Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

[JOLLY]

Don't worry, I'm still messing with my other projects. However, I get restless, and feel the need to keep working on other stuff at the same time when I have the chance.

Anyways, I bought this body recently. It looks great in the pictures, as well as right here in person. However, for the life of me I just can't get those flames to pop the way I want after I dye/stain it.



I was going for a "burnished orange" color just like this guitar.



I first went with a really dark brown dye. I let it dry, and ten sanded it back. I then applied an orange color that I came up with, and I thought I had pretty much nailed it, at least it looked that way in person. The pics below are with it still wet from the dye.



When I came in here this morning it looked bland as hell. It was like Tony The Tiger had puked himself inside out or something....whatever that means. All of the flames had pretty much just blended into the wood. Sooooo, I sanded all of that of and went back and dyed everything black to make the flames pop. Well, after it dried once again. I sanded it back down. I put the same orangey color back on it. It looked fantastic!! It dried, and once again looked bland as hell with nothing really popping at all. Honestly, it looked like pure crap!!

So, here I am back again. I sanded all of that back down. I re-dyed it black. It's outside drying, and should be ready for me to sand it back just as soon as I finish writing all of this crap.

So I'm wondering if is the dyes that I am using or something. On My two Iceman and other Telecaster guitars I used Transtint Dyes. On this one I have used Keda Dyes which are alkaline in powder form. The TransTint Dyes come in liquid form, and you just kind of adjust them with water or alcohol.

Maybe God is just telling me that this guitar isn't supposed to be the Burnished Orange color that I was originally going for....lol.

At the moment I'm thinking of making it Magenta since I went back and made one of the Iceman a "Prince Purple". Now that would be a TransTint Dye.....Or I'm thinking of going with a Fire Engine Red from my powdered Keda Dyes.

Hell, I don't know. I guess I'll drink some whisky and think about it.

Any opinions?

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Wondering if I should just sand it back with 220 so that some black is still left upon the whole guitar to make the colors pop. Hmmmmmm.......

 

[Demanic]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

It will look different once you put Tru Oil or whatever final clear coat you finish it with. It naturally looks duller after the dye is dry as opposed to when it's wet.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

It will look different once you put Tru Oil or whatever final clear coat you finish it with. It naturally looks duller after the dye is dry as opposed to when it's wet.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

I was thinking that, but I don't think I wrote that...lol

Going with Nitro this time. I've kind of been fighting the Tru Oil.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Well, here we go....time to sand.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

As you can see, there is flame all over the place on the guitar, but I just cannot get it to pop all over in the places you see it. It's driving me crazy. Oh well. Gonna get the sander back out. Hell, I may go with an Emerald type green. Who knows?

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

I think I figured out the problem. This top is more of a combination of Flame and Quilt. It's neither, nor. It is the combination of the two that is messing with me. Oh well, I think I'll figure something out.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Time to think what to do......

Maybe I'll just pour a bunch of Gerorge Dickel on it....lol...nah, that would be a waste unless I licked it off...lol

 

[jeremy]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

dont waste the whiskey! the top is beautiful in the first pics where its natural. p90 or mini humbucker going in the neck?

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

dont waste the whiskey! the top is beautiful in the first pics where its natural. p90 or mini humbucker going in the neck?

I've been thinking about going all Dimarzio with a Tone Zone in the Bridge, a Dimarzio DLX Plus in the neck, and this so that I can go single coil if needed.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131629909762?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

I think I'm gonna go green for now. Take that however you want to. :smokin:

 

[AlexR]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

As mentioned (and ignored) before, once you get clear on it then the flames pop. The dye is always a bit dull.

And flame type is wholly irrelevant to pop, as you said it looks great in person before the stain.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Start with black.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Wave a blow torch over it to darken or burn the grain
Then stain

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

As mentioned (and ignored) before, once you get clear on it then the flames pop. The dye is always a bit dull.

And flame type is wholly irrelevant to pop, as you said it looks great in person before the stain.

I apologize. I did not ignore. I read and understood. However, I just did not reply. My bad

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Anyways...........

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Is that a case of the camera not doing it justice or does the top really look that ****?

Haha i think the natural worked better with that grain.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Lookin' good! While it's not a "monster-flame" (whatever that means) it's gonna look really cool...

 

[AlexR]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

Hey no prob......just thought you'd asked the same question after the post had been made.

How heavy handed were you with the stain???

I find a very light coat goes a long way. The first 'stain only' guitar I did turned out quite muted as the colour was way too bold. There was simply so much stain there it muted everything else. The second try I really made sure there was only a wash coat, and that was WAY better.

In fact for flame I don't like stain on wood anymore. I find the flame gets way more 3D qualities with tinted clear, and especially if you have VERY light tinting over many many coats.

Its hard to tell with this one, but looking at it you see the figure shift and it seems almost above the finish at times....

edit - and what is it with the file auto-rotate bit?!?

 

[Coma]

Re: Ever Get A Guitar Body/Project That You Just Can't Get The Wood To Pop?

What is the difference between stain, tint and non-opaque paint?