My First Dye Job.

[Captain Sociable]

I just bought a Les Paul body with a great flame maple top. I want to use 4 different colors of dye. I however, have never dyed wood. What I want to do (if possible) is mask off different parts of the bady so that part of it will be blue, part will be red, part will be white and part will be yellow. I am pretty sure I will be able to do the red and the blue parts but not so sure if I can do the yellow and white parts.

My question, can you mask off the different shapes without the colors bleeding under the mask?

I imagine I will have to spend the money to buy a piece of maple to test my masking idea before I start on my new L.P.

[Mattia]

In short....no. Not direct staining. If you want clear, sharp lines between the colours, don't direct stain (and yellow's easy, it's white that's difficult), but shoot tinted clear, masking the bits you don't want painted.

[Vinny]

I argree, the stain would bleed. -Vinny

another PG'er did one here:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=31187

[Captain Sociable]

Heres my plan, I am only going to dye the white and blue stripes. When sanding is finished I will mask the stripe across the middle, I will cut a line with a razor to keep the lines from bleeding over. I will apply several coats of the white dye, wet sanding between each. When the white is finished I will run a clearcoat over it. Then I will mask the white section and do the same for the blue. Then I will paint the back and neck black. Then I will mask the circle and the "C" and paint them with red and yellow. Then I will clearcoat the whole thing. Tell me if this is utter madness? Should I just dye it blue and paint the white stripe?

Thanks.

Edited September 14, 2007 by Captain Sociable