Drak

I think its the brown...most old and worn and antiqued furniture is brown, just a thought. The back looks like some old western barroom floor if you ask me...

I think its because I'm a straight lacquer guy, lacquer responds easily and well to a heat gun approach. And I've stripped so many finishes off, being picky, I'm kind of practiced at removing it now. Well thank you! I always loved the interaction of trees, lumber, and my interpretation of what's 'in there' to work with. I always try to work with wood, as a kind of partner, its a mutual back and forth thing.

I always use Klean Strip, but the thing to be aware of is the '2-part' part of it. There are others, and I would believe they're all probably the same thing. But what you're looking for specifically is a 2-part A/B bleach. Look for dual pints or quarts, you certainly don't need gallons. You can buy it online in various places.

The name Beryl is from Galaxy Quest and the Beryllium Spheres, which the figure reminds me of. Beryl is a bookmatched Myrtle Burl, front and back, with a Walnut core. I started Beryl in 2011 and 'finished' it sometime last year. These things do sit around sometimes... I got it up to 2400 MicroMesh and just stopped, I just wasn't 'feeling' it. An hour short of being completely finished and I said NO. So I re-calibrated and told myself I could do better. Something I would like much more than the caramel look. It only needed to have the finish stripped, quick sandy-sand clean-up, and a re-shoot, which I did today. Shot it (dye) and had time to get 4 quick clearcoats on it before it got dark. Still have to do the back, but I do like it much better than it sat previously. First time around was straight clearcoats, then all shader coats over clear. This time it was all straight onto the wood, wiped, sanded back, then gunned on. Beryl:

I agree with Curtis. But I would call around and ask prices and turnaround time and tell them you're getting a few quotes. When they quote you, ask them if they call you if the repair goes above the quote before proceeding. Just these basic maneuvers will stave off 90% of the weirdo tech contingent...but be nice! That is most likely a super-easy fix, shouldn't cost much and should turn around really fast. This way you may uncover any fishy guitar techs. They are out there, and they do take advantage of the unwary, seen it happen too many times. So call around town, tell them you have a problem with your output jack most likely, then ask prices and turnaround.

Hmmm, I've been doing it for over 25 years and I'm online...I would never do a blue finish over Mahogany w/o bleaching it first. But I'm not going to push the issue, you do you, Boo!

The black/sandback won't work here because there is no figure in the wood for the black to highlight. So, yeah, that's a no-go process for this piece. The only 'enhancement' available would be to use a black pore-filler (Timbermate) to fill the pores black. That's about the only 'trick' available as far as color enhancement goes for standard Mahogany. So, Mahogany is brown, very brown. If you're using any colors associated with Brown (like yellow, orange, red, brown) then you just go ahead. But with anything 'other', like Blue or Green or anything that isn't in brown's boathouse... I always Bleach the wood first to remove as much brown as possible. I typically use Kleen-Strip A/B bleach, works pretty good. Regular bleach, forget it, not a viable answer. Have you looked up 'Mahogany Guitar' in a search engine to see what's out there?

Thanks K, consider it done, tho I was waffling on it. The thing with harmonicas is (IMO) they want to be kept reasonably 'low to the ground', so to speak. A harmonica bridge sitting too high would look bizarre, whereas a TOM you wouldn't notice so much. Especially with the mass and size of a normal tailpiece sitting right behind it. So I gotta check my neck pocket to make sure the angle is good for a 'low rider' setup. Thanks for weighing in on the topic.

Deleted false start neck pics.

Deleted false start neck pics.

So...on to the rear treatment. The back is a 3/16" Spruce piece that was destined for an acoustic guitar top about 15 years ago. I needed the additional 3/16" depth, it was available, and light, which keeps with the original design. That also allowed me to do the cavity cover cutout as an integral feature. So...I really liked and enjoyed doing the distressed finish I did to the Oak guitars and decided to implement it here as well. Which means shooting tinted finish, then sanding it back to taste, which I did. If you want to do this, best to apply it in the early stages so you're not sanding through a bunch of clearcoats trying to uncover the wood. I only shot about 4 coats yesterday, gave it a really light level sand, then shot 2 shader coats on the back. This was Behlens Medium Brown Walnut with a few (like, 3) drops of black Mixol for a little opacity mixed into lacquer and sprayed. I really like it...again! This time on the back and sides and obviously not on the top. It really gives it an aged but cool appearance...to me anyway, I like it. I start out with a 360 grit on the orbital until I start to see wood 'just' appearing in spots. Then I put the orbital aside and use a 360 grit Abralon pad in my hand, it gives me great control over how things 'go'. Now, it's just more clearcoats over the whole thing.

An uploaded pic or 2 of the situation would be helpful here, I think.

Thanks! So I hit the primary goal of the burst positively accentuating and working well with creme colored P-90 covers, that box is ticked. Yes I could have made the burst deeper and more extravagant, but that wasn't the goal this time around, its exactly what I wanted it to be as it sits. Really nice, but not 'too' nice (too gaudy blingy). I could see Sean picking this up and being OK with it. I also have a neck available that has trap inlays, but I think that, again, would be too blingy, this looks more traditional and subdued, more Sean-style. Now we get to hardware selection. I have regular (gold, of course) TOM's and stoptails, but I've been looking for an excuse to use this Harmonica bridge and Ibanez tailpiece I bought a long time ago just sitting in the parts drawer collecting dust. I would prefer to use a Gotoh 510 adjustable wraptail like on my other doublecuts, but I only have one in black at the moment. And I can't stand spending money unnecessarily on parts when I have a truckload of parts already here. So, use what you got and make it work! But I do prefer the wrap-tail, maybe I'll suck it up and buy one. The knobs I put on it are actually Ibanez sure-grip speed knobs too, so it has taken on a late 70's Ibanez appearance, sort of, but knobs can be changed.

Surprisingly got good shoot weather today.

Are you absolutely sure you mixed equal parts A/B? Because that will definitely make epoxy not set if the parts are not really equal. That's about the only thing I can think of, other than using too much Mixol. You should only need a few very small drops of mixol. So if you gashed a bunch of Mixol into it, that would upset the chemical reaction between the resin and hardener as well. I looked it up at Stew-Mac, I didn't see any 8-hour epoxy. I saw a fast set 5 minutes (what I normally use) and a 20 minute set. So I'm not sure about the 8 hour thing. I would just run another small test batch w/o the Mixol and see what happens there. An epoxy tip: mix it in a glass container and hold a blow dryer (or heat gun) under it...heat it up if you can. It helps it pour better and set better. It's not necessary, just a helpful option. EDITED: So I kept looking and I do see a System 3 T-88 which has an 8 hour dry time. My only comment reading through that was that it seems to be more of an epoxy 'glue'. Like, for gluing two dissimilar 'things', (or oily woods was mentioned) together. Never used it, so can't really comment on it besides maybe trying regular 2-part epoxy, which that product does not exactly seem to be. Tho they do mention headplates, that's because headplates are oily woods a lot of times. And that product specializes in gluing oily woods together, or to something else, but not as an inlay filler. What you're doing doesn't sound like you're gluing two things together, but more of an inlay application, where its a surface sit kind of thing? Saying that, the stuff should dry tho...

Yep. Shot 30 seconds apart from one another, just different lighting. OK, EDW edgeburst shot and this one's done. It's dry, so it doesn't look as nice as the other pics which I got to shoot while they were still water-wet. But its got the brown edgeburst, everything is A-OK, very happy with it, and waiting for good weather to shoot it. You can see the spray shield laying beside it to the right, I did use it, but for this burst, I never even got near it, but that center stayed protected. Just wait, she's gonna pop like crazy. Gotta work on the neck and headstock in the meantime.

Its hard to overcome your own tendencies, I know the feeling.

OK. I CA glued the back and sides last night (this is really light and soft wood) as a strengthener/toughener and pore-filler. Sanded all that smooth this morning and on to the next steps. I liked the 'shield' idea so much I made an 'opposite' of it to guide my sandback. I laid it down and sanded up to its edges all the way around, -just- enough to see the outline, then I removed it and kept going w/o it. It's just used to help me outline my perimeter, once I can see the perimeter, I don't need it anymore. So, there are a few stages and objectives of the sandback to hit, and they don't all happen at once. The primary 'thing' is to get the center section light and bright enough to achieve a nice bright 'centerburst'. Once that has been achieved, I then focus on 'hitting the tops' of the quilt everywhere else. If you don't see clear wood 'quilt tops', your second color isn't going to pop out, it will only accentuate the dark color already there. So after I get the center sanded out enough to get my 'bright' factor, I go over the rest of it to 'hit the tops'. I want to see clear tops on the quilt all the way around w/o removing the nice dark accents on the outer sections. I also usually make the secondary color a little bit on the weak side, diluted, so it doesn't overpower the rest of it. Then I applied a weakened straight yellow, wiped on the whole thing, quickly, 3-4 passes over the top and thats it. Which blended any remaining difference between inner and outer edges. So, where am I at? What's my summation so far? It's very nearly too red, its dancing right on the edge of where I don't want it to be, a little too much Cherry. But my brain just loves red, and given the chance, will indulge itself. So, that's easy to take care of, out comes the airbrush for a nice EDW edgeburst which will add in the dark brown I need. That will be it, waiting on good weather to shoot this thing. Other than that, I love it, just need one more adjustment to skew things more toward dark brown edges. Looks very different in different light settings.

Well, I know my way isn't the only way, by a long shot. There are people who are ninja-masters at the wipe-n-blend thing. I'm not, I much prefer to use a spraygun or airbrush, I'm just way more comfortable with that method. I don't have the patience to wipe and wipe and blend and wipe. But I can sit calmly with an airbrush in my hand, totally focused and tranquil-zen, for an hour and love every minute of it. I just know my limitations, what works for me and what doesn't, and I tend to stay in my lane (most days). Try making an outline like I did and (lightly) trace your pattern (in pencil, really lightly). Just enough so you have something to follow, so you can barely see it. I can't believe how effective that was, total game changer and time saver for me. Been using those things for years as spray shields, never as a wipe guide tool.

Both mixes were pre-mixed in the little plastic cups I use. I did use a new clean cloth to do the second interior coat, and used that cloth to do the blend. Which didn't take more than 30 seconds to go round the perimeter twice to blend them together. The whole thing still being wet and activated as it went down so quickly, this was a very fast dye job, the whole thing was done and over in about 3 minutes. Both dyes are water-soluble and compatible with each other, no thinner/alcohol/water funny business here, all water. Having that barely visible perimeter outline in pencil made such a Huge difference, can't believe I've never figured that out before, You do have to remember tho, I'm not trying to achieve a seamless blend as this is all getting sandbacked with yellow as the final color. So I wasn't sweating a perfect transition, although it came out pretty nice like that anyway. My philosophy with the blending thing is the more time you spend blending and fussing and playing with it, the more chances you're digging a deeper grave for yourself, with the tendency to keep playing with it, over and over till you drive yourself half-crazy. So I tend to try and get in and out in a hurry, get it done and leave it alone. I could have continued to mess with it after the second time around the perimeter, but that's exactly where I know trouble begins, when you're tempted to keep going after it. I looked at it and said 'its done' ...and dropped the rag.

Since I used Cherry as in integral part of the basecoat, there's no need to add it to the yellow now, its 'in there'. Probably just lay down pure yellow after sandback, the yellow will suck up the Cherry into itself.

So I used the spray shield in a whole new way tonight. I laid it on the body and lightly traced around it with a pencil. That made the dye job super fast and super easy. OMG it was pure cake and took less than 5 minutes. Took longer to mix the dyes than to actually lay them down. I used about 80% EDW to 20% Cherry for the outside. And the exact opposite for the inside, 80% Cherry to 20% EDW. Took two runs around the houses to blend them together and done. Yes, I know about the tearout around the 3-way switch, I patched it up long ago, it just stands out now there's dye on it. Thank the Baby Jesus it happened on the 3-way where I can cover it up with a switchplate, no one need ever know. A-OK so far, more to come.

I will second and third that motion. Generally don't bother with him anymore, tho he is talented. My personality is very bull-oriented (sales testing many years ago), and bulls are always right to the point and very time conscious. We won't waste your time and we don't like our time wasted, as we consider time a valuable commodity. We generally cannot bear listening to someone who has commode of the mouth. I still ROTF laughing about the Steerheads, which I latched onto years before I found out I actually am 'that', for real.

Lemon Yellow with Cherry (the wood, not cherry red) added 3 drops at a time. All these colors are right in my boathouse, I could use any of them and be happy. PS, for anyone who doesn't know, Yellow does not enhance figure, at all. If you have a figured wood and want it yellow with the figure enhanced, you always have to add some other color to it. Look at the top, straight yellow, no figure enhancement at all, and as more cherry is added, the figure is getting enhanced more and more. That's the only pitfall of using a straight-yellow...if you want to enhance the figure, anyway.

Color Testing. First pic, Basecoat color: Extra Dark Walnut. No finish, no sand-back yet, just wipe-n-dry, this test piece will be sand-backed in graded stages later on. Under lacquer, its gorgeous! Second Pic, Top to Bottom, with pure lacquer poured on the piece right out of the can, and fingered on (it is just scrap-test, after all): Lemon Yellow, Lemon Yellow/Tobacco Brown Mix, Tobacco Brown, Cherry (the wood, not cherry red), Medium Brown Mahogany Surprised again, the Cherry (for me) is Killing It. Never used it before, that I remember. From here, I sand back the EDW in stages, and start mixing Lemon Yellow and Cherry to find the mix I want. I may very well do a mix of EDW and Cherry for the basecoat. The Cherry just brings a certain warmth and beauty to the game. BUT, using creme P-90 covers, I cannot let it go red, I personally think that looks hideous. It has to be a 'background' thing, just to bring some warmth, not obvious in your face. PS, the LemonYellow/Tobacco Brown mix made me want to vomit, I detest that color...this is why we do scrap testing! I think the (background) Cherry mixed with the (prominent) EDW will be delicious and super-tasty.