First guitar build, not sure what to do with the finish now.

[fovinus]

I'm new to this (though I've been playing guitar for a long time), and I'm a bit stuck on what to do next.

I bought a $100 Bex strat (Okoume Ash body) kit on Amazon, we (a friend of mine and I) sanded the body down, stained it Dark Walnut, I then discovered splotches, so we sanded down the front/back faces, and I applied a Golden Pecan stain to the back face and a Natural stain to the front... I think it looks cool (even though it has an odd piece of wood cut that's a different density or color within the stains), but now I'm undecided on whether to just finish it, or try to blend the edges, or try to sand off the edges (between the faces and the sides) in sort of a "banding" pattern, then stain that red and try to blend it... I'm sort of new to woodworking too, so I probably sound like a fool anyway.

I'll try to attach pictures so you can get a better opinion on them:

... OK it apparently is only letting me attach images up to a maximum file size of 500 kB... they're already at like 20% phone cam dimensions. I wanna attach 4 pics but this has gotten super-complicated.

OK I resized them by 50 % again and they all fit yay

 

[mistermikev]

when I hear blotchy I automatically think minwax.  because dye isn't also a varnish... it doesn't do that. 

my personal feeling is that the darker edge doesn't look great, but the central part looks good.  If it were me... I know I'd be much happier in the long run sanding it all back down and trying to do what you did on the faces on the edge as well.  the face part looks pretty good to me. 

the darker three piece section... once you get it all sanded back down... leave the other two pieces sanded to 220 but bring the darker 1 piece of up 400.  i believe I learned that here and probably from scott r - that sanding to higher grit will burnish the wood a bit and prevent it from soaking up stain as fast.  

I'd also recommend using keda dye instead of what appears to be varnish if I'm not mistaken.  with dye, if the one area looks darker... you can sand it back a bit to even it out and it will blend well.  most of it will be covered by the pickguard anyway... but that's what I'd do. 

actually... what I'd probably do is sand it completely down and buy a veneer and glue it on.  $23 well spent over at b and b rare woods: https://www.dyed-veneer.com/product-p/1227-10.htm  then just lay down some glue, clamp a piece of scrap wood to the top with some braces to keep it flat.  

all just spit-balling.  do what YOU think is best.

 

 

[Bizman62]

Hi and welcome!

Finishing is a Dark Art which takes lots of practice. Even if you just apply some clearcoat, getting it level and shiny can be a nightmare if the odds are against you!

That one does look decent for a three piece body so a translucent finish should work if you get it right. You won't get the mile deep look of a fancy figured wood but a dark edged burst is highly doable. Agreed. it's as traditional as can be but if you can get it right you've learned a lot!

There's several ways to apply colour on a guitar. Stain/dye (similar to ink) rubbed on bare wood can be done on your kitchen table and a clearcoat or an oil based wipe-on product like TruOil will seal that. I'm talking about water or alcohol soluble dyes which you can fade or blend, even and wash with the same solvent. As @mistermikev said, a dyed varnish tends to end up splotchy unless you have a good spray gun. That or an air brush can be used for creating nicely fading bursts, often that's done over a clearcoat base which allows wiping an unsuccessful job off using thinner. Don't ask how I know...