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 Mosrite: Tobacco Burst and Tru-Oil

Finally some progress on the Ash Mosrite. I filled the deep ash grain with some Walnut Timbermate and then got to work on the creation of a subtle tobacco burst. The burst is a combination of Vintage Amber, Red Mahogany and Tobacco Brown Colortone dyes.  I'm pretty happy with it, although it could have been a little darker on the edges. I probably should have used some black as the last step, but I'm not going to go messing with it now!

With the Colortone dye applied, I got out the Tru-Oil and slapped a couple of coats on to try and pop the grain as much as possible. The ash just soaked it right up, enhancing the grain nicely, and with no noticeable addition of shine.

Successful tobacco burst. The 2 coats of Tru-Oil have helped pop the grain.

In the end, I'm going to add gloss Acrylic clear coats to this sucker. I'm hoping that the Tru-Oil will fill the pores and create a barrier between the wood and the acrylic, without stopping the acrylic clear from bonding to the timber. I did have a few pinhole problems with the acrylic clear coats on the Ash Stratocaster build, so I'm hoping that maybe this is the answer. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it works.

With the Tru-Oil dry I could finally get a feel for the final look with my P90 scratchplate installed. You can see it in all its whiteness in the photo below.

My custom white scratchplate over the burst.

Unfortunately my first impression of the white with the brown is not too positive. The white just jumps out way too much for the subtle body colour. In stark contrast, the original black scratchplate looks much better.

The original black scratchplate.

It looks like black is a winner! Looks like I'll have to go back and get a black version of the P90 scratchplate made. I might even have to swap out the cream soap bar covers with black ones, but I'll wait and see how the cream looks with the black scratchplate before I make that decision. Time to get the White Knight Gloss Acrylic cans out and get spraying!

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!