Chambered Strat - Ash & Flame Maple

[bagman67]

So I've been sitting on this Strat body for a couple years, thought I would sell it and nobody bit, so it's time to put 'er into service. 


This is a chambered Strat body, flame maple on swamp ash, weighs a feather-and-a-half.  The plan is to do the top in a modified BBY burst, applied as General Finishes water-based dyes (ebony, medium brown and Amber instead of yellow).  I may finish the body in Tru-Oil or go with the tried-and-true Deft rattle-cans.


Appointments will be gold hardware - specifically, a Wilky tremolo bridge, Planet Waves locking tuners, and so on.  I have a loaded Eric Johnson Strat pickguard in single-ply aged white/parchment that I picked up on ebay that I may keep as-is; or I may swap the pickups into a BWB pickguard with black covers and knobs.  I'll see how it looks when the finish is complete.  This will be a lot quicker and easier than the koa-topped LP, since I won't have to do any wiring beyond attaching the output jack and grounding the trem claw.  Hallelujah.


Anyway, here it is naked, with a splash of naptha to bring out the grain pattern:

And here it is with the first layer of General Finishes Ebony dye, which will be sanded back to make the amber more exciting.

As it turns out I will have enough dye left over after this to do 174 more guitar tops, so anyone who wants it will be welcome to it.


Bagman

 

[Updown]

Yummie Black  :headbang:

Great looking flame too. 

As it turns out I will have enough dye left over after this to do 174 more guitar tops,
so anyone who wants it will be welcome to it.

Bummer .... I need enough for 175 ....    :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

Interesting. I look forward to how the finishing moves work out, and expect great things from this build.

I've been wrestling with an old curly maple-topped VIP, and it's kicking my ass. It's also a carved-top, so sanding back the black dye evenly is no fun at all.

 

[bagman67]

Cagey, I don't envy you.  The flat-top Strat body with only one break for the forearm contour is a way easier row to hoe, for sure.


I sanded back with a 220-grit 3M sanding sponge, and got this.  You can see the naphtha I wiped down with still in a few of the pores.  As you can see, the General Finishes ebony stain really holds on to the wood.  If I were to do another one of these, I'd reduce 1:1. 

Here she is after coloring.  The amber pushes this straight into tiger-eye burst territory - this ain't your daddy's BBY.  As you can see, the grain is VERY pronounced because of that ebony dye I applied and sanded back. 


I'll be interested to see how things look when it dries.  I'll probably sand out the lower bout a little and apply some more amber - the brown crept a little further north than I'd have liked down in the lower left.  Otherwise I'm feeling pretty happy about this. 

My method was basically the same as the one put forth in the Fine Woodworking video - soak it down with water, apply the amber color over all at full strength, then the brown (diluted 2:1) and then the ebony (diluted 1:1 this time) at the end.  I then went back with the amber tampon to blend the colors.


Any votes on parchment vs. BWB pickguard and covers?


Whee!


Bagman

 

[Cagey]

If I were you and intended to use a pickguard, I'd grab any old part you have laying around (doesn't have to match) and see how much of the burst you're going to cover up. Laying there naked, it looks really good, but I can already see that the 'guard is going to cover up almost all of your burst. It happened to me on my Mahogany Strat and pissed me off so much it's been sitting in the case ever since. Can't decide whether to eat it and smile, or start over.

 

[bagman67]

Here is the intended neck and pickguard and bridge mocked up.  This makes me come to a couple conclusions.


1.  I definitely want to sand back the brown and reapply some amber.


2.  Without having seen the black pickguard on it, I'm leaning toward black.


3.  Gold hardware is definitely the Correct Answer.


4.  I think this neck may want to be on a lighter colored guitar.  My view may change once I get the burst sussed out.


Thoughts?  Impressions?  Feeeeelings?

 

[Cagey]

Here is the intended neck and pickguard and bridge mocked up.  This makes me come to a couple conclusions.

1.  I definitely want to sand back the brown and reapply some amber.

I agree. It is as I feared - the burst is getting covered, and the whole thing is getting too dark.

2.  Without having seen the black pickguard on it, I'm leaning toward black.

Tough to say. I like the cream on there. It's a nice contrast that also matches. Since you already have it, you may want to wait and see how the finish turns out.

3.  Gold hardware is definitely the Correct Answer.

I could see it going any of the three ways hardware comes. I don't think it needs gold, but it would look good. Chrome would be a non-committal highlight. Black would match well, but things are looking pretty dark already, so...

4.  I think this neck may want to be on a lighter colored guitar.  My view may change once I get the burst sussed out.

I love that neck. I think it would look great on a cream-bound Ice Blue Tele, assuming those are stainless frets. But, they look like maybe they're gold? It's tough to tell. If they are, you're sorta stuck with using gold hardware. Mismatched brightwork never works out. Plus, the headstock might be too dark for the body. Draws the eye, as it's anomalous to the rest of the thing. It's not contrasty, but it doesn't match. It's such a nice neck you might not want to experiment, but I could see playing around with doing a curly Maple veneer yourself, then finishing it to match the body.

You can get veneers and tools/materials from places like Woodcraft pretty reasonably, and it's a good skill to have. Peghead's pretty small - seems like it would be a good place to start. Wouldn't cost a helluva lot. Might be fun.

 

[bagman67]

Sanded back and applied more amber and more brown at the edge, with the following (salutary, I think) result:

When I peeled back the masking tape, I found all kinds of capillary seepage.  Masking raw wood is hard.  Gonna look into that liquid mask that Kuro Uma uses. 


It's ugly enough that I may burst the back, and do ebony dye full strength all along the edge, instead of the un-colored ash I was hoping for.  Alternatively, I may just dye the back and sides ebony, and call it a love story.  Whatever I do, I won't do it until I've slept on it.  Probably.

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure how you're going to use the paint-on mask to accomplish what you want. The best masking I've found is 3M's "218" series tape. But, even that is probably going to allow some capillary seepage on raw wood due to the wood's porosity. Dye/stain is just so thin. I think bursts are usually sprayed on if you're going to do the masked binding trick. The material's got enough viscosity that you can put up enough of a barrier to it that the surface tension won't break and bleed under. Plus, you can shoot a clear coat on the barrier first to seal it, which you can't really do with dye.

 

[greywolf]

very nice project .. it's a keeper!

 

[bagman67]

Here's the backside.  I'll be filling grain with ebony timbermate, which will even the appearance a bit.  I'm pretty satisified with how it came out.

 

[bagman67]

I got a sealer coat of Zinsser Bullseye rattle-can shellac down, and all I can say is, the chattoyancy is gonna be WOWZERS when this puppy's all done.


Grain-fill later today. Going out for errands now.



Carry  on.

 

[Updown]

Like  :blob7:

The back has that look of being toasted over a fire. 

 

[Dolando]

That's looking great! Im looking at a similar project soon, so its helped a lot. What make of dye didyou use?

The gold bridge looks great and i I think a black-white-black scratchplate would look great on it.

 

[Great Ape]

That is lookin' HOT!! Really interestingly different...

 

[MortenB]

Great project, thanks for sharing this one. There is a lot to learn (for someone who never worked with dyes)... And a nice save of the too-black in the beginning..!

 

[bagman67]

That's looking great! Im looking at a similar project soon, so its helped a lot. What make of dye didyou use?

The gold bridge looks great and i I think a black-white-black scratchplate would look great on it.

Using General Finishes water-based dyes.  I'm happy with them.


http://www.generalfinishes.com/retail-products/water-base-wood-stains-dyes


I used their orange on an ash telecaster that eventually never made it to final implementation, but the issue there was my impatience.  Basically, it was my first-ever finishing job, and I screwed up so many things it wasn't ever gonna be salvageable.  But here's the orange dye and black burst I did,with a black grain-fill.  I may replicate it some day.


If you want any of mine, I'd be happy to fill some travel sized shampoo bottles and send them your way for the price of shipping and bottles.  I have ebony, amber, medium brown, and orange.  Otherwise they go for about 10 bucks per pint can.

 

[bagman67]

I love that neck. I think it would look great on a cream-bound Ice Blue Tele, assuming those are stainless frets. But, they look like maybe they're gold? It's tough to tell. If they are, you're sorta stuck with using gold hardware. Mismatched brightwork never works out. Plus, the headstock might be too dark for the body. Draws the eye, as it's anomalous to the rest of the thing. It's not contrasty, but it doesn't match. It's such a nice neck you might not want to experiment, but I could see playing around with doing a curly Maple veneer yourself, then finishing it to match the body.

You can get veneers and tools/materials from places like Woodcraft pretty reasonably, and it's a good skill to have. Peghead's pretty small - seems like it would be a good place to start. Wouldn't cost a helluva lot. Might be fun.

I think this neck would look SUBLIME on that ice-blue telecaster body of your'n, Cagey.  If I get to the end and decide it's not the right fit for this project, I'd let her go to you at a decent price.  It's wenge and ebony, tuner reams drilled to 10mm.  Stainless 6115 frets, if that's not  a deal-breaker.  I know you like 'em fat.


I don't think I have the guts to try my first-ever veneer project on a neck such as this - I'd prob'ly get one of the Screamin Deals and start there.  But I do like the idea. 


I saw a nifty trick a guy came up with to clamp the veneer in place on a Strat headstock - he wraps the headstock in plastic wrap, then builds up tape along the sides of the headstock, and fills with bondo until it's level.  Then he uses the cured bondo chunk as a clamping caul to keep the veneer in contact with the entire headstock while the glue cures.

 

[Cagey]

That is a nifty trick.

I think I'm with you, though - that's probably not the platform for a first shot at veneer work.

 

[telecutie]

I sanded back with a 220-grit 3M sanding sponge, and got this.  You can see the naphtha I wiped down with still in a few of the pores.  As you can see, the General Finishes ebony stain really holds on to the wood.  If I were to do another one of these, I'd reduce 1:1. 

When using two colors of dye, I prefer to use an alcohol base because it will evaporate quickly and penetrate the wood to a lesser degree than water.  So, sanding back that first layer is much easier, making the contrast between the two colors and the wood figuring very defined.