bob Vila level, it's insane, so his advice is invaluable.

[KFA-R]

very nice mate... i always contemplating stripping back my old bass and making it into what i call the "purple burst" as you could imagine its would be purple fading to black... but i wouldn't wish that on such a beautiful bit of timber.
being a woodwork teacher (in training ) myself my advice would be keep it as original in colour as possible... there is no need to stain that type of timber, just sand it to a very high quality, i'm talking at least 1200grit sanding paper (the wet and dry stuff ie the black silicon carbide stuff, hope you get that there, is the way to go) start with some course stuff and after each sand give the timber a light wet down, let this to dry and then sand again with the same grit, do this all the way down the grits (120, 240, 360, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and finally 1200) i know this will take a long time but trust me the finish will be worth it. from here you want to get your hands on a product called "fine buffing oil" you will pay through the nose for it but trust me its worth it.... using very vrey VERY fine steel wool (about AAAA is the way to go) apply this oil about 5-6 times (reading instructions on tin) this will bring out the natural colour of the timber and all those gorgeous wood grains you have, it will be shiny as and remarkably hard wearing and easy to fix if a scratch does end up bugging you so much you have to get rid of it...

ok wow thats long, thats my advice... use all those grains and please for god sake dont paint it

enjoy

[rallyswift75]

Put the UCP logo on it. Anyways my dad re did his guitar. It was painted black but he took the paint off and gave it a light colored stain. He also put on a new neck from Warmoth.

[my porsche]

very nice mate... i always contemplating stripping back my old bass and making it into what i call the "purple burst" as you could imagine its would be purple fading to black... but i wouldn't wish that on such a beautiful bit of timber.
being a woodwork teacher (in training ) myself my advice would be keep it as original in colour as possible... there is no need to stain that type of timber, just sand it to a very high quality, i'm talking at least 1200grit sanding paper (the wet and dry stuff ie the black silicon carbide stuff, hope you get that there, is the way to go) start with some course stuff and after each sand give the timber a light wet down, let this to dry and then sand again with the same grit, do this all the way down the grits (120, 240, 360, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and finally 1200) i know this will take a long time but trust me the finish will be worth it. from here you want to get your hands on a product called "fine buffing oil" you will pay through the nose for it but trust me its worth it.... using very vrey VERY fine steel wool (about AAAA is the way to go) apply this oil about 5-6 times (reading instructions on tin) this will bring out the natural colour of the timber and all those gorgeous wood grains you have, it will be shiny as and remarkably hard wearing and easy to fix if a scratch does end up bugging you so much you have to get rid of it...

ok wow thats long, thats my advice... use all those grains and please for god sake dont paint it

enjoy

I was thinking more like dye it black, sand off the high spots with 180/220/320 so that the dye remains in the darker/denser grain and then dye it whatever color I want, amber, maybe wine red. That will make it look like:



Dying Quilt