Flamed Starcaster: Dying the Burst

I have found myself with a little time away from work this week, and therefore with some time for the Starcaster build - sanding the body and getting some Colortone dye onto this beast. With these semi-hollow kits there's usually precious little sanding required for the body. Unfortunately this kit was a second that I picked up in last years Pitbull Guitars birthday sale and with it came some pretty gnarly problem areas on the top veneer and the sides.

The top veneer has some very deep scratches at the bottom of the guitar, something that I can't do anything at all about. They are so deep that I suspect any attempt to sand them out would remove the veneer altogether. I could have done a solid paint job to hide them, but that flame maple veneer is just too damn beautiful to hide, even with the scratches. There were also a few very large glue marks around the edge near the binding, but a couple of applcations of Goof-Off put pay to them.

To test whether I had properly removed the glue, I applied a weak dye solution (Lemon Yellow) to the entire front and back to make sure it was taking colour. Thankfully no remaining glue spots were evident.

Weak Colortone Lemon Yellow shows no glue spots.

On the sides, there are two large areas where the factory has needed to extend the side veneer piece to fit around the entire circumference. Pretty shoddy craftsmanship all told, but that's why it was a second! I sanded the sides with 240 and 320 to try to get rid of as much of the joins in these extensions as I could, and then filled all the remaining grain and join marks with a slurry of Timbermate. After sanding back with 400 grit the surface felt nice and smooth but didn't look any better. In my eagerness to continue with the burst I didn't do a dye test on the sides, something I would rue later on down the track. Naughty, naughty!

I let the body dry over night, wiped it all over with water a final time to remove any remaining dust from the Tmbermate, and got on with creating a burst using Colortone dyes. I actually used 5 colours this time to try to achieve a burst that gradually becomes much darker on the sides than my normal "Honey Burst". I started with Lemon Yellow all over (applied a second time) and then a little further out with a feathered ring of Vintage Amber. This was followed by a further feathered ring of Red Mahogany, and yet again by Tobacco Brown. To darken up the edge even further I got out the Colortone Black and kept applying colour to the edge, all the while blending each transition back towards the centre with the other colours.

All in all I'm pretty stoked with the result, although the aforementioned scratches are standing out vividly down towards the bottom of the body.

5 Colour Burst from Lemon Yellow to Black (sort of)

Unfortunately, when I hit the sides with a combination of Tobacco Brown and Black, my haste in preparation became immediately apparent. In addition to the sections where the wood has been joined (the glue here was never going to adequately take stain) there magically appeared several nasty glue spots around the binding.

Letting the dyed body dry completely overnight, I resolved to fix-in the colour on the front and back of the guitar before trying to fix the glue spots on the sides. I had always planned on giving the dyed guitar several coats of Tru-Oil to really pop the flame and to deepen the chatoyance in the final finish. And so, on to the body went a first soak coat of Tru-Oil and boy did the colour of the dye and the chatoyance in the maple pop. Magic!

First soak coat of Tru-Oil starts to add uber-chatoyance.

The next day I applied a second soak coat of oil to both sides and again hung it to dry. With each coat the grain is looking better and better, but the scratches are looking more and more prominent. Oh well, we can't have everything right? You can easily see the scratches in the front veneer in the photo below.

Second coat of Tru-Oil is on and soaking in.

After a third coat of Tru-Oil, I was satisfied that the dye job was protected enough to be able to tackle the glue spots on the sides of the body. It called for some more Goof-Off and a bit of a roughing up with the wire brushes; slowly working dye into the wood where it once resisted.

You can see what I was up against! In the end I got something I ws happy with, although those join lines really couldn't be hidden - no way they were going take any colour even with the wire brush treatment. Oh well, some Tru-Oil on the sides and thne it will be time for some Acrylic clear coats!

Ash Les Paul: Sound Demo

Finally got a sound demo done of this beast in action. Unfortunately, it's me playing again, so no virtuoso performance ;). You'll just have to put up with it I'm afraid! The guitar is being played through a Fender Deluxe 112 amplifier with a Joyo Crunch Distortion pedal. It's feeding back to the bullshit, but hey - I like it! The song is "Mother" by Danzig - one of my favourite songs to play. Easy enough for me to get my fingers around (mostly) if you stay with the rhythm.


I'm certainly no great player, but I gotta say, I love the way this baby sounds. The Entwistle HDN pickups just scream - it's the hottest guitar I've ever owned in terms of sheer output. It was hard to sync up the original backing track with my playing so it's a little off. But hey, you get the picture. Let the flaming begin!!

Ash Les Paul: Looks Great, Sounds Even Better

Well, my rock beast is finally complete! This morning I filed a new bone nut and got the action at the 1st fret as close to perfect as I dared to go. Whether or not I could have gone down any further, playing open chords now feels oh-so-sweet! With the nut sorted, I focused next on the bridge height and brought it down until just before the height where the strings started to buzz. There's still the slightest amount of buzz on the E and A strings, but it helps playability so much and its not enough to come through to the amp. All along the neck, the strings are now nice and low on the fretboard and she feels really, really wonderful to play!

With the action sorted, on went the truss rod cover and that was the entire build completed. What do you guys out there in inter-web land think? Compared to my Epiphone Les Paul Standard that I've had for 20 years, she doesn't even compare in look or in playability. Colortone dye + Tru-Oil really is a simple and effective means to obtain a professional looking finish cheaply and easily! I recommend anyone out there thinking about finishing their own guitar to give this combo a try.

I really love the ash veneer on this Pitbull kit. Filling the ash grain with Walnut Timbermate was definitely the right decision - especially with the Tobacco burst over the top. It has really popped the grain beautifully and helps to spread the dark tobacco theme out over the entire top. The dark filled grain even makes the wood look a little scorched don't you think? Maybe it's just me ;) .

How about those Entwistle zebra pickups - they just scream ROCK! It makes this LP look a bit like the Slash signature model from Gibson. You can't get more rock than that!

In terms of the headstock, I really like the way the burst headstock complements the body so well. When I first did the headstock I had serious doubts that it was good enough, but now I wouldn't change a thing.

The grain on the sides and rear of the body also looks great with the Walnut Timbermate fill. It has come up a little like Mahogany in that respect. It's really allowed what figure there was in the body pieces to come to the fore, even though there wasn't much there to begin with.

The Entwistle HDN pickups are the hotest pickup I've ever heard. I've been playing the guitar all day, and I've found that for my playing style the sweet spot volume-wise is about 7 on both the knobs. I've never needed to adjust the volume on a guitar before! When the volume is at 10, the guitar really drives the amp - the neck pickup especially. If I could squeal lead notes, then this baby would be on fire. Even better, lifting the volume knobs performs a coil tap on each pickup, modifying the sound of the guitar to give that more hollow single-coil sound. Just another awesome aspect to these amazing pickups.

All in all this LPA-1 is an amazing kit from Pitbull Guitars (Build Your Own Guitars), and I think I've done it justice. The set neck went on perfectly without issue or shim, and the resulting neck height is exactly matched to the height of the tune-o-matic bridge. For a perfect action, the bridge is raised about 2mm from it's lowest setting. No shim, and no bridge sticking out off the body. The end result of all my ministrations looks amazing (in my humble opinion) and is a real pleasure to play.

I'll try to get a sound demo recorded in the coming days - just as soon as I learn a song that will do this baby justice!

Ash Les Paul: All Wired Up!

Well it's been a hectic couple of days, but the Ash Les Paul is almost ready to rock. Once the neck glue was dry (I gave it 24 hours), I set about shielding the cavities and wiring the electronics on a cardboard template. The shielding was grounded (pickup cavities and control cavity) and in no time at all the pickups were installed.

The electronics were wired using the "Vintage" Les Paul wiring model. You can see a diagram of this below. The difference between Vintage and so-called Modern wiring is that the Vintage circuit connects the tone capacitor to the output of the volume pot (ie. the middle lug) rather than the input (the outside lug).

Vintage Wiring - Diagram Copyright guitar-mod.com

In simple terms this means that the low pass filter is only applied the signal that the volume pot lets through rather than being applied to the entire (raw) signal. The benefits of this approach are hotly debated in forums across the inter-web, but anecdotally it is said to give a brighter response when dialing down the volume. Whatever. I just like anything with "Vintage" in the title :) .

With the wiring done, I cut some circles of milk bottle plastic to sit under the pots (it stops the pot lugs from inadvertently shorting out) and then installed them. The shielded control covers followed shortly, and a tap test confirmed that everything was working as expected. In addition to the wiring shown in the diagram I also used push pull pots for volume, allowing me to coil tap both the neck and bridge humbuckers. When the volume knobs are pulled out, single coils it is!

With everything in and working, I strung her up for a first test of the Entwistle HDN pickups. I reckon she looks magnificent!

A guitar at last. The burst and zebra pickups look killer!

I'm really digging my burst headstock now.

With the burst and the zebra pickups, this is one mean rock beast. At least in my opinion. Something Slash might find himself holding ;). A first test of the HDNs showed that these are indeeed hot, hot pickups. Even on the clean channel they all but melted my face. For the first time ever I found myself diving for the guitar's volume control! Really a wonderful (powerful!) sound. I have only to file a new bone nut for this beasty and I'll be able to take her for a proper sound test. Stay tuned for some very badly strummed tunes on a very loud, very rock-worthy axe! Guffaw...

Ash Les Paul: Setting the Neck

Today I got back to the Ash Les Paul. I was able to level, re-crown and polish the frets for a sexy look and a super-smooth action! I've previously waited until after the neck was attached to do the frets, and on the whole my experiences have been mixed. Previously I have found it hard to re-crown frets on the bridge end of the neck for some models when the fretboard is close to the body. I decided to try leveling and re-crowning the frets before gluing this time. The frets turned out ok, but trying to hold on to the neck whilst sanding and filing was a bit of a bitch. I guess I need a couple of vices here on the work-bench!

Anyway, with the frets done, I carried on immediately and glued the neck. Fingers crossed that I did everything correctly! It all looks great - the E strings run nice and straight up the neck and are sitting almost on the top of the 22nd fret. Should make for a nice low action! However, in the back of my mind I couldn't shake a little voice telling me that I didn't use enough glue. I had all the surfaces covered, but there wasn't much squeeze out. But that's a good thing right?? Oh well, time will tell!

Titebond and a clamp does a set-neck make!

The whole shebang. She's looking the goods!

E strings sitting nice and straight up the neck and almost resting on the 22nd fret.

I'm very excited about getting this little baby completed, and she's actually starting to look like something now! Next step is to get the control cavity shielded and to solder on the ground wire. I don't think I'll shield the pickup cavities this time around as I've read comments out there on the inter-web saying that shielding here cuts the highs from the signal? Am I right in thinking this? Let me know your opinions out there!

Once the clamp comes off the neck, I'll be waxing the fretboard with Dingotone guitar wax and then starting on the electronics. Stay tuned!

Ash Les Paul: Neck Colour

In the last week or so I have been patiently working away at the neck and headstock of the Ash Les Paul build. Firstly I sanded it down to 400 grit and then coloured it with Colortone dyes. I attempted a burst on the headstock similar to the ash veneer, and tried to get the neck colour as close as possible to the solid ash body. In the end, the headstock burst came out *ok* (it's growing on me), whilst the neck colour is quite a bit darker than the body.

Headstock with an Amber/Red Mahogany/Tobacco burst and 5 coats of
Tru-Oil. There's some oil overrun to fix up on the right edge.

The neck has been coloured with Amber/Red Mahogany and
5 coats of Tru-Oil.

All in all I'm reasonably happy with the results. I would have been happier if the neck wasn't quite as dark as it is, but when you see it against the body it doesn't look too bad. Just goes to show you what an in-exact science this dying stuff is. In truth, I really should have dyed the neck and body at the same time to guarantee as close to the same colour as possible. With the different woods (Ash vs Rock Maple) there is always going to be somewhat of a difference in colour at the end of it all, so I'm not too precious about it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results when you see the two pieces together.

The bursts on the headstock and body complement each other.

The darker neck colour still works well with the lighter ash body colour.

After only 5 coats of Tru-Oil on the headstock I was still toying with the idea of spraying it black. But the burst is growing on me and I think that in the end it compliments the look of the burst Ash veneer. It's just a matter of applying a few more coats of Tru-Oil to the neck, wet sanding down to 1200 as I go, and the finished neck will be ready for gluing. I'm waiting on some new cream pickup rings and electronics upgrades from Realtone, so once they arrive I'll be able to see how this axe is really going to look assembled. I'm pretty excited about how she's gonna look, and can't wait to chug out some thumping rock rhythms. Fun times ahead!

Surf Monster Telecaster: Get's a New Look

Well, the Surf Monster Telecaster is no more. After a rather epic clear coat fail that also claimed the solid paint job underneath, it was time to re-think. I decided to go with Blue Colortone dye with a darker burst. The grain on this body really is too good to hide under a layer of paint.

I sanded the body back to bare wood and went up through the grits to 400. I filled the pores with Timbermate and then sanded to 600 grit. The dye went on shortly after. Interestingly, there are a few places where the underlying grain didn't want to take much colour. Maybe the sanding to 600 was responsible. I'm not sure, but I like the look a lot.

The photos show the finish after the first coat of Acrylic clear. The colour is not really tru-to-life. The blue is a little darker and fuller, but still looks pretty damn good here. I think it's going to come up nicely. I might be tempted to add some blue dye to a few of the clear coats to add a little more colour. I'm not sure yet. We'll see how it is looking after a couple more clear coats.

335 Semi-hollow Bass: Dying the Neck

Today I finally got around to putting some Colortone dye on the neck of the 335 Semi-hollowbody bass. It's been a long time coming! Next time I must do all the dying at the same time while the original colour concentrations are in the pots.

The burst on the headstock and sides of the neck turned out ok. I'm satisfied with it, and it matchs the body pretty well. I'm planning to use some Wudtone neck top-coat over the Colortone dye on the neck. I've never done this before, so to be honest I'm not even sure it will work. Dyed wood is just like raw wood right? The only thing missing is the Wudtone base coat. Should be ok right? Well, we will soon see...

335 Semi-hollow Bass: Amber Burst

This morning I took the plunge and attempted my second burst using ColorTone dye - a so called "poor man's burst". The target of my ministrations was my ES335 Bass (EB-4) from Pitbull Guitars. My first attempt on my Flamed Telecaster build was moderately successful, although I would have liked more distinction between colours.

I prepared the body with a light sand down of 360, 400 and 600 grits. At 600 grit I did a single pass of grain raising using Metholated Spirits, but the maple hardly need it.

This time around I didn't perform a 'trace-dye' on the wood to check for glue spots. I was instead prepared to stop dying if any glue surfaced and perform a sand back to remove it. Amazingly, this Pitbull Guitars kit exhibited no glue spots at all around the binding or veneer join. What a great kit!

The steps to produce the burst were as follows:

Step 1: I wiped clean water over the entire top. This helps the dye take up evenly across the surface and prevents and streak or wipe marks in the dye.

Step 2: Using ColorTone Vintage Amber as a base, I applied this to the entire body.

Step 3: In an attempt to pop the flame maple further, while the first pass was still wet I proceeded to lightly wipe a 70:30 mix of Vintage Amber / Red Mahogany over the top.

Step 4: I applied Red Mahogany to the edges in successive passes, using the Vintage Amber to feather the edges. Several times I used a clean rag to help feather the edges as well.

Here's the result - I'm pretty damn pleased with it!

The edges are nice and dark with the red mahogany bleeding into the flame maple as it reaches for the centre of the guitar. The centre has retained it's bright Amber hue and has not been muddied with brown. With the masking removed from the binding, you can see what a great job the 3M 471 pin-striping tape has done to keep the stain off. I love this 471 tape!!

All in all an almost perfect result - I'm right chuffed with myself. And now for the back, which was completed with much the same technique, although the lack of flame maple veneer made it a little harder to accomplish an even burst IMO. I think it came out OK though. Almost as good as the front.

 

Those of you with a keen eye will notice a glue spot on the heel of the guitar. There are several small glue spots around the sides. After I have applied some Tru-Oil to the front and back to lock in the dye, I'll go back over the sides with the sanding block to get rid of these glue spots. It's a small price to pay for such a perfect kit on the front and back!!

Flamed Telecaster: 8th Coat of Tru-Oil

8 coats of Tru-Oil are now on the flame maple telecaster. Starting to look really nice. The colour is a little dark for me, and there isn't enough of a burst along the edge, but not bad for a first attempt. I can see now that the trace-dye coat I did was too dark using just Red Mahogany. A mix of Vintage Amber and Red Mahogany (maybe 70/30) would have been much better! The flame would have have been more subtle, but this would have allowed much more of the Amber colour to come to the fore in the centre of the burst. On the plus side, the Tru-Oil has soaked into the grain and enhanced the chatoyance nicely.

I am especially happy with the back of the guitar. No chatoyance here, but the pores of the mahogany filled very nicely with Timbermate and the Vintage Amber / Red Mahogany burst is more pronounced. Yes the burst could have been better, but all in all it came up nicely.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the build is progressing. The mahogany body should sound really good with the GFS 52' professional series pickups I've bought for it, and the custom perloid pickguard also looks the business.

A couple more coats of Tru-Oil and I'll be ready to start wet sanding.

Flamed Telecaster: Bursting!

Today, with the trace dye completely dry, I sanded the Flamed Telecaster back with 360 and 400 grits on the orbital sander. I was in constant fear of sanding through the veneer, but thankfully I got it done without that particular catastrophe striking again.

After sanding it was time to apply the burst. I started with a weak mix of Vintage Amber Colortone dye and applied this over the whole top. I followed this up with a much darker strength Vintage Amber to help pop the grain even further. With the amber on. I started to create a burst around the edge with more Red Mahogany, alternating between Mahogany, clean and Amber rags until I was pretty satisfied with the results.

 And then it was the back's turn. I pore filled the mahogany body with a slurry of Walnut Timbermate and sanded back with 400 grit. I then applied a layer of Vintage Amber dye all over the back and sides (to match the front) and then proceeded to burst again with Red Mahogany. I made sure I got plenty of Red Mahogany on the sides to provide an even transition between the cap and the back burst.

What do you think? I reckon it's pretty sweet. The flame maple has come up a treat and there is a good deal of chatoyance to be seen. Will be even more once some coats of Tru-Oil go on. The edge could probably do with a little more red mahogany, but overall I'm stoked with the results. This is the first burst I have ever done, and my message to those out there considering trying it? GO FOR IT. It isn't as hard as you might think. If I can do it, then anyone can.