A Piece Of Wood

[ZoSo_Spencer]

This may seem dumb, but when it comes to wood and staining/dyeing i am dumb

I want to make a les paul - very similar to jimmy pages (pic below)

and i have found a suitable bookmatched piece of maple for the top - BUT - it is heavily stained on the sides...............is there any way i could remove the stain on the sides or stain the whole piece and somehow get the light blond natural color of maple back, with a dye or something?

i dunno what i am talking about lol but what i am asking is - is there anyway i can make this piece of maple look like it was never stained and was always a natural colour and not end up with a really dark finish? if so how???

Maple (below)

Template - roughly looks like same piece of wood

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Edited September 13, 2005 by ZoSo_Spencer

[javacody]

What is that stain from? Is it naturally occuring in the wood? You could maybe use wood bleach on it. If it is something someone put on the wood previously, you could just sand it off.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

I thought about sanding it off but in the photos (back shot) you can still see the stain, wouldnt that mean that it has gone right through to the other side?

Wood bleach sounds like the way to go....

Link

I dont know what has been put on it but link (above) is to the page where it is on display

[Daniel Sorbera]

Ya I saw that exact peice on ebay but diddnt buy because of the dark areas... I'm not so sure even wood bleech will take that out. It's prety dark. But give it a go and tell us how it turned out.

Edited September 13, 2005 by Godin SD

[Mattia]

That's not stain, it's simply the colour some of the wood is. I'd save it for a different project, and flip it around so the dark area's in the middle. I've got a top with that kind of colouration in it, only more extreme, plus a bit of spalt. Leaving that the hell alone.

If you want a pale top to stain nicely, get a pale, white top to start with. Me, I like a bit of character once in a while. Although I'm still on the lookout for some nice pale high-quilt tops for future builds.

This is wiped down and a tad redder than it actually is (a touch more towards the brown than this):

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics5/redmaple01.jpg

[ZoSo_Spencer]

Meh ill have a go - ive been waiting for tooo long to get my piece of wood and this one is the right price and the right looks (bar the stain )

Once i get this piece of wood ill try some bleach on it -hopefully it will take it to the colour of the lighter stain just below the darker stain and then i will even it out all over and then, with the scraps i will try some dyes and stuff.

thanks for the helps anyways - much appreciated.

- although i dont live in canada i am a canadian

[thegarehanman]

bar the stain

Like mattia said, if that goes all the way through the board, it's not stain. At least I'm 99% sure that's not stain. The lines look too natural for it to be stain. I'd say it's probably some heartwood or something of that nature. In my opinion, it looks cool. I know it's not exactly what you're going for, but it may start to grow on you.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

but it may start to grow on you.

←

I hope it does........but in the meantime i will be thinking of ways i can get rid of it

could i stain the whole top to the colour of the outside stain/heartwood and then dye or would that dye have nill effect bassically after it has been completely stained....

if i did completely stain this top and then done a cherry sunburst on it what do you think the turn out would be - would it be a really dark cherry sunbust???

lol - need some suggestions im dying here

[ZoSo_Spencer]

help please

read above post

[Mattia]

It's wood, it's variable, I personally think it's quite a lovely piece, and given the shades/tones it's got, it should look fine, even great with a cherryburst finish. Don't go trying to stain the rest the same colour as the redder bits, just lay it all out properly, and go for it. It'll be a unique piece, with it's own character. Alternately, save it until you have a project that look is more 'applicable' for.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

Yeah.....ill give it a go, i might not stain - ill try a cherry sunburst on it and then if it looks like **** ill try the stain......and if that looks crap ill put it on my next project