I've gotten away from using oil based stains. I generally use a water base powder stain and then seal it.

I seal my fret boards with lacquer. You can get a spray balm at any good hardware store. It doesn't have to be the expensive laquer the luthier supply places sell. There are two reasons to seal the fret board. First off, the oil from your skin stains a fret board over time. They get uneven in colour and can dry out if you are in a dry climate. Second, you want the wood to seal around the frets. It is a little hard to explain, but essentially frets can become loose and sealing the wood around them prevents this. Also, cleaning the fretboard becomes a snap.

If you go to Lee Valley Tools, or a number of other wood working supply places, they have powdered stain or aniline dye. This means you can have a broad choice in terms of colour, even custom mixing. Much easier than oil based stains, which are normally shades of brown. That is how you get a true red or wine colour guitar body. It is not with oil based stains.

I find that whether you want a blue guitar, red, green, orange, black, or any other colour, you won't get what you want with an oil based stain. You can with paint, or an aniline dye.

Hope this helps.

Arn

quote Originally posted by Arns85GT: I've gotten away from using oil based stains. I generally use a water base powder stain and then seal it. I seal my fret boards with lacquer. You can get a spray balm at any good hardware store. It doesn't have to be the expensive laquer the luthier supply places sell. There are two reasons to seal the fret board. First off, the oil from your skin stains a fret board over time. They get uneven in colour and can dry out if you are in a dry climate. Second, you want the wood to seal around the frets. It is a little hard to explain, but essentially frets can become loose and sealing the wood around them prevents this. Also, cleaning the fretboard becomes a snap. If you go to Lee Valley Tools, or a number of other wood working supply places, they have powdered stain or aniline dye. This means you can have a broad choice in terms of colour, even custom mixing. Much easier than oil based stains, which are normally shades of brown. That is how you get a true red or wine colour guitar body. It is not with oil based stains. I find that whether you want a blue guitar, red, green, orange, black, or any other colour, you won't get what you want with an oil based stain. You can with paint, or an aniline dye. Hope this helps. Arn

Arn, Something I've done with oil base stain, is use minwax natural stain that's reasonable clear (since it has a sealer also) and mix artist oils with it for pigment. Works fine, good for adjusting color as well.
Yeah, Aniline's are neat to work with and more appropriate if your going to use laquer. Oil base needs to dry long to get rid of solvents.

quote Originally posted by heybjorn: The tuners will be the original ones, as will the white humbuckers. Everything else will be black. I thought about replacing the pickups with black ones, but Linda and David suggested learning how to do the work with this first guitar, and putting all the refinements and aesthetic perfection into the next one, which will be completely different.

There are like $20 kits to convert stock pickups to black. They typically include the switch tip as well. And knobs.

Oh. I would not mess with the rosewood fretboard. Clean it, sure. Murphy's oil soap and water, I guess. Maybe tung oil. but no varnishes. Now, the Maple/Ash ones are different.

[This message has been edited by USFiero (edited 10-25-2009).]

So is the guitar any closer to finished?

Arn

Well Arn, it's like this. You see Mike has....oh..hang on...I see he has just logged onto his PC..he'll be along in a minute for sure to tell ya!!
Nick

I have finally gotten back to this. Changed my mind about the stainless and ordered a pickguard from guitarfetish.com.



I sanded the neck and stained it also.





Next step is to finish cleaning and dressing the neck, then several coats of gloss polyurethane.

That is some very nice grain.

Good to see it alive and well.

Here is a suggestion before you go to urethane. Have you considered staining the fret board dark to go with the pick guard?

Arn

Yes, I'm planning to do that, Arn. In fact, yesterday I considered doing coloring it with black magic marker.

[This message has been edited by heybjorn (edited 05-01-2010).]

quote Originally posted by heybjorn: Yes, I'm planning to do that, Arn. In fact, yesterday I considered doing coloring it with black magic marker.

Just go over the whole thing with a hand torch untill the desired "tone" is achieved.
The softer grain will take on a darker tone then the hard grain stripes.
Ends up looking nice and blended.

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 05-01-2010).]

In a pinch I've used waterproof marker for touchups, but, I can highly recommend water based aniline dye you buy at Lee Valley Tools. If that pick guard is black, I'd get the ebony stain. It doesn't paint it black it stains it in keeping with the natural variation of the pigment of the wood. So from a distance it looks black, but up close there are some wood grain variations.

Arn

That Looking really good.

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: That is some very nice grain.

x2

Lookin good Mike.

Jim

I like it when you can see the wood grains, nice!

Very nice!

Mike has an interesting aging technique for his projects. Seems to be working though.

Ron

[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 05-03-2010).]

The pick guard needs a little more room.



I had to make room for the lower potentiometer.


And for the pickup mounting screws on the top side of the pick guard.



For those of you planning to take up wood working, please note that the Dremel tool and its various attachments do a superb job, however, it does not distinguish material. Therefore, the sanding discs and grinding bits will happily consume your skin as well as wood. Linda said she didn't know I knew any Chinese. I'm just glad she thought that's what the those words were. Please notice that I did not get any blood on the project.

There is a ugly gap at the end of the neck.


Overall, it looks good for a first effort.

Superb!!
Nick

If you go to www.stewmac.com you can buy sheets of pick guard material in various configurations. You can then trace out the shape and cut a new one. Yes it is some work, but I've done it allot and you come away with a custom pick guard. You can get some black pearl material if you like.

I'd recommend the guitarfetish pick guards, but yours does not look standard.

I say this because that neck joint would drive me crazy.

Arn

quote Originally posted by Arns85GT: I say this because that neck joint would drive me crazy. Arn

But you are a serious guitar person, Arn, while I am not. I thinking Silly Putty. Besides, I want people to say, " Wow! Imagine what he could do with a good looking guitar."

Nice! I would almost hate to see the pick guard scratched... You should make a replica just for show

quote Originally posted by grkboy707: ... You should make a replica just for show

Hmmmmm, well I have got this piece of stainless. I think it will fit. Don't you have a ukulele to finish?

Black and chrome. with the dark wood grain, it looks good. Maybe a black anodized jack? don't want too much chrome...

quote Originally posted by heybjorn: ...Don't you have a ukulele to finish?

Well, yes actually. I trashed the oak one just for funsies, and I'm not working on a mahogany one. It's alot better looking. I havent even touched it in months though. Damn Fiero...

Well, ( insert your favorite family friendly exclamation here )!

There were a couple of light spots on the face which didn't seem to take stain very well and which I did not like. I bought a brush, should have done that at the beginning, and put a very heavy coat of stain over those spots. This is a learning project anyway, so I didn't get aggravated over it. Annoyed, yes, but not aggravated.



I didn't notice the drips down the side until this morning, which is two weeks later. I also discovered that sanding/rubbing with steel wool is not an effective way to match color tone. So, I sanded everything off this morning. Now it looks like this again :


I just realized, in reviewing all this, that I planned to make the original steel pickguard black. Duh! My memory is getting like Nick's. Anyway, I am headed off to the temple of the male power
( Lowes ) to get some more sandpaper. The heat index is already up to 98, and the neighbors have asked me not to take off anything else, so I will get supplies and start again late this pm.

USFiero, the jack plate will be black.

quote Originally posted by heybjorn: Well, ( insert your favorite family friendly exclamation here )! There were a couple of light spots on the face which didn't seem to take stain very well and which I did not like. I bought a brush, should have done that at the beginning, and put a very heavy coat of stain over those spots. This is a learning project anyway, so I didn't get aggravated over it. Annoyed, yes, but not aggravated. I didn't notice the drips down the side until this morning, which is two weeks later. I also discovered that sanding/rubbing with steel wool is not an effective way to match color tone. So, I sanded everything off this morning. Now it looks like this again : I just realized, in reviewing all this, that I planned to make the original steel pickguard black. Duh! My memory is getting like Nick's. Anyway, I am headed off to the temple of the male power ( Lowes ) to get some more sandpaper. The heat index is already up to 98, and the neighbors have asked me not to take off anything else, so I will get supplies and start again late this pm. USFiero, the jack plate will be black.

Why dont you just paint it black?

Maybe with gold flecks, Jake? I like that idea; wish I'd thought of it sooner. Wait a minute, I did!

Now that it is stripped again, you have a blank canvass. I recently did up a blond guitar and I discover that I really don't like it. Sure it looks good, but it is not my style really. I ended up with a Gold metallic body and blond neck.

For your guitar, I think you could use a water based stain and take it down a little darker. The advantage is that the darker the stain, the less you notice any irregularities in color. I say water base because it is very forgiving and easier to get an even finish. It seems to me that instead of a reddish finish, you could do a kind of walnut looking body. Either that or leave it natural with a natural neck.

I think the second time you might come up with what you really want. I know that worked when I did up my gunmetal guitar. It was originally red but looked much better in gunmetal metallic.

Please show us what you decide second go round.

Arn

Looking good!!!


....uh, the guitar I mean.

I have grown to like the reddish color, Arn. Plus, I still have half a can I'm not willing to throw away, no matter what Jake suggests. Part of my mistake was not using a brush to apply it. That really gives a much better, and more even coverage, than a cloth. I did think about a blonde finish, but Linda said, " No blondes in the band, Finnish or any other Scandanavian country." We are getting there, just not as quickly as I expected. On the plus side, a test fit of the pick guard, bridge, and neck this morning shows the strings will line up on the pickups quite well.

I'm still waiting with packed bags to go on tour.

I'm starting to suspect some stage fright, not from the performance but from not having a finished guitar to play.

Ron

quote Originally posted by blackrams: . . . but from not having a finished guitar to play. Ron

No qualms there, Ron; I won't get points for playing anyway.

Yes, finally, an update. But first, gratuitous picture of my grandson Phillip, 4 years old yesterday.



After spraying 4 coats of lacquer, I found this a week later. I thought it was dust, but when I tried to wipe it off, the flakes kept getting bigger.


So, ONE MORE TIME ( 3rd, or is it 4th? ), I sanded all the color out and restained the body. Had several weekends of rain, but last weekend, the roof of the shop was not leaking.


Now I have switched to Minwax Brush on polyurethane. This is working very well. It bubbles when brushed, but I took a smaller brush, dipped it in thinner, shook the excess out, and this brushed out the bubbles just fine. I have 5 coats on the body now, probably 3-5 more.


For a laugh and some interesting info on polyurethane, see this.

It's lookin' perrdy there, Mike. Nice job

You sure that kid's related? He seems to have hair where as you don't.