Dye Finishing Q's

[led_guitar]

Hello, I will be finishing my guitar up soon, and have a general idea of how I'm going to finish it:

1. Sand down to 400-grit

2. Wet the guitar against the grain with an old clean cotton t-shirt and let it dry

3. Sand carefully with 400 grit sandpaper

4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 twice more

5. Cover the binding, fretboard, and cavities with masking tape

6. Apply pore filler to the mahogany neck and body back and sides, let dry

7. Wet the maple with a damp cloth

8. Apply amber dye

9. Apply black dye

10. Let dry, then sand down so that only the flame remains

11. Apply amber dye over maple

12. Apply red from outside towards center

13. Apply black in a similar fashion

14. Make sure that they transition into each other

15. Allow to dry

16. Apply amber and brown dyes to the mahogany back and sides

17. Allow to dry

18. Apply 10 coats of Minwax® Clear Brushing Lacquer to entire guitar, allowing to dry in between coats

I'm not entirely sure If this is the "right way" to finish a guitar. If anyone could please tell me if this would work or not, or if there's an easier or cheaper

way that would be awesome. Also, I have an unfinished neck. Do I need to finish the fretboard??

[Tristan]

I may be wrong but you can skip step 8. What type of fretboard is it? as long as it's not maple lemon oil works good for fretboards.

[mikhailgtrski]

8. Apply amber dye

9. Apply black dye

10. Let dry, then sand down so that only the flame remains

11. Apply amber dye over maple

12. Apply red from outside towards center

13. Apply black in a similar fashion

I would be careful (experiment on scrap first) using black with amber - you can easily end up with a funky greenish tinge. Very dark tobacco brown might be a better choice.

[jer7440]

8. Apply amber dye

9. Apply black dye

10. Let dry, then sand down so that only the flame remains

11. Apply amber dye over maple

12. Apply red from outside towards center

13. Apply black in a similar fashion

I would be careful (experiment on scrap first) using black with amber - you can easily end up with a funky greenish tinge. Very dark tobacco brown might be a better choice.

mikhailgtrski is right....a large component of the black dye is blue. If you mix yellow or amber with it your going to end up with some sort of green. You will avoid this problem if you use a really dark brown. You would also get some funky interactions between the red and the black.