Burl Maple Top - Filler

[Robb]

Hi, I was just wondering what people used for filling in small holes when it comes to using burl maple as a top wood? Black epoxy? I'm curious, seeing as I'd like to finish mine with that type of top. BTW, I'll be finishing the guitar with a tobacco brown dye. Thanks for any input.

[biliousfrog]

Drak did a really nice Tele with sparkly blue epoxy filler, it worked great. It's not something that I would ever have expected to work but it was great.

[Robb]

You wouldn't happen to have a link to any photos, would you?

[ooten2]

I use CA glue and sawdust from the burl to fill small holes. With the patterns in the burl, it blends right in. I'm sure you could use titebond instead of CA also.

Edited June 15, 2007 by ooten2

[CrazyManAndy]

Here ya go: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...st&p=289509

I love that Tele. Drak did a really nice job on it.

CMA

[Quarter]

That blue sparkle fill looks cool. Is that an off the shelf thing or where do you get sparkle to mix in?

[biliousfrog]

thanks CMA, I searched for ages but couldn't find it anywhere.

[jmrentis]

Too funny! As I read the title of this post that Tele was the first thing that popped into my mind and I see everyone elses too, lol. The way ooten mentioned is probably the most common way to go, use the dust from the actual wood to fill it in with some glue. Sometimes I see a top or body wood that looks great but has a decent size hole or problem and doing an inlay over it always comes to mind, but that wouldn't really work in the case of a burl as there is usually small holes all over, would work better if there was a big knot or hole in one spot.

Here is the link to the thread about Draks guitar. Spalto-saurous. Sadly, it doesn't seem to have the pics any longer, so you gotta just go to the other link above and see the pics uploaded for the GOTM. It was such a cool build, Drak was cranking out wicked guitars that month he had a bunch going. Anyhow maybe you can find some information on how he did it in there. Good luck!

Edited June 16, 2007 by jmrentis

[ooten2]

That blue sparkle fill looks cool. Is that an off the shelf thing or where do you get sparkle to mix in?

Go to a hobby store, like Hobby Lobby, and look in the scrapbooking section for some stuff called embossing powder. I have no idea if that's what Drak used, but I have used that stuff to create some nice looking inlays. It comes in several different colors, and the one I used looks very similar to turquoise. In my case, I mixed it with slow-setting epoxy to get the color.

You could also google for crushed stone, I'll bet that would look nice.

Hope this helps.

[Robb]

Thanks for all your input fellas. Much appreciated.

[Quarter]

Thanks jmrentis and ooten2

I've been doing some lap steels and have been thinking of ways to do some colorful and fun fret marker inlays on an upcoming project.

From Drak's original post, it seems to be just a dyed epoxy. On closer look of the fill, I don't think there is any sparkle in it.

The mottled / marbleized look appears to come from varying transparencies of the different heights of the remaining wood in the underlying low areas, a very cool effect.