L5s progress

[JTM]

Here is what I've done so far on my L5S:

1) seal the masked bnding with tru oil, and lots of masking tape ( hard work ! )

 

[JTM]

If find the natural of walnut a bit cold so I dyed it brown, then filled the pores with birchwood filler and sealer, which by the way does a very poor job but it's all I had at hand, and put one coat of tru oil :

 

[JTM]

What it looks like so far, just before I rubbed the sunburst:

 

[JTM]

And now the sunburst :
I've used water based anyline dyes, mixed two colors and tested on some scrap maple until I was happy with the colors, then rubbed it. The edge was masked with masking tape.
After it dried I scraped the edges with a razor blade to remove small runs. Having sealed the faux bindind with tru oil before makes it a lot easier because it prevents the runs from penetrating too deep.
I then sealed it with tru oil after the edges were reasonably neat. Waited for it to dry, then carefuly cut the grain raised by the water with 0000 steel wool, and applied a second coat of tru oil.

 

[JTM]

It will take a couple more coats of tru oil for the 'burst to come out fully but I'm quite happy with it already.
I'm now going to leave it alone for some time because I need to finish my strat, but the plan is :

- finish the back and sides with tru oil to a semi-gloss.
- put a couple more coats of tru oil on the top, then switch to spraying shellac ( i find it much easier to get a high gloss with it, too many witness lines with tru oil ) on it.

For the neck, I think I'll just fill the pores on the headstock with zpoxy and then finish with shellac to make it look a bit less raw.
The fatback is really big, I've shaved it a bit to make it slightly assymetric and a tad easier to play. It's still a tiny bit fat I think but sanding goes really slowly and I'm not sure I can be bothered to spend hours doing it.
I want it to be a "jazz box" anyway so it's not like I need a shredder neck

Let me know what you think. Btw the neck binding is definitely too white ( see "out of the box" ), I've you've got suggestions on how to yellow it a bit let me know !

 

[jackthehack]

That answers my question about finishing from the other thread. The only thing I've seen about "unwhitening" white plastic is faux aging of pickup covers/knobs/etc. by soaking them in strong coffee/tea or boiling in Rit dye, but that wouldn't work for your neck's binding. Don't know if it will work on the type of plastic Warmoth uses, but you could try taking the neck to a local tanning salon and try sticking it in one of those "maximum" beds they only let you use for 10-15 minutes and see if a massive dose of UV will yellow it up a bit.

 

[JTM]

Thanks for the suggestion.
I think I'd be scared as hell to put that on a tanning bed though, I don't know what it would do to the wood plus the heat might not be too good.

 

[jackthehack]

Thanks for the suggestion.
I think I'd be scared as hell to put that on a tanning bed though, I don't know what it would do to the wood plus the heat might not be too good.

Don't be, there's almost no real heat at all. A buddy of mine owns a nudie bar and I've used the tanning bed in the office upstairs to speed up drying/curing times for grain filler and tung oil on several builds when the weather was uncooperative here - which is often - with no ill effects.

Call Warmoth and check if the plastic they use is UV resistant or not, might not work anyway. Additionally, they could tell you exactly what type material is used - a sample piece would be better - as a cursory check of the 'net shows that there are some plastic/vinyl dyes that might work, but you wouldn't want to experiment on the binding itself, I would think.

 

[JTM]

Interesting.
Would even a black surface not heat up too much though ?
The neck is very dark.
Also I'm waiting for a black-stained strat body finished with shellac to cure, that could help too - assuming black is ok for the same reason.

 

[jackthehack]

Interesting.
Would even a black surface not heat up too much though ?
The neck is very dark.
Also I'm waiting for a black-stained strat body finished with shellac to cure, that could help too - assuming black is ok for the same reason.

Don't know, never tried that, just grain filler in several bodies as if it's rainy/real humid it can take forever to dry/cure out and tung oil on korina for the same reason; one of the bodies had MinWax oil based Jacobean color stain under the filler, which is kind of dark. The only time I ever tried it on a top finish was on a piece of test ash to see if I could get some gloss lacquer on top of arctic white  paint to "yellow" like it was real old, but apparently with the exception to some specialty stuff that Tonar turned me on to that only comes in gallon and 5 gallon jugs pretty much all nitro lacquer sold has UV resistant protectorant in it.

As noted before, check and see if the Warmoth binding material is UV resistant, if so it wouldn't work anyway.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Puta que o pariu!!!!!!!! 

This is EXACTLY the color that I would like a '59 LP copy!!!! When I build one, will send to you paint it!  :icon_biggrin:

 

[JTM]

Hehe thanks You could probably do it yourself, it's not very difficult it just takes a bit of practice and experimenting.
There is a video on finewoodworking.com by James Condino that shows you how to do it. I just tried to replicate that on some scrap maple boards I got for 10$ on ebay ( well plus 40$ shipping to uk ).
I did 4 tries on the boards, ranging from not too bad to awful, and took the plonge and did this one, and it turned out pretty good ( phew !! )
If you're interested I could tell you the colors I used and where to find them.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Well, probably I won't find, but if is water-base I can import it to Brazil... If it's like Laquer, will be hard!
But please, tell me!!!  :blob7:

 

[mscmkr]

Very classy lady your guitar, JTM. Congrats.
Also very nice website and video. Thanks

 

[JTM]

Thanks for the kind words !
Nonsense tele, you can get some dyes from www.lmii.com, have a look around there it's quite easy to find. The small 1/2 oz pots are plenty.
For the outside color I mixed some of their brown, wich I find too black/blueish with some red and amber from the same place. I mixed it quite concentrated and tried on some scrap maple every time I added some powder to check.
For the yellow I mixed some lemon yellow, quite concentrated, with a pinch of golden yellow, both from www.wdlockwood.com ( in their "fiber reactive water based" ones ).
I just found the yellow from lmii a bit bland. The guys from the last website have some good colors apart from their brown and blacks which I thought weren't great.

Btw better be careful with these at home, it is quite easy to do irreparable damage ( don't ask me how I know )

 

[Nando Vallart]

Btw better be careful with these at home, it is quite easy to do irreparable damage ( don't ask me how I know )

Thanks for the info!!!


and btw, what have you done?  :icon_biggrin:

 

[JTM]

Well let's say the way wdlockwood package their powder isn't very convenient and the powder is extremely fine so you can have some on your fingers and not notice, and then the next day you notice that the shirt you're wearing and that you hung the day before has some weird red spots on it  :toothy11: Same goes with the carpet.
The problem is you do the first one being extremely careful and all goes well, then the second one and by the 3rd one you become less careful and bam.

 

[guitlouie]

That L5 is looking gorgeous.  Keep us posted, I would love to see this one through to the end!

 

[JTM]

Btw I was told by some guys that these can even stain your sink / bathtub and that it takes a LOT of bleach to get it off. I found it not to be true on mine, but better check. I think if you're stuff is slightly porous you're in trouble, but otherwise no problem. Maybe you could stain it by leaving it long enough, but just to rinse the recipient it's fine. Alternatively if you have a garden or a workshop use it

 

[JTM]

Thanks guitlouie !
It will be a while since I need to first finish the strat ( I suspect that my fiancee's tolerance doesn't go beyond one guitar hanging around to dry ) but I'll definitely keep you posted.