Help with natural finish choice for roasted ash body (first time build)

[alspacka]

Hello all, I just ordered an unfinished roasted swamp ash tele body from Warmoth and I'm trying to come up with a plan for finishing it. My goals are:

- A thin, transparent, satin-touch finish
- A final wood shade that will have good color contrast with a roasted maple neck
- An overall finish that will emphasize the grain

In the end, I'd like it to be fairly similar to Fender's RSA guitars, but perhaps with a bit more contrast between neck and body:

From what I've read on this forum and others, it seems like a good process might be to:

- Lightly dye to get a darker shade
- Apply sealer
- Grain fill with a dark color
- Apply wipe-on poly

Alternatively, I could just use Tru Oil, or if none of this is worthwhile, just order the satin transparent finish from Warmoth (though it really sounds like a fun project to do myself). As background, I've worked with wood quite a bit, but this will be my first actual wood finishing project.

Does any of this make sense? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Logrinn]

I would imagine that those Fenders are finished with a clear lacquer. No dyes at all involved. The roasting process seem to make all colors much darker than normal.
My roasted swamp ash Mustang with a transparent amber finish looks like this:

and transparent amber normally looks like this:

 

[alspacka]

That Mustang photo is helpful -- do you have any photos of the finished product?

 

[Logrinn]

Well, it's not quite ready, but here's a picture of it so far:

Of course, here you can't really see the swamp ash body, just the quilted maple top (also amber dyed)

 

[brillopad]

I'm gearing up for my first build and looking to do something similar, so I figured I'd bump this thread to keep the conversation going.

I'm also considering a build with a roasted ash body and roasted maple neck. I'm looking to do an oil-based finish that looks something like the guitar below. I don't want a glossy finish (more like satin) and I don't mind some grain texture coming through in the body (like the second photo shows). I've been reading up on Tru oil and tung oil and the processes associated with them but there seem to be so many approaches that I'm not sure what the best route forward is!

 

[stratamania]

@brillopad, welcome to the forum.

But apart from the use of roasted wood your question is different. As it is a different conversation please open another thread about finishing roasted swamp ash with an oil finish. It merits its own thread.

Also try to mention what approaches you have researched and options considered so any answers may be more targeted.