Next Project ... opinions? ... & updates!

Sporky

TTony said:

This is a piece of offcut of the same wood.  The right-hand end has been stained with Wudtone white.  The bit on the left is just oiled.

I know which option I prefer ...

The oiled looks enormously better - the stain has made the bit on the right look like cheap DIY shed pine!

TTony

WezV said:

That plug is bloody neat.

From you, that is indeed a compliment!

I've got no facilities for doing solid finishes.  I could get some rattle cans, but my only other attempt at using those really didn't turn out too well.  Whereas I've used Wudtone or oil plenty of times, and got decent results from them.

Agree re the plug being more visible with an oiled finished too though.   

I either need to be able to live with that, or find another way of disguising it.  I've thought of inlays, of some sort of decals, of veneering the area ... 

I think my preference is to replicate the fretboard inlays around the neck-end corners of the plug.  Adds some consistency-of-design, would be easier to do than full inlays.  Maybe a same-size inlay in each of the 2 corners, with a smaller-sized one each side of the corner and in the middle (ie on the centre line).  I think that would mask the worst areas of the join.

Sporky

Just call it a tone core or something.

WezV

Doing a solid finish just on a top is much easier than solid finish on the whole guitar

TTony

I shall think some more about the finish options.

It's not like there's a deadline for this project!

Andyjr1515

Using the old manufacturers trick of turning a flaw into a 'feature' , I would oil it and flaunt the plug shamelessly. It is soooooooo neat, and perfectly symmetrical that it looks to me like it was always meant to be there. I reckon the only people who would have a clue it wasn't supposed to be there would be fellow modders and builders.... It's a great looking body, by the way, and that maple really shimmers with the oil

TTony

Andyjr1515 said:

Using the old manufacturers trick of turning a flaw into a 'feature' , I would oil it and flaunt the plug shamelessly.

I think I'm going to half do that.

My intention was always to finish the body in a way that the grain pattern & birds eyes were still visible.  It's a nice piece of wood and seems a shame to hide it under paint.  Plus, I've no experience of painting.

The Wudtone experiment-on-scrap really hasn't worked, which I think is mainly due to the tightness of the maple grain - there's nowhere for the finish to seep into.

That leaves me with the oil option.  I might develop that a bit and aim for a Wez-style oil-based finish.

And I think I'm going to sort-of-highlight, sort-of-camouflage the plug with some eye-distracting inlays in the two front corners.  I'm thinking about replicating the fretboard inlays, and perhaps adding a couple more similar inlays between the end of the fretboard and the pickup - ie the area that might otherwise look a bit bare & empty.

Lots of thinking, little actioning today!

Roland

You could wash some stain into the plug and surrounding surface, to disguise the difference and hide the joins. A sort of reverse sunburst. You even call it a cloudburst

WezV

I think the inlay is a pretty strong idea

ICBM

Just make it into one of these…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/fuzztone65/Rickenbacker/combo 800 and 850/combo800-2.jpg

paulnb57

Could you do a thickish veneer inlay in a contrasting wood like Walnut or same as the headstock veneer to look a bit like a Music Man Stingray bass or along those lines.....

WezV

paulnb57;1010075" said:

Could you do a thickish veneer inlay in a contrasting wood like Walnut or same as the headstock veneer to look a bit like a Music Man Stingray bass or along those lines.....

Or even knaggs style, but quite difficult to get right if you didn't plan for it

TTony

So, playing around with an idea ...

I've just ordered;

- some aluminium tube, sized to match the fretboard inlays (8mm diameter)

- some brass tube, ditto, because it might give better contrast in the maple top

- some different sized black MoP inlay dots so I could do more variation in the inlay sizes

So, I could either place the dot inlays "nude", or replicate the fretboard markers and put the inlays into the alu (or brass) tube.

TTony

And coming up next, an even older abandoned half-finished build ...

paulnb57

Awesome rescue, thats gonna work!

TTony

Yesterday, Mr Man in the Courier van delivered a parcel.

So today, I have been mainly making inlays dots

That's ebony-in-brass at the back, ebony in aluminium front left, and purpleheart in alu front right.

8mm pipe, with a 1mm wall.

1/4" dowels (the ebony & purpleheart) fit in the pipe very snugly, if I give them a very brief sanding, and a quick tap with the hammer.

Now I just need to inlay them into the guitar, and then do lots of sanding to get them nice & flush with the top.

Sarge

Awesome, I love the look of ring inlays, my washburn falcon has brass rings, a great look, looking forward to seeing this progress.

TTony

Sarge said:

Awesome, I love the look of ring inlays

I'm just learning from, and copying, the master @WezV!  I thought the ringed inlays would look good / consistent, given that's what Wez used on the neck.

paulnb57

I think it will work very well

andypwudtone

I've got no facilities for doing solid finishes. 

Hi @TTony , just in case you have a misunderstanding about the different Wudtone options we offer. There are several different types,

• Pigment only ( warm contrasted grain)
• Fine particle dye only  ( for max grain pop,  character and ideal for use on maple caps)
• Dye and pigment ( for translucent Mary Kaye style, or for solid colour results . 
• Neck kits 
  

The Wudtone Olympic Girl  option you used on the sample below ,isn't a stain, so it hasn't been stained with Wudtone. 

What you have used is one of our pigment based options and so it isn't going to pop the grain. It will do exactly what you see , starting to reduce the contrast and if you kept going with more coats of the same Wudtone Olympic girl, you would eventually, see no grain, have a solid colour.  

We have a tip here  http://www.wudtone.com/forum/?topic=new-lady-teal-colour-plus-tip-when-using-pigment-based-kits  , that helps any one using Wudtone get to solid colour in less coats. The recent addition of a transparent grain filler option ( not needed with maple , but ideal for use with ash/mahogany ) can be mixed in with either the dye only or pigment coloured base coats. With enough coats  and levelling ( 400 grit will do )  results in finish as smooth as any sprayed option.  

So you do actually have a way at home,  to do solid colours should you wish. 

But it looks like you have a good plan and a lovely dog  who needs you to throw the ball more often. 

The fine particle dyes kits are used on a range of woods but are especially suitable for maple as the dyes needs to be much finer with denser woods. The term stain gets widely used for a number of products, but it doesn't help you understand how fine particle the dyes are, indeed how suitable they are for denser woods such as maple. 

Indeed I may be wrong, but I think you used the Wudtone fine particle stuff on one of your projects a while ago, starting with Carmine Gypsy , sanding back a little, and then perhaps Goldenrod/Saffron on top, Was it this one?

 

kind regards