Spalted Maple Finishing Suggestions

[ognolman]

I've got a spalted maple/mahogany body I'm working on.  It's not a warmoth, I bought it off of eBay a long time ago.  The spalted top is quite thick, but the spalting doesn't seem to have weakened it much.  Anyway, I had gotten a suggestion somewhere to put a bunch of 5 minute epoxy on it to strengthen the spalted maple.  So I did-- I put on fairly thin coats but it was hard work and didn't look very good when I was done.  Lots of ridges and stuff.  So I sanded it all back and tried again, with similar results.  My wife was getting sick of the epoxy fumes and so was I, so I quit working on it for a long time.

Tonight I pulled it out again and worked on it a  little.  I have sanded the epoxy back to the wood, so I'm debating what to do next.  I thought I'd toss it out here for suggestions from you guys.

Here's what it looked like before I started on it:

Most of the epoxy is sanded off, but there are still some spots where it is slightly oily-looking and some shiny spots.

As I said, this isn't a Warmoth body, but I have a super-nice Warmoth neck to go on it-- its maple & ebony unlined fretless with a sweet-looking spalted maple peghead veneer.  I'd get a pic of it, but we gave our camera away as a birthday present and haven't replaced it yet.

Thanks for any ideas, etc!

JBD

 

[Shmoopie]

I would suggest staining it, but  I would be banished for the forum forever, so I'm not going to.

 

[ognolman]

I would suggest staining it, but  I would be banished for the forum forever, so I'm not going to.

:laughing7:  I've had the same heretical thoughts in the past.  I was going to use a brown Reranch dye to tint it a little and then nitro clearcoat.  I don't think I have the dye anymore so the forum can rest easy.

But I have a friend of mine that does auto finishes.  He's never done a guitar body to my knowledge.  So I thought I'd get it to a point of where he could shoot a gloss clear coat, but I'm not really sure what point that would be or how to instruct him to shoot this...  What paints he should use, etc.

JBD

 

[-CB-]

Ah... if you want the real low down on staining, best to talk to an expert like Monica.

 

[guitlouie]

OK, I don't know how long "a long time" is, but if you have really had it for a while I think that maybe the spalt is sturdy enough that you can really do what thou wilt with it.  I don't think a real light dye job on it would look all that bad.  Besides, if you really frick it up, you could always paint it black, but at least it would be seeing some action.

 

[RLW]

That's a good point. If it hasn't fallen apart by now, it's probably not going to.

Gretsch Orange with a Bloodwood/Ebony neck.

Otay?

 

[ognolman]

OK, I don't know how long "a long time" is, but if you have really had it for a while I think that maybe the spalt is sturdy enough that you can really do what thou wilt with it.  I don't think a real light dye job on it would look all that bad.  Besides, if you really frick it up, you could always paint it black, but at least it would be seeing some action.

A long time would be about two years.  I think the spalt is pretty sturdy.  I think the two applications of epoxy have made it even sturdier, even though I've sanded them off.

So if I were to tint this thing, would I only dye the maple and leave the mahogany natural?  I put some naptha on it last night and the mahogany is gorgeous...  It has a great luster that I had never noticed until last night.  I would regret anything that detracted from that, I think.

JBD

 

[Mor Paul]

Maybe an oil finish would look good.. Maybe a solid or pearloid black pickguard.