Black Ash Telecaster: Trace Dye & Glue Spots

Having finally sanded the body of the Black Ash Telecaster with 180, 240 and 360 grit, she was ready to accept some colour. And so, without further ado, it was on with the first pass of black Colortone dye.

In general the colour looked great and was showcasing the grain nicely, but a couple of areas required immediate attention. These amounted to glue spots and other irregularities that just weren't accepting colour. The glue spots could be sanded out quite easily with 180 grit paper.

However, those lines on the front (photo 3) didn't seem to be glue. Do be honest I dont know what they were. They kinda following the grain and have proven to be very stubborn. No amount of sanding could budge them! I'm thinking that I might hit these with a little dye mixed with the Tru-Oil when it comes time for the clear coats. Did you know you could mix Colortone dye with Tru-Oil?? Well you can, but that's for the next installment!

Solid Body PRS: Turquoise Dye

Today the PRS was sanded to 400 grit, the grain raised, and the first wash of turquoise dye applied to the front veneer and basswood body. To pop the grain in the veneer I used a variation of the one-pass dye method I have used in the past. In this method, you get a first pass of dye over the entire body, then while it is still wet, keep washing over with more dye, not letting it settle in any one place. The theory is that  dye is taken up more by the figure than the plain wood. Today I varied this process by bringing in a clean cloth to soak up the excess dye from the non-figured wood after each subsequent dye wash, allowing more to be put in the figure only. The technique seemed to work well. Here is  how the flame veneer came out:

The "turquoise" colour created using a 1:1 mix of blue and green Colortone dye is very hard to photograph. Without the flash it looks blue, with the flash it looks green. To the human eye the colour sits somewhere in between the two. I've included both versions for you to compare.

The basswood was another story completely. I managed to get a pretty weak wash coat of dye over the entire body.

The colour, however, is pretty weak so far and it will need at least one more going over with a much stronger mix. It is interesting how the various figures in the basswood have popped with the Colortone huh?

Flamed Telecaster: Trace Dye

As I was worried about sanding through this flamed maple cap, I decided to get the trace-dye on their as soon as physically possible to minimize the amount of material required to be taken off it. So after sanding the cap lightly with 360 grit, on went the Red Mahogany Colortone dye. The dye went on evenly, and surprisingly there doesn't appear to be any glue spots at all!

I've gotta say, I really love this Red Mahogany colour - I never knew it looked so damn good! It's going to look awesome under the Vintage Amber and on the mahogany back and sides.

Next job: sand the top down to 400 grit (thereby taking much of the trace-dye off again) and continue sanding the rest of the the mahogany body. With the body sanded to 400 grit I will be able to fill the pores with Walnut Timbermate - the next big task!

Les Paul Florentine: Second Trace Dye Sanded Back

Today I sanded back the second trace dye with 360 grit paper and polished off with 400. Now that the dye is dry it is much lighter and the colour looks even more purple (pink even!) but it should darken up again when the Tru-Oil goes on.

The next step is to put the last dye coat on. It will be a more Cherry colour than the trace dye (the trace dye is 20% blue). I have not decided whether to use straight Cherry, or whether to mix in 10% Blue. It may well be that the trace dye will be enough to darken the Cherry enough. Hmm... needs some thought before I commit.

Les Paul Florentine: Bring the Bling & Second Trace Dye

Well, I changed my mind again. My gold hardware arrived today from Guitar Fetish and it looks awesome. Seeing it on the guitar with the original trace dye, it seemed obvious to me that more colour was required for this build. As you can see, there's a 335 style Trapeze Tailpiece, a gold Tune-O-matic bridge and a pair of GFS Dream 180 humbuckers with gold pickup surrounds.

And so it was back to the idea of wine red. I mean how awesome will those gold doodads look on a field of dark red! Over 2 hours I slowly sanded off the original trace dye with 240 grit, paying close attention to those pesky glue spots. 2 whole pieces of sand paper, and a little bit of my sanity later, the job was done and I couldn't wait to get a second trace dye on there to see if my sanding was complete. Here's the result..

All the glue spots are gone (hooray!) and the wine red looks great. This is a darker shade created from 80% cherry red and 20% blue Colortone dyes from Stewmac. Next step is to sand down through the grades again - 360, 400 and 600 to get the surface ready for clear coats and to take a bit of the colour back off the top. The colour will be replaced with a slightly lighter shade (95% cherry, 5% blue). Hopefully this will let the figure pop as much as possible. I can't wait to see the red with the gold!

I still need to decide on a colour for the bottom part of the guitar. I was thinking to just leave it natural with a slight tint from the Tru-Oil that is to come. Hmm.. still not undecided. I may hit it with a slight Amber dye, or a mix of Amber and Red Mahogany or even Medium Brown. I might need to do a couple of experiements to see what they look like though..

Les Paul Florentine: First Trace Dye

Today I finished raising the grain and sanding to 360 grit on the Les Paul Florentine. Time for the first trace dye to identify any areas of glue or other issues that will ruin the final dye job. Currently, I have changed my mind about the colour - at the moment I'm considering an Amber finish with brown highlighted figure. I'm still undecided and may go back to my original plan of wine red. 

In light of this indecision, I did a trace dye with Red Mahogany Colortone dye. It's reddish brown so I still should be able to go either way when I change my mind again. To do a trace dye, firstly I wipe the whole face down with a wet rag to allow the dye to be taken up evenly. Then I move to the actual colour solution and wipe it on, quickly enough so that the wood doesn't dry out before the dye hits it. Before applying anything, I generally mask off any binding that may come into contact with the dye (as best I can). For this purpose I always use 3M 6mm vinyl tape. It's the only thing that keeps a nice edge and has any chance of keeping the dye out.

Thankfully, the operation was completed without incident/ Here's how she looks with the trace dye in place..

Surprisingly, there's still a crap-load of these spots to be dealt with. So many it's a little disappointing to tell you the truth. You can see where these pesky glue spots that have been highlighted by the trace:

God damn. I really sanded the life out of this thing! That glue must be in deep. On the positive side, there is some nice quilted figure in this maple top which should look great once the glue is dealt with. I think that Vintage Amber may well be the best choice here as wine red would definitely hide a lot of this beautiful figure.

Next step is to sand the top again, paying close attention to those areas sporting glue. When I think all the glue is gone, I'll hit it with another trace dye to find out. Fun times!