Chambered Strat - Ash & Flame Maple

[bagman67]

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.

I may go that route next time.  To be honest, I was so happy with how the water-based orange worked two years ago that I just went with the same line for this one.  I do like the longer working time that water affords, but it may not make a huge difference if I go with alcohol for a future project.  Obviously experimenting on scrap is the key to happiness...


Thanks for the thoughts. 

Bagman

 

[Cagey]

I think you want the water-based version if you're trying to blend/graduate colors, as you do in a "burst". If your vehicle evaporates very quickly, as alcohol does, you're sorta stuck with where the dye lands, so you end up with visible boundaries. Can't move it around easily, so it's tougher to do smooth transitions.

The caveat is you need to have a surface that isn't going to betray you if you get it wet. That means wetting it first to raise the grain, letting it dry, and sanding it back again to smooth it out and get rid of any fuzz. That way when you re-wet it with the dye, you have dramatically less grain expansion and you need to do little or no sanding before sealing, which means what you've done stays the way you've done it. After a few coats of sealer, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.

 

[tylereot]

Wow, how did I miss THIS build?

But lemme tell ya, Baggie, I'm a real believer in the Behlen lacquer now.  It just beats the stuffin' out of rattle cans. 
In your (and my) situation, it's just brush it on thick as you can and let it harden up.  Then sand it back.  If you were going over colored lacquer, it wouldn't work  as you'd just stir up the undercoat of lacquer (yeah, I tried it...).  But over dyed wood, with a sealer on it, it would just layer up like glass.

 

[telecutie]

I think you want the water-based version if you're trying to blend/graduate colors, as you do in a "burst". If your vehicle evaporates very quickly, as alcohol does, you're sorta stuck with where the dye lands, so you end up with visible boundaries. Can't move it around easily, so it's tougher to do smooth transitions.

The caveat is you need to have a surface that isn't going to betray you if you get it wet. That means wetting it first to raise the grain, letting it dry, and sanding it back again to smooth it out and get rid of any fuzz. That way when you re-wet it with the dye, you have dramatically less grain expansion and you need to do little or no sanding before sealing, which means what you've done stays the way you've done it. After a few coats of sealer, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.

Agree with your view of using water based dyes for blending colors or creating a burst.  For applications where different colors are utilized for contrast rather than blending-- creating depth on quilt maple or accentuating the stripes in a piece of flame, I find alcohol preferable for the reasons explained in my earlier post.

In the end, every artist has her preferred medium.

 

[ZGOZZ]

Wow that look nice... Love FM wood...

 

[bagman67]

Holy necropost, Batman!


Finally got this sucker completed.  Voila!


Once I get some decent photos, I'll post in the Strat finished-projects subtopic, but here she is.  This photo does a lousy job of capturing how busy the curly maple really is. 


Plays pretty good, but needs some shaking down to get a few bugs resolved.  SOUNDS awesome - the EJ pups really do the job.

 

[Cagey]

Wow! That really came out nice! Looks like you changed to a Carvin neck?

 

[bagman67]

Yep.  I picked up that Carvin neck unused for a song - well, $59 - and decided that was the way to go with this guy when I determined the original planned neck just looked to gloomy.


The ebony-on-wenge Warhead neck I had contemplated using here will go with the VW body for which you shared that chrome TOM/stoptail set. 

 

[Cagey]

Good choice. Really mates up with that body well.

 

[musicispeace]

What a transformation! Well done. You really got that one across the finish line.

 

[Surf n Music]

Well done brotha! Turned out super sick!!  :icon_thumright:

 

[bagman67]

Thanks, guys.  I'm very happy with the finished product.  It is riddled with imperfections but has tremendous character.  And the EJ pickups KILL.


I'm getting better at it, to be sure, but perfection will always be an aspiration, I think.

 

[Cagey]

I'm getting better at it, to be sure, but perfection will always be an aspiration, I think.

You clearly know what you're doing and why - we have ample evidence of that on this board. So, any compromise is more likely a shortfall of patience and/or a proper toolset than anything else. I can't help you with the patience, but I can tell you that most tools pay for themselves fairly fast even if all you do is work on your own stuff. Even bigger stuff like spray rigs will often amortize in 2-3 uses. Figure a nice paint job will run you between $250 and $350 dollars, two of them is $500 to $700. You can get tooled up for good for that kinda money. Not counting your labor and materials, of course.

 

[bagman67]

You're very kind, Cagey.  I'm not dissatisfied with what I've done here, but I definitely see the room for improvement.  Patience I got, in spades.  ACcess to tools is another story - and the ol' 10000-hours-to-mastery thing, of course.