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!

Jeremy's Mahogany Les Paul: Headstock & Body Colour

Well my run of luck continued today with Jeremy's Les Paul build. Maybe rather then luck it's care and attention to detail? Hmm, doesn't sound like me. Whatever it is, Jeremy's axe is shaping up to be one of the nicest builds I've ever done touch wood. When all this is over I may have to go back and make myself one!

With the flame maple cap dyed a couple of days ago, it was time to get on and colour the rest of the guitar. Before I could dye the neck, however, I had to spray the headstock black. The reason I wanted to do this before dying the rest of the neck was so that I could use sand paper to clean up the side of the headstock where the paint meets the wood. If the dye was already on there, then sanding the edge clean would have easily ruined the dye job.

Anyway, I filled the pores of the headstock face with a Timbermate slurry and sanded it off flat with 400 grit. Straight on to this went 4 coats of black auto paint. I forwent the obligatory primer coats because I didn't want a white line around the edge where the paint meets the wood. It really wasn't necessary. After 2 coats I cleaned up the sides and then wet sanded with 600 grit. After the 4th coat I did the same this time wet sanding with 1500. What I ended up with was a nice flat paint job ready for clear coats.

Ready for clear after 4 coats of paint and two rounds of wet sanding

With the sides nice and tidy, the painters tape went back on and I laid down 4 coats of acrylic clear. The main purpose for doing this now (I reasoned) was to get a protective coat on there so that I could manhandle the neck during subsequent finishing without taking colour off.

Four coats of acrylic clear. Now I can get back to the dye.

The acrylic went on very easily, and after 4 coats I was satisfied that the face was adequately protected. I left it to cure overnight and then cleaned up the side of the headstock with 600 grit. At last I was ready to get the dye out again!

To colour the neck and body I used a 4:1 ratio of Colortone Vintage Amber and Red Mahogany. In the last stages of the burst I actually used a 1:1 mix of same, but with the mahogany neck and body being a naturally darker wood than the maple cap, considerably less red was needed to match the colour. I actually had to guess at this ratio, but managed to fluke a good match between burst and body on the first try.

The dye itself went on smoothly (preparation pays off kids!), although I do wish I had protected the dyed veneer before starting - juggling the body with a mind to not damaging the burst wasn't much fun. I made about 4 passes of dye on both pieces and hung them up to dry. The grain in both the body and the neck is pretty damn nice on this kit I must say!

Some amazing grain in this body. Tru-Oil will get it to pop.

The colour match between the body and burst is great.

Once the body was completed I went on to do the neck. Getting the stain on to the sides of the headstock without damaging (or even disturbing) the black was a little stressful, but I got there in the end. I'm really happy with the results and, as with the body, the grain on the mahogany neck has become a thing of beauty!

Neck is now all dyed. More amazing figure.

I hung the body and neck to dry a few hours in the patented Turner drying room (our shower recess ;) to make sure the wood was completely dry. I then applied my first coat of Tru-Oil to both the neck and body. The neck is going to be finished in Tru-Oil so this is the first coat of many for it. The body on the other hand will be clear coated with acrylic. The Tru-Oil on the body is only there to help pop the grain which it does sooo well. Lacquer on its own just can't hope to emulate what the oil does in the figure. When mixing TruOil and lacquer, you just have to make sure that you don't make the surface shiny at all. For this body there will be only a few coats, and I definitely won't be sanding between coats.

First coat of Tru-Oil on the body has really popped the grain.

As the Tru-Oil went on, the grain really started to leap out from these pieces, and I'm really pleased with how the body is looking. I'd like to do the same (Tru-Oil) for the front face of the guitar as well, but I'm worried that the oil will drag some of the colour out from the glue spots I fixed earlier in the week. It definitely isn't worth the risk IMO. A couple more coats of Tru-Oil on the body, and a week or two for the smell to go completely, and the body will be ready for final clear coats. In the meantime I'll get start on the Tru-Oil coats for the neck!

Jeremy's Mahogany Les Paul: Fit to Burst

It's crunch time for Jeremy's Les Paul build - today's the day that the front veneer receives its colour. After weeks of sanding, from 180 through 240, 320 and 400 grits, the body is finally ready to be dyed with Colortone dye. Before the dye could go on though, the grain had to be raised, and that meant several applications of a wet rag to swell the fibres followed by a light sand with 400 grit to cut them off again flat. All in all it took 4 such cycles to get the surface nice and smooth.

With that out of the way, the Colortone dye could be applied with impunity. I started by wetting down the whole surface of the guitar. This makes the first dye pass go on much more evenly; reducing the risk of the dreaded tide-lines forming. This was closely followed by the colour layer - Colortone Lemon Yellow. My god it was bright!

Layer 1 - Colortone Lemon Yellow.

I made a few passes with the Yellow to maximise the amount of pop from the flame maple figure. Despite my best efforts, including using a clean wet rag to try and drag colour out of the surface grains to maximise contrast, the flame figure was still only subtle at this stage. The next colour to go on, and the start of the burst proper, was Colortone Vintage Amber. In the beginning the contrast between Yellow and Vintage Amber was again very subtle, but the Amber did help to enhance the contrast with the flame even more.

Layer 2 - A subtle burst of Colortone Vintage Amber.

Next came the Colortone Red Mahogany layer. Using a combination of Vintage Amber and clean rags to blend the Mahogany into the previous layers, the results were really starting to take shape. Particularly pleasing was the way the flame figure took on the darker tones of the Mahogany when the colour was applied in an area and then taken off again during the 'merge'.

Layer 3 - Colortone Red Mahogany.

Lastly came a little Colortone Tobacco Brown to darken up the edges. To be honest the Tobacco didn't have as much of an impact as I was expecting, but I think by this stage the veneer was well and truly saturated and was refusing to take any more colour.

Layer 4 - Colortone Tobacco Brown, but to little effect.

All in all a pretty satisfactory burst. Except, that is, for the fucking glue marks along the top edge that made their sudden appearance half-way through the Red Mahogany layer. I could have cried when I saw them materialise out of thin air. At the time there was nothing for it but to finish the burst and leave the problem to be fixed later.

Glue spots. Where the fuck did they spring from??

So what to do?  Well apart from weeping into my after-lunch coffee, I let the surface dry under the fan and pondered my next steps. Armed with some friendly and poignant advice from the forumites at the BuildYourOwnGuitar forum, I grabbed my wire brushes, mixed up a 50:50 concoction of Vintage Amber and Red Mahogany and carefully set to the glue spots. The idea was to scratch each spot with the wire brush, pop some dye over the spot, and then blend it in with the rest of the burst. After 3 passes of this process, the burst had darkened substantially but the glue marks were a lot less obvious then previously.

Mischief managed. Wire brush an extra dye to the rescue.

If you know where to look you can still see the glue spots faintly lurking behind the finish. But really it's a hell of a lot better than when I started. I'm tempted to stop here and call it a day. No point tempting fate too far! I'll see how I feel tomorrow when I colour the rest of the body, but I'm pretty happy with how she looks right now.

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!

Ash Les Paul: More Dying and 3 Coats of Tru-Oil

With the top burst looking pretty schmick, it was time to make a decision about a colour for the back and sides of the Ash Les Paul. With the grain already nice and dark thanks to the Walnut Timbermate, I opted for a medium shade of brown for the remainder of the body. I achieved it using an initial few coats of Vintage Amber Colortone dye, and then following this up with a few more coats of Red Mahogany (while the original dye was still wet). I've used this mix before on my 335 Semi-Hollow Bass build and I really like it - especially with the darker grain peeping through. It's warm, and it glows - without being too amber, too red or too middle of the road.

With the back dyed, it was time to move on to the Tru-Oil. After leaving the dye some hours to dry completely,  I managed to get a good soak coat of oil over the entire body before the day was done - man, this Ash body just drank the oil up! I'm always amazed just how fantastic wood looks when that first coat of Tru-Oil is on and still wet - the grain just jumps out at you. The ash grain on this top looks especially dark and wonderful now that the Tru-Oil is soaking in, almost like it's been burned. I really, really like the effect! As of this moment - now 2 days on - I have 3 coats of Tru-Oil on the top, back and sides, and the wood is finally starting to reach saturation point (it's looking a little glossy).

Third coat of Tru-Oil on the top. It's still wet in this photo.

Third coat of Tru-Oil on the back and sides. It's still wet in this photo.

Shows how nice the Ash grain is looking with the Timbermate filling combined
with Tru-Oil. Timbermate hasn't filled the grain smooth but I like it much better
this way. You can still see the grain texture.

So now it's a matter of applying coat after thin coat of Tru-Oil until the body is shiny. While that's happening, I'll be getting on to the headstock shaping and prepping the neck for dying and oiling as well. She's coming along nicely!

Scratch Pine Toronado: Sanding for Black Dye

With all the woodworking finally completed on the Toronado scratch build, it was time to start on the final finishing. That meant sanding - a lot of sanding. With the end grain in particular sporting some vicious machining marks, I started at 180 grit and worked them all out. A few dings needed filling with Timbermate along the way but I took these in my stride. It was my first attempt at routing a body after all. Sanding out my own machining marks made me realise that I haven't been sanding nearly enough on my previous kit builds. I now know what those light white patches on the end grain actually are - machining marks (or sanding scratches) filled with saw dust!!

After the 180 grit I moved up to 240 grit, and gave the body another good going over. I again concentrated on the end grain, and the results were smooth and clean. After the 240 grit sanding it was time to apply the first coat of black dye. The aim of this dye pass was to act as a trace - to get into the grain and highlight it. I'll be sanding the top layer back off when it's dry, and hopefully the dye will stay in the grain and accentuate it nicely.

It took a little while to saturate the wood with dye, but I used quite a dark mix and it's looking really nice. What I would like to achieve is a nice dark finish, but with wood grain still showing through as even darker black. I think I'm definitely movingin that direction. Here's what the first pass looked like after I finished applying:

The dye has blotched just a touch, as pine is want to do, but I think all-up it's looking pretty awesome. My other option for a black body, if all else fails, is to spray the body with a solid acrylic paint - but I want to avoid this if at all possible. From the looks of the first dye pass, I have made the right decision going with the dye. From here on out it can only look better and better!

You can see that the wood grain is already standing out in the background, giving a nice "trans-black" effect. After a few more passes, taking the top coat off with 360 grit sandpaper,  the grain should be highlighted nicely and the overall colour will be dark enough to start the clear coats. The plan at the moment is to then apply a 3 or 4 coats of Tru-Oil to soak into the grain and enhance it further before spraying with Acrylic clear.

Yesterday I ordered a sheet of pearloid red pickguard material to go with the black, so I can't wait to see what the two look like together. If the red is no good, I also have white perloid and tortoiseshell as options also. I'm hoping for a real shoe-gazer look similar to (but even better than) this:

Awesome huh? :)