That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

[Scatterwound]

Hi All,

For those of you that have made/stained a guitar have you ever come across anything close to that wonderful (IMO) wine red Gibson colour seen on their SGs? I am in process of making a guitar and would like a stain similar to that...I tried a Minwax Red Mahogany stain but on scraps of pine/mahogany it just seemed to darken it but gives no red at all...

I know Stewmac has some true colour stains.....Anyone tried this?


Has anyone replicated the red with something in store off the shelf ?

Thanks.

 

[mikeyp]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Have you checked out the projectguitar.com forum? There are some helpful folks on there.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

I used a woodstain made by a company called Feast and Watson as a tinter in the lacquer (I've used it in nitro and auto acrylic). It seems to be compatible with just about everything. However, i think it may be made here in Australia and therefore may not be easily available for you. They have since deleted most of the colours from the range.

With that in mind, once my remaining stock of F&W red stain is used, I will get the Stewmac stuff.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Stewmac's stains work great (a bit pricey though). Their "red mahogany" should do the trick.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

There is wine red, which is mostly used on Pauls, and cherry, which is mostly used on SGs. The wine red is a transparent burgundy (though it can look pretty light sometimes, depending on the top of the guitar. The cherry is more of a pure primary red. Which one of those do you want?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Sorry, I had a slight brainfart there. I don't know what I was thinking. I think I was thinking "red on mahogany (SG)" and it came out "red mahogany". No don't do that! it will come out too brown. But their "Cherry Red" on a mahogany SG will come very close to the stock SG color.

But you specifically asked for "Wine Red" on Gibson SGs. This is confusing since, as ItsaBass pointed out, the "Wine Red" is an LP color. The color of their SGs is "Cherry Red".

So, if you are trying to replicate the LP wine red on your SG, you'd want to use "Cherry Red" with a little touch of "Blue". This should get you pretty close.

 

[uOpt]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Uh. The key here is that it is no wood stain that makes the wine red.

The color is in the lacquer. You can clearly see that on LP Customs with paint chips.

Reranch went through some lengths to try to recreate it. I'm not sure how close they got.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

The Stewmac stains can be used to tint the lacquer. They are not specifically "wood stains". They can be used to create that "Candy Apple" type color.

 

[PoorMan]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Gibson has varied the recipe over the years and they look quite different. Early ones had analine dye mixed into the grain filler, then clearcoated.

Later ones had toner coats (tinted clear sprayed over sealer/grainfiller) then cleared.

Depends which rout you are going.

Also, the wood has oxidized on the old ones which darkens the wood itself.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: That Gibson Wine Red Wood Stain???

Gibson has varied the recipe over the years and they look quite different. Early ones had analine dye mixed into the grain filler, then clearcoated.

Later ones had toner coats (tinted clear sprayed over sealer/grainfiller) then cleared.

Depends which rout you are going.

Also, the wood has oxidized on the old ones which darkens the wood itself.

Further confusing things is the fact that many old SGs that were originally transparent cherry have has varying degrees of their dye faded out by UV over the years. Red dyes used on guitars have obviously improved quite a bit in terms of stability since then. That is also how "honeyburst" finish came to be; it is faded "clownburst." It's also why the earliest three-tone Fender sunbursts gradually "reverted" into two-tone bursts, and why the ;ate-'60's Gibson metallic cherry guitars have mostly faded to bronzey hues.

My '68 SG (middle) was originally cherry red, but now it is closer to brown. The one on the left is a modern poly finish, and will never lose its red. The one on the right came brown from the factory. As you can see, the '68, which began life looking like the guitar on the left, is now actually closer in color to the guitar on the right.