ZekeB

Thanks guys

Got the front about semigloss. I may keep it there. If not I'll hit it with the buffing wheel in a month. Still quite a few touch ups around the pickguard, controls, and a corner. Still working on the back as well.

Finishing has been a long process. Nitro is done. Just inching my way forward. Guitar pic coming soon

Sounds great Andy

Maybe draw your string locations through the headstock. Then dictate the starting tuner location based on how far you want that string to be from the side while lining up with the string. Then find the last tuner position with the same side respect. Draw a straight line between the two and equally space the other two tuners. They should be pretty close to the center string positions. I guess if you want to get crazy accurate you could offset your center point with the radius of the tuner shaft using the neck center to square off of. Just an idea! If that doesnt work I'd find the centerline for the neck and do some math from there.

Looks incredible scott

Just a quick weekend update. Sprayed and leveled shellac. Really added to the color. Waiting for next weekend to shoot the nitro. We get our first cold front saturday. Set the pickup covers and I think their going to look great. No shellac on this pic though.

I'm glad your tackling one. I'll be taking notes You'll knock it out of the park like you always do

That is killer looking. I've got some new inspiration for a design. Bass guitars always have the coolest shapes. The one I'm building now was inspired by a bass guitar.

wow mama! that looks great Andy. Don't know what I like more the front or back. Such a great combo.

Binding cleaned up. Helps separate the body from the neck a lot

It must be Christmas

The sides on that guy really brings it out. Awesome

Thanks guys. I'll be honest I did like the separation of light and dark with the lighter colors but I wanted to pull in the red in the inlays to something and have contrast with the binding which is why i went darker. I'll go back and clean up the binding to bring it out more. I think that will get me where i want to be.

Alright, here's our finish attempt. Added red analine dye and sanded it back with 400. Added amber after. Didn't like the color on the center stripe so I sanded that back to keep it natural. Added danish oil after that. I'll scrape the binding back to give it a little cleaner look. next I'll spray on shellac and finish leveling and proceed with nitro. I sanded down the pickguard and added danish to that as well. that help it dial back the ebony to a balance. I like the contrast between the body and the extra thick binding. I'll ponder on this one for a day to make sure its going the right way.

Looking good. You answered a question I had about shellac too!

I agree with Norris. Set the foundation for a great playing instrument and use that as a canvas to paint your vision

Thank you for sharing. I got some really good ideas from your inlay work.

Haha, played all night with it. I can see why you sanded back with lighter grits. I think the challenge for me was getting an even color before applying the next color.

Just playing around with this one today. Multi scale. Modified Phantom.

And here's the the last one. I used the other side where the shellac was since it was already sealed with filler. Black first sanded back quite a bit with 220, red sanded by lighter grit 320, then amber. So, I couldn't keep the black in those lines without leaving a lot left over. I didn't want the age look so those didn't come through as strong which i think was for the better seeing the contrast. Here's the comparison with the guitar. Fretboard will not change in color. Nitro will also be added to these guys.

I was inspired by some posts and decided to do some more experimenting on some scraps of mahogany I have with Analine dye and danish oil. Compared danish oil to shellac and there seems to be a slight difference. Danish has the same deep luster but contrasts the colors a little more in the corner I tried. Ok, for the dye experiment. The pieces were not sealed but you'll get the idea. there at 320 and porous. I'll compare these to the piece above so you can see the contrast: 1st Amber - Analine dye applied and Danish Oil on top: All Three with a fresh coat. Left Red Sanded back with amber, middle natural, right is Amber, bottom is black sanded back with amber: that slight blue hue is the danish being sucked into the wood. Use your imagination to fill in the gaps. My conclusions are the amber really brought out the red in the mahogany. I was expecting really really gold effect but it was beautiful. In all honesty I didn't expect much from black. Its such a hard contrast compared to the other that it was really just there and I grabbed it. What took me by surprise was the rings. The Rings on the natural are light but the other with the black dye got into those spots which made those rings dark. This was something I also really liked. Finally the Red die sanded back with amber. The red sanded back added a 3D effect I've heard others talk about. The black has an aged look to it that I don't quite think would work on this one but I really dig those rings. I think If i sanded it back more I'd keep some of the lightness. I'm going to try all three now. Add the black, sand it way back, add the red, sand it back a little less, and then the amber.

That's beautiful

Got some danish oil to play with. You made me curious

Is Danish going to be your final coat?