Soloist in green PRS-style Laguna Dragon Breath finish

[docteurseb]

With my VIP completed, it's time to think about the next build  :laughing11:

bassetman snatched the quilt Tele body I considered using.
"Sadly" that forced me to spec one out from scratch: Soloist body with quilt top, SSS, black binding, swamp ash, and vintage tremolo.
I wasn't sure about the vintage trem on this body style, seems a little out of place somehow. I'm planning to use a PRS-style tremolo to keep things stable

The top will be this one (link is dead after Warmoth switched to their new website):

For the finish I'll attempt the laguna dragon breath:
   

I had good results mixing dyes (attachment) so hopefully that'll look good on the body too.
What could go wrong ?

While I'm at it I'm considering trying to dye the neck too, I haven't ordered it yet but it'll either be:
  - dyed flame maple with ebony fingerboard+veneer.
  - wenge with ebony fingerboard and dyed quilt maple veneer.

 

[stratamania]

That is a really nice looking piece of quilt maple. Should make a nice guitar top.

 

[rgand]

That's a beautiful top. It looks like you have the dye graduations down so this will be a very fine guitar. I hope to see that neck dyed as well. Looking forward to the progress photos.

 

[docteurseb]

Thanks!

I may experiment with a black coat +sandback too.
It may be good for the darker color sections, but I'm curious to see how the bright yellow/green section will fare.
I suppose I could sand back those sections more heavily than the darker ones, but the finish I'm going for is complicated enough as it is.

I read using diacetone alcohol helps open up the wood for better penetration, I may use that on the hard maple neck.

And I switched to a Wilkinson tremolo on the order

 

[docteurseb]

Neck choice is a bit tough:

1) Stained neck: $600 for 3A curly maple, ebony fingerboard, and quilt veneer.
Would probably need to upgrade to 5A to be on the safe side (poor figuring doesn't look good at all with stains), and that'd be $800 for an unfinished neck, without sealer (thus no warranty).
The dye process could go horribly wrong and trash a very expensive neck. If it goes well though, I'd have to add another $200 in finishing+shipping to have it finished properly (it's hard to finish the entire neck myself where I live).

2) Cost "friendly": $500 for wenge back, ebony fingerboard, quilt maple veneer.
Still expensive by any measure, but way less than #1. And I would have no problem clear coating the veneer myself.

I've been wanting to try those dyes myself on a curly maple neck for months, but the cost makes me reconsider it

 

[rgand]

When you can't decide between two choices, it's safer to get both. :icon_biggrin:

Seriously, though, can you get a piece of curly maple to experiment on before committing?

 

[Cagey]

With a body like that, I think a super-fancy neck would be overkill. Pick a neck meat to suit for tone (I'd suggest roasted maple - no finish required, just burnish it), and put black ebony on it for the fretboard. Stainless frets, of course.

 

[TBurst Std]

How about an all rosewood neck.  That’s certainly in keeping with a PRS theme

 

[TBurst Std]

Then again. The recent roasted maple necks I’ve seen are quite dark

 

[BigSteve22]

Then again. The recent roasted maple necks I’ve seen are quite dark

Yes, it's certainly been dark lately. Got one today that's a lot darker than I thought it would be, but I'm really like'n it!

 

[docteurseb]

When you can't decide between two choices, it's safer to get both. :icon_biggrin:

Seriously, though, can you get a piece of curly maple to experiment on before committing?

The issue was finding hard maple with curly figuring locally, they couldn't tell if the wood was hard maple or not.
But you're right, I just looked on eBay and I could get some pistol grip/pen-sized hard maple pieces for $5-$10.

With a body like that, I think a super-fancy neck would be overkill. Pick a neck meat to suit for tone (I'd suggest roasted maple - no finish required, just burnish it), and put black ebony on it for the fretboard. Stainless frets, of course.

I think it's just that the gaudiness of those PRS finishes (neck/body both dyed ) has grown way too much on me lately  :laughing11:
Agreed that roasted maple, wedge, rosewood would all be very fine alternatives if I'm not going to have a dyed maple neck.

 

[rgand]

Then again. The recent roasted maple necks I’ve seen are quite dark

Yes, it's certainly been dark lately. Got one today that's a lot darker than I thought it would be, but I'm really line'n it!

I really like the dark shade of the neck. That's definitely outstanding.

 

[docteurseb]

Took me days to decide but it'll be a Vortex neck: flame maple back, ebony fingerboard+veneer, azurite malachite dot inlays (first time trying those but I think they'll be a great match for the dark/blue teal dye color on the body).

I don't expect to update this thread before another 4-5weeks when parts show up.

 

[stratamania]

Thought you might like this video where dragons breath and stains get discussed. They don't mention how to do it but still a good watch.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WTeipOKKOQ[/youtube]

 

[docteurseb]

Yep, I saw that one earlier from my YouTube feed.

What is truly remarkable with those PRS finishes is when you see the Northern Lights or Aqua Violet in person, the depth and separation of the different colors is jaw dropping (as is the price, obviously).
It doesn't show well at all on pictures or even videos (it didn't on this one either).

Their blue fade video is all that's needed to get the gist of those glow/dragon breath fades:
  [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpMExunvfY[/youtube]

 

[stratamania]

I noticed in the blue fade video bottles of Mosers Aniline Dye. Yet they describe it as staining but they are using dye.

 

[Kostas]

...What is truly remarkable with those PRS finishes is when you see the Northern Lights or Aqua Violet in person, the depth and separation of the different colors is jaw dropping (as is the price, obviously). It doesn't show well at all on pictures or even videos (it didn't on this one either)...

Warmoth does equally great finishes and I agree you can't really understand from a photo, you have to look at it in person from different angles. This is called washed black, it has shades of black, blue, grey, cream and white.

 

[docteurseb]

Having owned multiple Warmoth bodies with figured woods (tiger's eye, aqua marine, red dye, etc...) they can definitely match the  simpler finishes PRS does (which is most of them).
They even seemed very inspired by PRS with their limited fade finishes: "Emerald City fade" is strangely similar color-wise to "Laguna dragon breath", and "Tropicana Tilt" is essentially "Beach cross fade".

However something like Northern Lights (pictures from Brian's Guitars), is on a whole different level:
 

 

That thing involves more than half dozen layers of colors, and a pretty damn good technique to get these colors to separate so distinctly.

It's likely a company like Warmoth could go crazy and experiment with similar finishes, but I'm guessing it would make little sense from a business perspective given the amount of R&D/trial and error involved.
It's a little easier to experiment though when you can charge $10k+ for a guitar.

 

[docteurseb]

The body is shipped and arriving tomorrow, if all goes well. I'll post a pic when it shows up!

 

[docteurseb]

It arrived and it's pretty decent looking. :icon_biggrin:

It weighs just 3lbs 12oz (solid body), so hopefully not much more than 4lbs once finished.
I'll wait for the neck which should show up within the next couple weeks.