Flame Maple Tele

[CtheHammer]

New tele body and neck out of the showcase:





I'm planning on doing a red dye after doing black and sanding back, but I'm not sure what I want to do with the back.  I guess I could leave it natural and just finish the front. 

How well does dye go on alder?  The other thought I had was doing the whole thing black, getting the back dark, then sanding back the front and doing red on top of that, finishing with bringing the black back in around the edges on the top.  But if dying alder really doesn't look good then I guess something else will have to work.  Any thoughts? 

Also, what about dying the neck in a manner similar to the body?  The neck has a nice flame as well so I figured if it can be done without too much trouble why waste the opportunity.

C

 

[shanejw]

Wow, what a great looking Tele!  Can't wait to see it finished!  Beautiful Flame!

 

[mgaut051]

:headbang1:

 

[D-rock]

Nice! the more teles i see on this forum, the more i want to get one!  :toothy11:

 

[tfarny]

1) awesome score, those are beautiful pieces.
2) it sounds like maybe it's your first time finishing a guitar, and you want a pretty advanced finish. (dye, burst, different back color). I would say, if you have never done a finish before, and you don't want to screw it up and restart four or five times (not kidding), either plan a real simple finish like amber dye all over then tru oil, or give it over to Tonar, a forum member who will give you an absolute custom shop finish. I hate to discourage you, but I guess maybe you don't realize how hard it is to get the look it sounds like you want. I've done 8 or 9 finishes by now, but I gave up on my last one, which was really similar to your plan, and had Tonar save my bacon. The threads are in the DIY finishing forum.
3) If you don't mind spending months on it and hours and hours and hours finishing it, then definitely go ahead, finishing can be fun and very satisfying with the right mindset and you learn a lot.

 

[CtheHammer]

Haha, guilty as charged.  Is it that painfully obvious?  :icon_tongue:  Actually, this is my first time attempting to dye a body; I refinished another body and neck last summer (courage to attempt this project derived from having completed that project).  I've also done my own inlays so fortunately I'm not a complete stranger to diving into unfamiliar territory on a project.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2142401&id=12802615&l=d0c22421ba

Admittedly though, the potential complexity of this project has got me doing a lot more research than I did for my previous projects.  I've been going through many of the threads in the DIY finishing section in order to try to learn from others what tends to work and what doesn't.  At the end of the day, half the fun is just going through the process so I'm willing to accept a mistake here or there and understand that while I may not get a perfect, professional job at the end of the day, it was fun just to work through the course of the project.  Heck, isn't that what keeps Warmoth in business at the end of the day anyway?  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Tonar8352]

half the fun is just going through the process so I'm willing to accept a mistake here or there and understand that while I may not get a perfect, professional job at the end of the day, it was fun just to work through the course of the project.

Exactly!  There is nothing like getting in over your head and finding your way out.  Please keep us posted with pictures as the project moves along.

Beautiful pieces!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tfarny]

Great, I wasn't trying to discourage you, just make sure you had an idea what you were getting into. You might not be playing that thing for a while!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Mor Paul]

Practice boards. Do 'em.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Congrats! Looks great!

 

[RU36]

Practice boards. Do 'em.

+100
I used my first build as a practice board.

Now I use practice boards becuase I learned the hard way.