How To Achieve This Kinda Finish?

[RGGR]

How would you go about if you want to achieve this type of finish.

This pic was added in pinned Strat build thread.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=9113

It was mentioned the guitar was painted black first, and then the grain of the Swamp Ash was filled with white Epoxy (clear Epoxy with white color tone added to it), sanding everything smooth again. Finished off with clear.

Now my question. I understand the mention process, but would spray painting bass with black paint.....not have cluttered the pores/grain.........which detail you want to show with grain filled epoxy.

So this got me thinking......wouldn't it be better to just stain the guitar/bass black.....then fill with white epoxy, and then sand down again. This way I wouldn't clutter and fill grain pattern with black paint so much........not sure if this will achieve nice back finish though.

Just thinking out loud here.

Edited March 9, 2005 by RGGR

[Maiden69]

I'm going to take a swing at it, since I have worked with the dreaded wood on 2 of my 3 guitars. Paint it black, a few coats will be good, then use white (water based) grainfiller to do the grain, let the filler set for a few minutes, and scrape it real good and clean it up with a damp rag so that only the grain is filled in white. Then clear coat color sandins between every 2 coats until the rest of the grain is filled with clear and it is smooth as glass, polish and that's it.

I'm contemplating to do this on a project I got on my mind a few months ago!

Like you mentioned above but with out epoxy, epoxy will stick to the paint and will be too hard to pull away without messing up the paint. And I think that the stain on ash won't work too good.

[RGGR]

I hear ya, Maiden........but my issue is with painting the body black first. You wil paint in (fill) some of the grain.....you so desperately want to show with the white filler (epoxy)

See this example. The grain doesn't show as nicely after painting it.

Has anyone ever stained Swamp Ash??? Isn't the difficulty with Staining Ash that you have dense and less dense areas in the wood. Where dense parts don't take the stain as good as the less dense parts.

In this application it just could work wonders, as thedense areas....the grain.... is later filled up with epoxy.

Just thinking of it........plan B 2 could be.....filling grain with white epoxy.....just like strat in previous mentioned thread. Then sand back and smooth.......with then staining the wood black. As the stain won't adhere onto the epoxy.........Should give desired result.

Hmmmmm... the more I think of it......the more I realized I should have picked-up that Ash body blank today.

I'm thinking giving my Limba JS-7 a Swamp JS-7 sister. ;-)

Edited March 10, 2005 by RGGR

[Doc]

The grain on ash is so open that you have to hose it down really aggressively to start to fill it in,however....

If your piece of ash isn't quite as grainy as you would like for it to be go to your local Giant home improvement store and buy one of the brass bristle "toothbrushes" that they sell for funiture stripping. Scrub the crap out of it with the grain. Do not over scrub and do not go against the grain. Wet the thing down with a damp sponge, let it dry, and give it a quick rub with your final grade of sandpaper. Stain or paint, seal, then fill and finish.

This will give you a more open grain. We did a 600 square foot floor staining it alternating red and blue stripes, sealing it then filling it with white. The sample board didn't have the amount of grain we wanted so one of the Brits who worked for me came up with the brush idea. Said they use it over there to fake liming.

Worked great. I'll do most anything for the right amount of money.

[Maiden69]

RGGR, that pic you posted if from Matt (guitarfrenzy) strat. The reason it looks like that is because the blue paint that he used is automotive 2 part polyurethane. And it lays thick so it will cover part of the grain. If you use a regular base coat paint, it will leave the pores not filled, or open. I think that Ash will stain black good with anylines or alcohol based stains, and I will not recommend using waterbased for this because when you apply the grain filler and then "clean" it up, you can make it look blotchy or streaked.

[Guitarfrenzy]

The picture you took the example from was from straight mixed translucent blue automotive paint. That's without any grainfiller. It might not look as porous but it is plenty enough if you wanted to grain fill it with another color and sand back, then shoot clear coats over. Please practice on scrap first before attempting this on your guitar body. You'll be glad you did.

[erikbojerik]

Do a test scrap!

I'd say go with black stain (not paint), pretty dark & heavy, sand back a little, stain it again with black, let dry completely, then fill the grain with the white epoxy and scrape flat while the epoxy is still pliable. You'll probably have to sand it flat a bit again, then you can try to touch up the black in between the grain with more stain.

[RGGR]

I'd say go with black stain (not paint), pretty dark & heavy, sand back a little, stain it again with black, let dry completely, then fill the grain with the white epoxy and scrape flat while the epoxy is still pliable. You'll probably have to sand it flat a bit again, then you can try to touch up the black in between the grain with more stain.

I was thinking along these lines too. Even thinkering with idea of doing epoxy first and then staining.

And yes, have to test different solutions on the scraps.

Hmmm....just wanna start project like this....just to see how it would turn out.

[erikbojerik]

I was thinking along these lines too. Even thinkering with idea of doing epoxy first and then staining.

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I thought about that too, but though that the black dye would stain the white epoxy too much, and that when you try to sand it off you'll end up sanding the black off the wood too.