vintage mahogany stain

[bpmorton777]

hey guys

i think ive decided on a color to stain my guitar body when i get to that point. id like it to look like PRS vintage mahogany. any ideas as far as what stain i should use? i was looking at a pic of one of Jack's strats and he had used minwax jacobean on the back. Jack, do you think this would be a close match? Im also thinking it would need a dark grain filler as well, maybe black.Im planning on using tung oil over that. here are a couple of pics of vint mahog.

Brian

 

[bpmorton777]

i forgot to mention that the body is made out of mahogany already...light redish brown

Brian

 

[Nando Vallart]

WOW look!

 

[jackthehack]

No the jacobean stain is REAL dark; what I did on alder was put a couple of coats of Minwax golden pecan, let dry, then put a light coat of the dark jacobean on top of that, you get this weird effect on the grain that's hard to discern in the pic of the grain popping out semi-irridescently...

I've never done something exactly like the PRS in the pic, here's what I'd try if you using oil stains topped with tung oil:

1.) Get the StewMac black grain filler and fill repeatedly until all the grain is completely filled, mahogany can be a bitch for being so fine grained.

===You should try the next steps on  a small area on the back of the body, as some experimentation may be necessary, you can always sand it back===

2.) Use the Minwax Red Mahogany stain, let dry overnight
3.) Try a darker color stain like walnut, or maybe jacobean over that, just a light coat and wipe all excess off quickly to darken the color down some.

This might work, but you'll have to experiment. I haven't tried the Minwax red mahogany on mahogany wood, but based on using it on ash and alder I don't think it will come out that darker color like in the pic by itself.

On the other hand, here's another tack that might work:

1.) Check out the pics I posted during the process of doing the dark cherry burst finish under the "Tele Thinline Special" post in the "Just Out of the Box category.
2.) If you look at the one pic after I started sanding back the black grain filler, you can see that the grain is filling black, but at the point I took that pic I hadn't sanded the wood all the way back and it still had some black darkening to it.
3.) If you leave the wood a little darkened rather than sanding it all the way back so it looks just bare mahogany with filled black grains, then you might get close just using the Minwax red mahogany on top of that.

 

[bpmorton777]

thanks Jack

i hadnt seen your tele in the other thred. Sweet!
I will have some left over hunks of mahogany after im done cutting out the body so ill use those to experiment.

Brian

 

[guitlouie]

Hey B,  I like were you are going with this,  I hope you will keep us posted.  I ordered my first body finished because I was trepidatious about doing it myself, but with all of the finishing info on here, I know I am going to do the next one myself.  I do like to see how everybodies vision make the long journey to reality!

 

[Tweed]

Red over mahogany is the win!