alternate dye?

[Belial]

I've been looking around at some different dye ideas and decided to try clothing dye. This was mix yourself stuff in a packet not liquid. Any ways I used one packet of black dye on a piece of basswood and it turned out looking like a black walnut sort of thing after putting a couple of coats of tungue oil on it. If I can get ahold of a camera I'll post some pictures of it.

[tsl602000]

no offense, but I don't understand why people want to use alternative dye's, when you can get the real deal really cheap at LMII.com.

[Drak]

I agree with tsl.

Now, I am the first one to recommend experimenting 'till your guts fall out, get as whacky as ya feel, so I bid all you dye experimenters' peace and good will and all that...but you'd -never- catch me trying it, the real deal with professional results is cheap, easily obtainable, and works, and works very well, and works every time.

One thing about building guitars...there's certain areas that you want to get down to a science, so you can repeat your results, which also then allows you freedom in other areas.

Like, having a dependable band saw allows you to cut any shape you want...trying different kinds of blades or trying to make your own blades isn't really something to shoot for until you find the blade that works best for you, then you stop. This allows you to trust your bandsaw to cut anything your little heart desires, as whacky as you want, ...with confidence.

Or shooting different finishes until you find the finish that works for you, then you stop, and get really good at it. This allows you to do sunbursting, all kinds of things, but to keep trying different finishes over and over from Home Depot, Poly this, Dupli that, Quala my momma, Dump Truck Jet Star Minifinish, Henry Rollins' PolydichloroDuPontrethane...whatever they have on sale that week, well, it's a chance at the very best of odds.

That's the way I look at experimenting with these dyes...it's just an area that could destroy everything you've worked up to to this point if you have no clue what these dyes are made of and if that chemical is 100% compatable with your finish of choice.

Now, if you know what chemical composition to look for for compatability with your finish, then experiment away I say...but I have a feeling most of you guys are just shooting in the dark.

I put too much effort into a body to just close my eyes and shoot blind like that.

But I still bid all of you peace, I understand the urge to experiment, that's a natural fact.

[Southpa]

Nothing wrong with experimenting. The only thing that could go wrong is experimenting on open areas of your guitar. Use scraps of the same wood from cutting the body, if available. If you are refinishing a guitar then experiment on areas that will later wind up being under the pickguard or otherwise hidden, in case things go wrong. I refinished this guitar with clothing dye, the dye cost me 3 Cdn dollars, and then clearcoated with rattle can auto laquer.

Thats how the whole creative process works, being innovative enough to come up with something new and different. If you like the color of pickled beet juice (sort of a faggy coral red) then by all means open a jar and have at 'er! It makes a good solid stain, I just don't like the color.

[asm]

kind of not related, but i know of people with homemade aluminum anodizing tanks and they said you can use RIT dye instead of expensive others. i think it needs to be mixed at alot higher strength though.

but nonetheless, i think if it would work at high temp and in metal it should work fine on wood??

id say go with experimenting, its fun and you might get some good results out of it!

t

[darren wilson]

but nonetheless, i think if it would work at high temp and in metal it should work fine on wood??

What a bizarre assumption to make. Wood and metal are pretty different. Anodizing and staining at room temperature are also pretty different. Apples and oranges.

I'm with TSL on this one. If you're out in some backwoods area (with an internet connection!) with no decent woodworking supply in the area and can't get proper wood dyes locally or even delivered to your house, go nuts experimenting with dying using the berries in your back yard if you want.

Try them out, test them, and by all means, post your long term successes. Just because it looks great now doesn't mean that the stain won't leech out over time, or oxidize to a weird colour when exposed to air, or completely vanish when exposed to UV light.

Coming in and saying you cut open a blue Sharpie and used the ink to stain your PRS refinish project to an exact Whale Blue shade is just going to give some people the wrong idea and/or bad advice.

To everyone reading and/or considering some of these experiments yourselves, please take great caution and experiment with your exact finishes on your exact woods, and test them for durability and colourfastness.

It would really suck to spend all that time working on a guitar to have the finish completely ruin it because you're trying untested and unproven products or techniques. But if you have success with it, all the power to you.

I'm a strong believer in using the right tool for the right job. I don't like taking shortcuts or compromising on tools or materials. A job worth doing is worth doing right.

[KitDean]

Hello!

I used RIT black to bring out the figure in some scrap maple once.

It looked great, but I did notice that sodium was one of the ingredients on the package.

This prevented me from using it on a guitar veneer. Something about putting a salt solution on bare wood doesn't feel right to me, even if there is no ill effect.

That said, someone in Reranch.com's gallery used black RIT for this purpose exactly under their transparent black cherry strat copy. I guess your mileage truly does vary....

Chris D.

[Little Bit]

Post pulled by author.

[BLS]

no offense, but I don't understand why people want to use alternative dye's, when you can get the real deal really cheap at LMII.com.

Well LMI dosent have green

[darren wilson]

Well LMI dosent have green 

Then buy some yellow and some blue and mix your own!

The reason why they don't carry every colour imaginable is because all you need to get most colours are the primary colours: bright blue, bright red/magenta and yellow. Oranges and browns are hard to get right, so they come pre-made. Other than that, it's primaries + black.

Get an art book out of the library and learn the basics of subtractive colour theory and you'll be off to the races.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

I'd mix the blue and green to get green. Custom mix to get what you like. I know the poly mixing I did works fine, but the problem is, it doesnt save any money. I dont use it anymore, tho it is great for making small batches of a color.

[Librero]

i had to use the poly-food color technique Litch used because i failed to track down wood dyes locally. no way i was paying international shipping rates for a small jar of dye.

i saw a stool here at home with a dried spill of the mixture i used for my green strat. i'll be putting the stool under the sun for a some weeks, maybe months, to see what happens to the green dye.

[Librero]

i like the way the blue guitar turned out, by the way.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

The other thing about the poly mix is with a small batch, I cant yeild a bunch of giutars from it. I sell them, so I need larger batches, and consistent results, but the poly mix is still effective for one off colors and for out of country ppl.

[BLS]

Well LMI dosent have green 

Then buy some yellow and some blue and mix your own!

The reason why they don't carry every colour imaginable is because all you need to get most colours are the primary colours: bright blue, bright red/magenta and yellow. Oranges and browns are hard to get right, so they come pre-made. Other than that, it's primaries + black.

Get an art book out of the library and learn the basics of subtractive colour theory and you'll be off to the races.

Well if you have to mix colors together, might ass well just take the cheaper route and use alternate dyes. And learn something while your at it

[tsl602000]

I'd mix the blue and green to get green

why would you do that? You already got green....

[Drak]

Well if you have to mix colors together, might ass well just take the cheaper route and use alternate dyes. And learn something while your at it

That is ridiculous.

I use Solar Lux alcohol-based dyes, Lockwood powdered dyes, and Tints-All pigments, all proper dyes to use with my finishes.

And I NEVER use any single color alone, I mix colors almost every single day, for every single guitar, for every single color I'm looking for, every time. For one guitar finish I'll custom mix the primary amber basecoat color, then custom mix the bursting colors also. By the time I'm done one single finish, I've custom-mixed 3-4 different batches. For one guitar.

Mixing colors is part of the deal, I do it -all- the time with the proper dyes, and I -completely- fail to see your logic in that statement above.

If you are too shy to mix colors, I doubt you'll ever come out with a killer-looking colored 'bursted finish. Mixing colors is a -prerequisite- almost.

And it's FUN.

[Belial]

Just to let you guys know, I didn't add the salt when I mixed the dye(salt is bad for wood). It just took alittle while longer for the dye to break down during the mix, and yes I tried it on a piece of scrap. I'm not going to try something untested on a guitar body. It's been about 2 weeks since I did it and so far there has been no color change, oxidizing, etc. It's stayed the way I described it.

[Belial]

The piece of scrap wood that is. Sorry for not stating that.

[ansil]

hmm has anyone ever used food coloring or cake decorating airbrush dye. great stuff.. i have had a yamaha for like 5 years that i did with a sickly loooking blue green made it very interesting.. to look at it,

[VanKirk]

Drak:

I put too much effort into a body to just close my eyes and shoot blind like that. 

He doesn't like to close his eyes and shoot blind. He likes to clench his fist and punch right through the top of it!