New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

[treyhaislip]

After deciding I don't like a straight 16" radius, I am deciding to get rid of two guitars (LTD Floyd Strat and an Ibanez Iceman.) My Iceman has my favorite pickups combo, Liquifire and Screamin Demon, so I'm taking those out and putting them in my new project guitar. It's a one piece basswood body and will hopefully get a 9.5" radius Strat neck.

My question is, does anyone have any experience burning guitars? I saw this posted and want a similar look:

View attachment 58834

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Is that burnt or is that stained? To me that looks much more like wood stain that just wasnt rubbed in real well then clear coated over.

Ive seen lots of people try for the burned guitar look and very few manage to actually do it where it looks cool.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Is that burnt or is that stained? To me that looks much more like wood stain that just wasnt rubbed in real well then clear coated over.

Ive seen lots of people try for the burned guitar look and very few manage to actually do it where it looks cool.

Well, the site I snapped that screenshot from said burned; however, it also called it basswood and I've never seen any basswood that highly figured.

I like the look of the dark grains vs the lighter...don't know how to do that. Lol

 

[Archer250]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Well, the site I snapped that screenshot from said burned; however, it also called it basswood and I've never seen any basswood that highly figured.

I like the look of the dark grains vs the lighter...don't know how to do that. Lol

Could be a veneer. Hell, my RG has a back that looks rather figured, yet I have no idea if it's a veneer or not.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Could be a veneer. Hell, my RG has a back that looks rather figured, yet I have no idea if it's a veneer or not.

Well I never thought about that...I guess I'll have to wait and see what mine looks like when I get it (unfinished 1 piece body.)

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

When I hear about burned guitar finishes, I picture either the "industrial" finished Ibanez JEM or Steve Hillage's Stratocaster - the one on the cover of his album, "L" that he sold via Chandler Guitars, Kew, England.

 

[autologic]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

I just got done burning a basswood body. Basically, just get it sanded down pretty good, burn it a bit darker than you want (I used a propane torch) then sand it again, back down to the color you want.

My camera really, really sucks, obviously. It looks awesome in person.

These are after nitro, before wet sanding. I really wish I had went with my original plan of using poly, on the last pass with 2000 grit I sanded through in 2 spots. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to strip it down and go with poly or just strip the top and go back over it with nitro... By the way, when you get down to bare wood, you won't really see ANY figuring until you hit it with the torch. Take your time and go slow, start about a foot back with the torch and adjust the distance until you get going at a comfortable rate. Basswood darkens REALLY fast.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

I picture the burned Universe.

 

[autologic]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

P.S. I used the picture you posted and these for inspiration:

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Sweet! Those look awesome (minus the industrial torched Ibanez...looks over done)

Thanks for the advice--not sure I'm gonna torch it until the body comes in--it's a one piece so it could look very nice naturally stained without burning...

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Theres a reason that you rarely see basswood in a stained or sunburst finish... Might get lucky though.

 

[autologic]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

I was really surprised at how much figure came out of mine when I torched it. It seriously looked completely grainless when I first got the paint off. I decided I would try the back to see what would happen, and the figuring just started coming out of nowhere.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Absolutely, might just get lucky....or might end up with a white/black painted guitar

 

[phred]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

This is a Pine body I recently burned with a propane torch.

I practiced on a scrap piece prior. I put a few coats of tru oil on it since, but you could stain over it also.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

This is a Pine body I recently burned with a propane torch.

I practiced on a scrap piece prior. I put a few coats of tru oil on it since, but you could stain over it also.

That looks awesome! The guy making the body, Richard Saylor, said burning pine was a fad in the 70's and thought it was funny how it's coming back around. I love the looks of it...my luthier isn't impressed. Lol

 

[BeatTheBastard]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Pine indeed looks nice with burned finish, I did the same to my Pinecaster. Been thinking about doing the same thing to my Jackson (I wonder what the Indian cedro looks like naturally..?).

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Pine indeed looks nice with burned finish, I did the same to my Pinecaster. Been thinking about doing the same thing to my Jackson (I wonder what the Indian cedro looks like naturally..?).

This is what I found on Indian Cedro:

View attachment 58864
View attachment 58865
View attachment 58866


*Note, my apologies for accidentally locking/shutting down the thread, thank you Dominus for the heads up :yourock:

 

[dominus]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

Been thinking about doing the same thing to my Jackson (I wonder what the Indian cedro looks like naturally..?).

It's not that bad, actually. Mine had a veneer on it which I removed with a heat gun. Scorched the body quite a bit in some spots but I was planning on doing the burning/sanding thing anyway.









Still have a bit more to go, I didn't have a proper scraper and was using a chisel that had a few dings in the end so there are a couple of scratches here and there. I started with a plastic putty knife but that wasn't working well at all, hence the dark burned spots.


:firedevil

 

[BeatTheBastard]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

What I Google´d it looks very nice in natural finish. Maybe I go with it.

What comes to subject of this topic, don´t do the burning the same way I did it... Long lighter and some Axe. It came out fine but afterwards I thought I could have easily burned the whole garage. :bigthumb:

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: New Guitar Project - Basswood Strat - Burning Advice

It's not that bad, actually. Mine had a veneer on it which I removed with a heat gun. Scorched the body quite a bit in some spots but I was planning on doing the burning/sanding thing anyway.


View attachment 58899




View attachment 58900



Still have a bit more to go, I didn't have a proper scraper and was using a chisel that had a few dings in the end so there are a couple of scratches here and there. I started with a plastic putty knife but that wasn't working well at all, hence the dark burned spots.


:firedevil

Cool, I'd be very interested in seeing how that turns out--please post updates!