Got wud? My (now updated with more colours) wudtone taster thread.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm doing some experiments with figured maple, kindly donated from Andyjr1515, and thought I'd share.  Only got one right now, and not in white light, but I promise I'll update tomorrow.  If I don't do this now, it'll never get started!  Maybe it'll be a nice resource for others, too.  It's all raw figured maple sanded back smooth, then keyed to 240 grit. 

In total, there will be: Blue, purple, onyx (black-grey), blue-over-sanded mahogany, blue over black and purple over black.  

I'm hoping the mahogany gives an unusual blue-purple figuring, but if not, I'll not have wasted much.  

So, just for now, here is raw maple, then the other side which has mahogany deep colour coat.  This will be sanded and blue applied tomorrow, as well as the other tasters being started.  I'll likely need to purchase some more of whatever I ultimately choose, but whatever, this will be useful regardless and gives me practice at application!

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/10804747485_6af9abf300_z.jpg

Here it is with just deep colour - no base coat, no top coat (both of which add depth and shine).

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5480/10804744855_02d5365262_z.jpg

Tomorrow, better quality pics will be uploaded, as well as more for the collection.  I'll top coat them all too, to properly give a good idea of the results.

ddlooping

That looks lovely.

ChrisMusic

I'm looking forward to see how these colours develop, great idea to do the testers, even better idea to share them with us, thanx 

John_P

Great idea - thanks for doing it.... I'm looking forward to checking out the onyx finish I was thinking of doing on my LP.

ThePrettyDamned

ddlooping said:

That looks lovely.

Cheers! I won't actually do the maple cap in that colour, but the back will be.  Now I know how to use it, it's a much nicer, darker hue than I got on the jazzmaster back. 

John_P said:

Great idea - thanks for doing it.... I'm looking forward to checking out the onyx finish I was thinking of doing on my LP.

ChrisMusic said:

I'm looking forward to see how these colours develop, great idea to do the testers, even better idea to share them with us, thanx 

That's cool lads.  Maybe it'll help someone make up their mind as to whether wudtone is for them.  Dead easy to use, though (so far, touch wud!).  

I'll sand the mahogany finish back tomorrow and try blue on top.  Hoping it'll have a blu-purple thing going, but I don't think it will.  Perhaps the carmine gypsy would be better, but I just had a spare bottle of mahogany laying around from last time! 

I'll do the onyx first for you, but that one will be sanded back too.  That'll be on the reverse of the current finished piece, so I can do half blue, half purple.  I might try just onyx, too - it might give me a Tremonti type colour, especially if sanded back and redone.

ddlooping

It's actually something Andy/Wudtone should do, photos of samples of their products on different woods.

ThePrettyDamned

ddlooping said:

It's actually something Andy/Wudtone should do, photos of samples of their products on different woods.

I'll email him and ask if he wants mine - obviously, only the successful ones.  We both suspect a couple of combinations won't work (amaranthine is based on a different type of dye so might not be compatible).  But he's been a top chap with me, so I'm more than happy to give back a little.  I think I'll enjoy this process, I've been offered a guitar body and neck in the new year for a really bargain price so it's a while before I do this for real yet...

ThePrettyDamned

Okay, here we are.  Remember, these are just DEEP COLOUR COATS. No base coats, which add a bit more depth to the colour, nor top coats to add shine.  Still drying at this point.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/10816666173_813e697ca2_z.jpg

A few notes:

The black (dark onyx - more grey) could have kept being applied.  It went on lovely, and I applied a fair amount, but the wood could have taken more for a darker, deeper colour (again, deep colour coat only!).  However, I've only gone this far as I'm going to sand it back and try half of it with purple and the other half with azure lagoon.

The azure lagoon is a blue-green colour.  It's not the blue it looks like on the site, but again, that's on swamp ash and has base coats on top of the deep colour coat.  This one took a fair amount of finish, too.  It just kept on soaking it in, leaving behind fairly plain looking wood.  Eventually, I stopped rubbing so hard and started applying the finish a lot more gentle, which helped colour these areas and give a more even finish.  This could be due to the sanding, but I suspect the finish needs drying as it is, then a second deep colour coat applied (which I will do and photograph the results of). 

The amaranthine was easiest to use, and didn't take a great deal of finish to achieve this wonderful, dark purple.  I LOVE IT.  If anything, I applied a little too much, over darkening some areas compared to my taste.  Still, that's what these tasters are for. 

More to follow either later today or tomorrow.  Any comments appreciated!

ddlooping

Excellent, thanks, keep them coming.

guitargeek62

That purple looks delicious B-)

ThePrettyDamned

The next ones will be sand back types. Hoping they work out nice!

The purple is simply sublime.

Andyjr1515

Hi - a wow from China (it's a long way and a long story ) This is going to be a good thread! By the way, the reverse had no stain - just clear varnish Andy

andypwudtone

ddlooping said:

It's actually something Andy/Wudtone should do, photos of samples of their products on different woods.

It is on the wish list, and thank you to theprettydamned for sharing these kinds of sample image. 

Problem is we now have 28 different body kits so if you had maple x 3 ( may need more than one type of maple) ,alder, swamp ash, northern ash, mahogany, korina, basswood, walnut etc you can understand that is a lot of samples! Plus the colour won't necessarily be the same from body to body ( depends on the natural character of the wood and also number of coats etc ).

The good news is there is loads of scope to do things differently and be creative, pretty much every guitar done in Wudtone is going to be unique in some way. Here is grt example. thread here http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1601432 , 

I'm sure we can get a bit more organised at some point, if anyone has any suitable maple (as a start) or Alder offcuts , please let me know. kind regards 

ThePrettyDamned

They do look great, I'm in two minds as to which colour I want still because they all look great!

I will work it out, though.

When it's all done, I'll send you pics Andy. I know they ain't perfect, but it might be of some use to you if anyone asks specifically about these colours and figured maple.

Andyjr1515

Andyjr1515 said:

Hi - a wow from China (it's a long way and a long story ) This is going to be a good thread! By the way, the reverse had no stain - just clear varnish Andy

Ignore the last comment - just re-read your thread and realise I'm talking gibberish! Put it down to jet lag ! Andy

ThePrettyDamned

Update to come within an hour so to allow for a bit of drying time.

I am loving this. I'm getting a bit carried away so I'll need a new finishing kit probably... But my word, these are looking quite neat.

frankus

andypwudtone said:

ddlooping said:

It's actually something Andy/Wudtone should do, photos of samples of their products on different woods.

It is on the wish list, and thank you to theprettydamned for sharing these kinds of sample image. 

Problem is we now have 28 different body kits so if you had maple x 3 ( may need more than one type of maple) ,alder, swamp ash, northern ash, mahogany, korina, basswood, walnut etc you can understand that is a lot of samples! Plus the colour won't necessarily be the same from body to body ( depends on the natural character of the wood and also number of coats etc ).

The good news is there is loads of scope to do things differently and be creative, pretty much every guitar done in Wudtone is going to be unique in some way. Here is grt example. thread here http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1601432 , 

I'm sure we can get a bit more organised at some point, if anyone has any suitable maple (as a start) or Alder offcuts , please let me know. kind regards 

Wow, I'd love to paint the old Hokusai wave with wudtones on a strat ... some day

ThePrettyDamned

http://m.flickr.com/photos/aguywitholdcameras/10854804904/lightbox/

Nit sure if that'll work, will sort when I'm home... But they all work great with sanded back black underneath. The purple!

The other smaller pieces are a lighter amount of purple, which looks nicer, and a second coat of azure lagoon which now looks very pretty.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm going to use purple, by the way, with either a mahogany or black back and sides which should look purdy. The purple is incredibly vivid though - too much can be applied I reckon, where the azure really gets deeper and deeper. Again, possibly different on different wood types.

TTony

ThePrettyDamned said:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/10816666173_813e697ca2_z.jpg

Excellent stuff TPD.  Thanks for doing, and thanks for sharing.

Makes me want to get back out to my stock of Wudtone finishes and do some more guitar buildingery ... rather then workery,

ThePrettyDamned

TTony;82124" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/10816666173_813e697ca2_z.jpg





Excellent stuff TPD.  Thanks for doing, and thanks for sharing.





Makes me want to get back out to my stock of Wudtone finishes and do some more guitar buildingery ... rather then workery,

No dramas.

What is excellent is that all of the colours actually burst into each other. Taste dictates what works (and frankly, some prs guitars have some hideous colours for bursts) but all of the wudtone ones are capable. Even the purple bursted dead easy on that piece.