I purchased a roasted maple flamed 5A neck. I had the idea of putting a flamed maple semi-hollow JM with the neck. With the whole body made from one piece of flamed maple. I was thinking POP the grain with some black, masked-popped binding, and maybe a Red for the field this time. No burst, just popped grain and red. Would look great - in my head at least - paired with the roasted maple flame neck.
The "problem" comes with the piece of flamed maple I found. It's absolutely incredible, but I don't know that it will look right with the standard popped-grain plus burst or single dye. The first picture is the "top" which has had 5/16" slabbed off for the semi-hollow top. The second picture is the back. When the semi-hollow is fabricated - top and bottom will be brought back together so the tiger stripe grain match. approx. proportions are 17 by 23. I'm leaning toward having the light colored maple be at the top (so flipped from this picture), but looking for feedback on that as well.
You can see it's fully flamed, the wood has 2 distinct tones areas. I can't see my original plan of putting a colored dye field color on this working.
So, I was thinking either:
1. Popping the grain with Dark Brown (suggestions on which transtint?), Sanding it back pretty aggressively to leave only the dye in the stripes with minimal dark brown dye on the field, masking the binding at that point, then putting a light Yellow or very diluted vintage tint amber over the entire guitar to mellow out the whiteness of the lite area just a tiny bit. With the effect of vintage tinting the lite areas.
2. Leave it natural. Boiled linseed oil or similar to pop the grain. Then, some sort of clear over the top.
Let me know your suggestions.
EDIT: btw - I'll have all the cut offs from the wood block. So, I'll be able to test finishes on those cut offs. I'll also make control knobs from the cut offs - and will finish them in a similar way to the guitar body.
And, should the dark part be the upper edge of the guitar as pictured? or should this wood be flipped and have the lite edge be the upper edge of the guitar?
The "problem" comes with the piece of flamed maple I found. It's absolutely incredible, but I don't know that it will look right with the standard popped-grain plus burst or single dye. The first picture is the "top" which has had 5/16" slabbed off for the semi-hollow top. The second picture is the back. When the semi-hollow is fabricated - top and bottom will be brought back together so the tiger stripe grain match. approx. proportions are 17 by 23. I'm leaning toward having the light colored maple be at the top (so flipped from this picture), but looking for feedback on that as well.
You can see it's fully flamed, the wood has 2 distinct tones areas. I can't see my original plan of putting a colored dye field color on this working.
So, I was thinking either:
1. Popping the grain with Dark Brown (suggestions on which transtint?), Sanding it back pretty aggressively to leave only the dye in the stripes with minimal dark brown dye on the field, masking the binding at that point, then putting a light Yellow or very diluted vintage tint amber over the entire guitar to mellow out the whiteness of the lite area just a tiny bit. With the effect of vintage tinting the lite areas.
2. Leave it natural. Boiled linseed oil or similar to pop the grain. Then, some sort of clear over the top.
Let me know your suggestions.
EDIT: btw - I'll have all the cut offs from the wood block. So, I'll be able to test finishes on those cut offs. I'll also make control knobs from the cut offs - and will finish them in a similar way to the guitar body.
And, should the dark part be the upper edge of the guitar as pictured? or should this wood be flipped and have the lite edge be the upper edge of the guitar?
