Frankenstrat. I couldn't not.

[Prostheta]

I think so. He seemed to have differences in solo tones between phrases as though he switched during recorded live performances using his Wolfgangs. Its hard to know for sure given how the DVDs were redubbed and reconstructed though. I'd say that he did.

[Prostheta]

Okay, a little update on what I am planning as the finishing schedule. I'm still drawn 50/50 on whether to use 2k paint or simpler (and softer) rattlecan (acrylic?), but the work under that is equally important.

Firstly, I've been testing the effects of iron(iii) oxide solutions on straight Ash. The general wisdom is that woods low in tannic acids will be far less reactive than wood possessing larger amounts of it such as white Oak, Walnut, etc. Whether it's a byproduct of using steel wool rather than plain iron as a source of iron or that Ash contains milder quantities of tannic acids is something I'm not certain about. The bottom line is that steel wool left in spirit vinegar overnight produces a solution that turns Ash greyer and greyer with repeated applications. I'm aiming for final exposed worn areas to possess a dark Ash grey whilst the areas under the shellac sealer just having a light aging. Applications raise the grain significantly, which I presume is down to the presence of water in the weak domestic acetic acid. The same would explain the tendency for very old solutions to develop rusty scum, which of itself will be useful later down the relicing process.

So, after the body is finished (I have to do the belly contour) and sanded, the surface will be treated with iron(iii) oxide solution to a flat light grey, sanded back up and then sealed with shellac to stop up the grain.

Sealing the body is a relatively simple process. Using what I'd call a medium-heavy cut of shellac (2-1/2lb cut) the surface is painted with a light film of shellac as opposed to depositing shellac in thin burnished layers as in French polishing. This is heavy enough to penetrate the pores and endgrain. Once dry, the surface shellac is sanded with 240-320 grit, and the shellac re-applied. I suppose that it would be possible to lift a slurry to absolutely stop and level the surface, but that's not necessary. Frankie has/had reasonable levels of visible grain structure through the (heavy) paint, so I don't need to go that far. Just enough to stop any paint from continuing to sink into the grain. The blonde shellac I have adds a reasonable ambering to the wood, so that light grey underneath will become a warmer dirty grey which is ideal. I want to end up with a reasonable film of shellac that holds its own under relicing rather than a flimsy film.

So now we will have a body that is prepped for paint, which will be a heavy-ish set of black coats followed by the striping and white coats. Relicing the body through to the oxidised wood underneath the shellac sealer gives me wear transitions from white through to black, to sealer and finally to bare wood. Subsequent applications of iron(iii) oxide to these exposed areas darken the Ash to an ashy (huh?) dark grey, which is exactly what you'd expect from a beaten, sweat and beer exposed tour guitar.

[Bizman62]

6 hours ago, Prostheta said:

The general wisdom is that woods low in tannic acids will be far less reactive than wood possessing larger amounts of it such as white Oak, Walnut, etc

You are aware of adding the tannic acids in form of black tea and such, aren't you?

[Prostheta]

I am, yes. It's very much unnecessary if the wood reacts well enough with straight ferric acetate/iron(iii) oxide. I didn't want a blackening process to occur, just a darkening and flattening of the wood as would happen with age. It's pretty much like kelohonka sort of colour with the shellac adding in warmth. Once I distress the body through past the shellac, I can add more solution to darken the exposed wood as would happen with a worn road guitar reacting with sweat.

Some people do this using things like brown shoe polish, which is absolutely fake and looks like it too. Aged and weathered wood flattens and gains a patina that coloured waxes are the opposite of!

[Bizman62]

Kelohonka indeed! That makes me wish you could find the inside glow of it when sanding through the flat grey!

Shoe polish? Yikes! Even the thought of it sounds fake looking fake! As I've already said, there's ways to fast forward aging, the wear and tear that comes through years of usage.

There's valid techniques of making something look like something else - marbleizing is the first that comes into my mind - but "painting" to make something look worn out is simply wrong! Like bullet hole stickers with no actual hole! Paint it and sand the paint off, that's speeding up the normal wear as well as painting and applying/heating a finishing coat too soon to crackle the surface.

[Prostheta]

Unfortunately not. That said, a lot of relic jobs are merely cosmetic and generally don't age naturally in line with the instrument's natural usage patina. I'm hoping that this approach represents more of a "leg up" in adding years to what is really a new instrument, but work with that instrument to fall in line with eventual real wear and age.

[Prostheta]

Call me stupid. Iron(iii) acetate, not oxide....

[Prostheta]

So this is what a couple of wet-ish applications of 24hr spirit vinegar plus steel wool (filtered and decanted) gets us:

 

The body has been left rough in places since they truly don't matter and provide additional basis for the reliced look. I took a few small tools to the outer edges of the pickup routs to remove the sharp edges which will make it easier to remove paint judiciously later. Doing so off a sharp corner results in uncontrolled chunks of paint leaving for the hills right where you don't want them.

For reference, the pickup routs are what Ash looks like after a single application, the rest two. The surface is furry and needs knocking back with maybe 180 grit. Once the shellac starts to go on, everything will be given a once over with 240 grit to leave us with a smoother finish that's perfect for the first paint coats. Now THOSE will be an adventure. Partly they need to be done well, partly done poorly. There's no such thing as a clean pristine Frankie, hence why those bASSwood EVH Striped Series guitars don't do much for me.

That reminds me....I need to find some replacement tremolo screws (how hard can this BE), correct tape sizes and a jack socket. I'm sure that I had one, but hey.

[Prostheta]

For what it's worth, wood treated with Iron(iii) Acetate looks fantastic and made me think of the old Ibanez BSB. Given judicious usage and burnishing, it would easily start to look like Kelo wood. What do you think, @Bizman62?

[Bizman62]

For what I've seen, Kelo wood is grey only on the surface where it has been exposed to rain, wind, sleet and snow and of course sunlight after the tree has died and dried while still standing tall. The cut/sawn surface is maybe a tad darker than that of green wood but it still is undamaged solid wood. Thus I wouldn't call your guitar body wood Kelo - it's more like weathered timber similar to what you can find on old barns or rather wooden household items like a tub stored outside for ages. For such you've got the colour just right!

[Drak]

If you're using 2K over shellac, I would keep the shellac paper thin, as thin as possible.

I know the old adage 'everything sticks to shellac'...

But there's an older finishing adage that says never apply a harder finish over a softer one.

And 2K over shellac is 'that' I would believe.

If it goes south, I don't think it would be immediate, more like after a year or so, which maybe would be OK with you on this.

Its not a delamination issue (because everything sticks to shellac) but more a different expansion/contraction ratio per finish.

They're dissimilar finishes, and so have different expansion and contraction characteristics.

I think if you keep the shellac from building, it will help that potential future tissue <pun intended>

[Prostheta]

The shellac will be thin, so I don't imagine there to be much potential for issues. The purpose is to stop up the wood and create a barrier so that subsequent aging treatments contrast between the exposed wood and the remnant sealer layer. A bit like this:

 

...however I'm wanting the wood beneath the sealer to be aged further than this, and the exposed wood to be truly "50s Ash Strat" type of dark brown-black. You can see here how reliced Frankie was from the black and white days before the two-stage red went on. That's sort of the stage where I want to begin, adding in the subsequent wear to the black and white that happened to the RWB.

I suspect that this guitar in the Met exhibition was a copy and not the original. I think the jury is out.

[Drak]

There's a new Tone Talk out w/ Dweezil, who's (obviously) a huge Eddie fan.

Dweezil - Tone Talk Episode

[Prostheta]

I can't recall a Running With... podcast from Dweezil where he didn't mention Eddie!

[Drak]

BTW, Dave Friedman completely shot down my theory of hot PAF/early, super-hot wind later.

He said after the 25 pickup shootout/Pete Thorn YT they did, they came to the exact opposite conclusion.

DiMarzio SD for early, and hot PAF 9k for later years.

[komodo]

23 minutes ago, Drak said:

BTW, Dave Friedman completely shot down my theory of hot PAF/early, super-hot wind later.

He said after the 25 pickup shootout/Pete Thorn YT they did, they came to the exact opposite conclusion.

DiMarzio SD for early, and hot PAF 9k for later years.

When he played that explorer with the SD . . . .haha! There it is.

[Prostheta]

Let's see what comes out of this one, then! I'm tempted to pull the trigger on a swamp Ash body to make some sort of alien EVH timeline variant guitar. Maybe a Jaguar with an HS configuration and a Floyd?

[Drak]

49 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

alien EVH timeline variant guitar

I've been doing a little bit of research on the guy lately.

I had no idea he played so many weird-ass looking guitars there for a certain time frame.

You wouldn't have to try very hard to hit 'alien timeline variant EVH' model, plenty to choose from.

[Muzz]

Here is an awesome piece called Uncle Eddie by Sergey Golovin to keep up the inspiration levels on your build

 

[Prostheta]

I'll post some pics later before I get the first black coat on to show the oxidised wood under the shellac. I'm starting with satin black so that I can see any problem areas (like that matters) and seeing whether I want to go to a gloss later or not. Satin polishes up to gloss anyway, so part of the distressing will be a general cut and buff to raise differences in apparent finish. That and I have a can of satin sat on my shelf....

I don't have speakers at work so I can't check that vid out yet! Still, at least I'm not working. 

[komodo]

Vid is killer. More than once did I also sense a little Govan in there.

@Prostheta I think you are bang on with the satin. Polished satin would definitely be better than satinized gloss IMO.

[Prostheta]

Okay, so the shellac has been padded on, cut back with 180 grit and then padded back up. If more care had been taken with the underlying wood and the pumice cut during shellac padding, this could even be a respectable finish on its own.

[Prostheta]

Strangely enough, those weird things in the end are actually in the wood. Ash can be weird sometimes.

[ScottR]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

Strangely enough, those weird things in the end are actually in the wood. Ash can be weird sometimes.

Absolutely. Every piece I've had has some kind of strangeness to it.

Character, I suppose.

SR

[Gordonov]

Favorite way to cause vision of old age guitar is build and buy and live for many years.