I Need Some Pointers,, Trans Cherry Finish On Flame Maple

[sbskates]

i have a flame maple top on mahognay the maple is a very thick top. i need to darken the edges so the area were the maple and mahognay meet is hidden. i am guessing since i am doing a trans cherry top on cherry back i should be able to do a slightly darker cherry on the edges . anyone ever done this?

[Desopolis]

your trying to hide where it transitions?

going to be hard to do with dye.

you could use a mahogany binding of some sorts, but you will still see a edge.

[Doeringer]

I guess if I wanted to be a smart arse, I would answer

Yes, its called a burst, thousands and thousands have been made...

really, you could burst out to black like on many Fender models that would hide the seem completely. There are a few tutorials on the main page. Do you have spray equipment?

I see on your other post that both the top and bottom pieces are the same thickness, might be hard to bind that deep down.

But also, many guitar don't hide that maple/mahogany seem at all and it look great. Plan it out and you should be fine. Pics?

Edited January 11, 2007 by Doeringer

[johnsilver]

Well, here is something I actually have some experience with. Here is a post of an SG I made with a maple top on mahogany. It describes and shows some pics of the finishing process i used.

SG topic

Basically, I sealed the whole guitar with vinyl sealer. I pore filled the mahogany with walnut brown paste filler. I dyed the maple with walnut brown dye and sanded back to hilite the grain. I rubbed walnut pore filler on the maple (didn't fill anything but did make the maple a consistent color to the mahogany. Then I sprayed the whole thing with cherry red toner. That applied a consistent cherry color over a consistent brown color. The result was a consistent color (duh).

Anyway, the color was the same but the maple to mahogany transition was still visible because the toner is transparent. Some of that transition is hard to see because the maple was carved which increased the blending into the mahogany. Even the bits that weren't though looked cool (IMHO) because you could see the different grain of the maple vs the mahogany if you looked through the toner.

I think if you try to darken the edge of the maple so you won't see it, then apply a cherry color over the whole thing, the darkened edge will stand out and not look great (again, IMHO). What I mean is that you will be able to see the wood grain all over except for the maple edge.

Hope this helps.