12 String Telecaster: None more Black

With the glue spots fixed on the veneer of the 12 String Telecaster, it was time to finish the sanding on the rest of the body and get the black dye on there. Having already sanded the body comprehensively to 180 grit I proceeded to sand with 240 and 320 grits until she felt really smooth all over. I then raised the grain with water a couple of times, knocking the raised grains off with some 400 grit.

With the body smooth, out came the black Colortone. I gave the body 3 rounds of dye before I was satisfied with the coverage. There are a couple of places on the end-grain that aren't accepting as much dye as the rest (this usually happens on the horns and in the cutouts) but overall I'm pretty happy. There's also a patch around the ferrule holes that is taking more stain than the rest of the body. It's very possible that this area didn't get as good a sand as the rest. Let's chock that up to a little DIY character.

The back is a bit patchy, but black dye is like that.

After I was satisfield with the back and sides I went back to the front veneer. Here I played with a little more dye, trying to get it into the flame figure as much as possible. I did this by applying some colour, letting it soak for a little while, then pulling it back out with a clean wet rag. Trouble is, pulling dye back out again is a bit of a balancing act - teetering between popping the flame and making the rest if the grain too lifeless and grey. I think I managed to get a good balance in the end. I also attempted a subtle black burst around the edge.

A subtle black burst? Can you see it?

All in all I'm very happy. I'm very interested to see what the lacquer does to the grain here. Hopefully it will pop it even more and give me a little chatoyance. Fingers crossed! I took the tape off the binding to let the body hang and dry completely, and man - she looks even better with the stark white strip around the top. The only thing that could have been better is two strips of binding top and bottom!

Much better without the tape.

Tomorrow I'll start to spray White Knight Clear Gloss Acrylic and we'll really get to see what she's going to look like. While I wait for the coats to dry I'll be able to get started on the neck which is going to get the Fender Vintage yellow treatment - fretboard and all.

12 String Telecaster: Goof-off to the Rescue

Well more progress on the 12 String Telecaster today after a few days procrastinating over my glue issues. Resigned to the possibility that a solid finish may end up being the only possibility here, I decided to break out the Goof-off adhesive remover from Bunnings and give the glue spots some curry.

Goof-off glue remover - a bacon saver!

I made three passes over each glue spot. First I applied the Goof-off with a rag, rubbing hard on each spot for two or three sloppy applications. Then i took a clean rag and rubbed the same spots, trying to draw as much of the chemical back out of the wood as possible. This process I repeated three times in total, using up a good quarter of the container in the process.

After letting the body dry completely (this stuff evaporates pretty quickly), I then hit each glue spot with some 240 grit sandpaper; sanding until the (dye) tide lines around each glue spot couldn't be seen any more. I risked sand-through with each swipe of the paper, but there wasn't much alternative. It was with trepidation that I then broke out the black Colortone dye to see how successful my ministrations had been. Turns out they had been quite successful indeed!

A much better dye coverage second time around.

Fortunately there were no sand-through patches to be seen. Not only that, the dye had soaked into the previously bare patches remarkably well, with most of the glue spots now completely invisible. There still remains the faintest few spots around the bottom binding, and I'm still not sure what I will do about these. I'm not too keen to get too much of the remover on the binding, so I'll possibly use the wire brush during final dye application to try and get more dye in there. Either way I'm immensely pleased with the results. Looks like I somehow dodged a bullet with this one. Hats off to Goof-off. It gets a high recommendation from me after the results I've seen today!