The never ending project colour saga

TheOtherDennis

So 6 months ago, I wondered would it be better to just buy a proper Fender or put my own together.

What I was after was this -



And, frankly, I should have just bought the bloody thing. It would have been a lot cheaper and I'd have had a Fender for 6 months.

Anywho, I went for the self build.

I started with this two-piece swamp ash body -


And after a bit wound up with this -



Which turned into this -



Thoroughly fed up with paint and its associated buggerings about, I turned to Wudtone. I got some azure blue and dark onyx, in the hope of mixing them to produce a lovely deep blue, to get a partscaster in this colour -



But to my utter befuddlement, it turned out like this -



They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, I madly bought another body (a 3-piece swamp ash version, this time) and tried again. Guess what?



Anywho, they're actually a lot darker in real life than the pics, and almost British Racing green. I happen to like the colour after all that, even though it's neither of the things I was planning, so it's not a complete disaster after all. It's certainly different, anyway.

Now I have to choose which one to get on with finishing. My preference is for the second body, to which I shall add a Might Mite neck and a set of Oil City Triple Blues (both bought earlier) for this sort of thing -



Although I'll probably change my mind about which body I'll ultimately use another four or five times before I finally screw everything down.

I'll get there in the end...I hope.

ThePrettyDamned

The first one didn't look so good because of the join - they took the wudtone in different ways.

The second one looks awesome though! Love the colour.

I only sand to 220 grit with wudtone so it's still rough. Takes colours great.

TheOtherDennis

In real life you can barely see the difference in the colours of the two bits of wood, but the flash (even though it wasn't direct) really played it up.

One reason why I think I'll stick with the second one.

Yup, it's actually been a surprisingly happy accident, that colour. At first I was gutted cos I'd gone wrong again, but it's really grown on me.

ThePrettyDamned

Yeah, wudtone is *very* light dependent. In real life, my prs looks quite boss, but it's really hard to capture! Flash washes it out loads.

It's a great colour though, I really like that.

imalone

Unsure whether to give you a wow for this:

TheOtherDennis said:

Now I have to choose which one to get on with finishing. My preference is for the second body, to which I shall add a Might Mite neck and a set of Oil City Triple Blues (both bought earlier) for this sort of thing -

Or a wisdom for this:

TheOtherDennis said:

And, frankly, I should have just bought the bloody thing. It would have been a lot cheaper and I'd have had a Fender for 6 months.

But either way it's fun...

TheOtherDennis

imalone said:

Unsure whether to give you a wow for this:

TheOtherDennis said:

Now I have to choose which one to get on with finishing. My preference is for the second body, to which I shall add a Might Mite neck and a set of Oil City Triple Blues (both bought earlier) for this sort of thing -

Or a wisdom for this:

TheOtherDennis said:

And, frankly, I should have just bought the bloody thing. It would have been a lot cheaper and I'd have had a Fender for 6 months.

But either way it's fun...

Thing is, if I had bought the Fender originally, not only would I have saved myself 6 months of fannying about, I'd have had it in the colour I wanted, too. Durr. :-S

Still, as the OH says, I've got something hardly anyone else has, so it works out, I guess.

ThePrettyDamned

It's a proper gorgeous colour - actually good enough that wudtone should offer it as standard.

Really great looking thing!

TTony

The second one looks excellent to my eye - perhaps not quite the colour you were aiming for, but a nice finish nonetheless.

Re the one that didn't work out quite so well - I wonder whether you sanded it back hard enough after applying the original red paint.  It looks like there's a bit of that original finish in some areas.  You have to be careful in prepping the surface before applying Wudtone, to make sure that it is clean and free of any contaminants (or previous finishes!).  And, to get a really deep strong colour, you need to push the stain into the wood quite forcefully.  It's not a matter of flooding the surface with colour, but you do have to really work it in.

So, what are you doing next???

TheOtherDennis

@ThePrettyDamned - thing is, the colour is simply the basic Azure Blue laid onto the bare swamp ash. The first one I sanded all the colour and primer away, to the point where I actually had to sand the first coat of Wudtone off too, because of all the scratches I'd made in the sanding process, so I could sand them away, too. Then the second body is the blue straight onto untouched, untreated, unanythinged swamp ash. Same result.

Which is why, @TTony, I'm pretty sure I got all the primer off the first body, because in real life that's actually darker than the second one. Just, but it is - the light seems to go through the stain and show the wood back on the first one. I know what you're saying about the potential for the primer to alter the colour, but it's the same colour as the second go, and that's onto bare wood. Other than that, dunno, tbh.

I do know that ultimately, it's actually quite a cool looking accident when all's said and done. So ta very much for the kind comments, but it's not like I earned them, I stumbled into them! :-D

I'll post some more pics in a couple of weeks when I've let the gloss coat cure a bit and put all the hardware on properly.

ThePrettyDamned

Meh, looks awesome!

What did you sand to?  I only go to 220 with wudtone.  It should feel roughish

ThePrettyDamned

And still, I would *love* a guitar in that colour.  

TheOtherDennis

Don't get me wrong, it is indeed a lovely colour, but I can't claim the credit, it was simply how they turned out.

It was supposed to look like this, only a lot darker -



And that's supposedly swamp ash, too. :-S

As for sanding, I sanded to 320 grit on both. On the first I gave it a good seeing to with lower grade papers first, because I needed to lose the paint and primer, and then finished off with 320, but I only gave the second one a very gentle rub, rather than a proper sand, because I wanted to minimise the possibility of little scratches.

And from my experience, all you have to do to get a guitar that colour is get a swamp ash body and use Wudtone Azure Blue on it. :-)

Then again, you could always take the spare first body off my hands if you like. I'll even throw in the wudtone I've got left. 30 quid plus 14 postage?*





*A cheeky offer, that's all. Won't be at all offended if you don't bite, cos it'll be going up for sale in a couple of weeks anyway.

Andyjr1515

I've PM'd you! Andy

ThePrettyDamned

Yeah, I think you sanded a little too fine, though I wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference between 220 grit and 320 grit...

I'll think on that offer

ThePrettyDamned

if andy idn't beat me to it!

Andyjr1515

ThePrettyDamned said:

if andy idn't beat me to it!

I'm afraid I id, @ThePrettyDamned ;

Thanks for your courtesy... 

>-

ThePrettyDamned

Andyjr1515 said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

if andy idn't beat me to it!

I'm afraid I id, @ThePrettyDamned ;

Thanks for your courtesy... 

>-

No problem, I've got enough on my plate! You've saved me from myself