Tweet
I have had a quilt drop top laying around for ages. Its a 4A quilt top on a basswood body. Its is balanced quite well in terms of the weight. I thought for sure it was going to be kind of front heavy - if that makes sense.
Here is the top after a final 220 sanding wet with alcohol...
After that dried, I washed it with a pigment heavy coat of black analine water based dye. I let it soak a bit and then rubbed on it to dry the excess. Here it is still wet.
When dry I will sand it back to sand out the dye in the high grain ( I hope ) and apply the color. This isreally tricky as I am going to experiement with a water based top coat. The top coat I am going to use it KTM-9. I wont be able to wash coat the black with laquer like you would normally do prior to adding color. I am a bit scared at trying this as its a fairly new technique and is harder that using laquer. I dont have spray gear or access to nitrocellulose in a can so I have to wing it. More as it developes.
A simple tool of the trade.
ok so a few hours pass and its time to sand.
I sand the top down with 220 grit paper wrapped around a floyd trem block. nice and flat. I had to knock the grain down or I would have simply buffed with alcohol to take the color off. Since I used a water based dye the grain raised after application. the application of the black really help the grain pop. Here it the body dry after a sand.
Notice how "milky" it looks? that is the dust settled into the sanding scratch marks. The eye can't see them but they are there. I whiped off the dust with a cotton towel ( dry ) and then gave its a rub down twice with alcohol. For two reasons - 1. it removes any finger oil I may have left on the surface . 2. It knocks off the loose dye molecules and give the black color a more blended look on the maple. It softens it.
Here it is wet with alcohol.
Well I had a really hard choice to make. I love the rootbeer color the black dye gave me after this sand. I liked it even more when it was wet see above. The alcohol gives a clue as to what the guitar will look like finished.
After letting the body dry again I was ready for color. The cool things about a double color dye is that you can control the intensity and depth of a dye job. The black and "color" method is what I like best. GMW uses single and double color - at least that is the way it looks, Warmoth does a variety of different things as does jackson. I think Sully told me he shoots tinted clear. I believe his blue firebird quilt was a tinted clear shoot.
Anyway here is the color.
After I let it dry I need to decide what I am going to do with the back. I think I am going to dye it purple and have a natural binding on the edge. the back is basswood so its going to not be the best choice for dye but I am lazy. I will for sure use KTM 9.
I will be editing this thread as it progresses.
Here is the top after a final 220 sanding wet with alcohol...
After that dried, I washed it with a pigment heavy coat of black analine water based dye. I let it soak a bit and then rubbed on it to dry the excess. Here it is still wet.
When dry I will sand it back to sand out the dye in the high grain ( I hope ) and apply the color. This isreally tricky as I am going to experiement with a water based top coat. The top coat I am going to use it KTM-9. I wont be able to wash coat the black with laquer like you would normally do prior to adding color. I am a bit scared at trying this as its a fairly new technique and is harder that using laquer. I dont have spray gear or access to nitrocellulose in a can so I have to wing it. More as it developes.
A simple tool of the trade.
ok so a few hours pass and its time to sand.
I sand the top down with 220 grit paper wrapped around a floyd trem block. nice and flat. I had to knock the grain down or I would have simply buffed with alcohol to take the color off. Since I used a water based dye the grain raised after application. the application of the black really help the grain pop. Here it the body dry after a sand.
Notice how "milky" it looks? that is the dust settled into the sanding scratch marks. The eye can't see them but they are there. I whiped off the dust with a cotton towel ( dry ) and then gave its a rub down twice with alcohol. For two reasons - 1. it removes any finger oil I may have left on the surface . 2. It knocks off the loose dye molecules and give the black color a more blended look on the maple. It softens it.
Here it is wet with alcohol.
Well I had a really hard choice to make. I love the rootbeer color the black dye gave me after this sand. I liked it even more when it was wet see above. The alcohol gives a clue as to what the guitar will look like finished.
After letting the body dry again I was ready for color. The cool things about a double color dye is that you can control the intensity and depth of a dye job. The black and "color" method is what I like best. GMW uses single and double color - at least that is the way it looks, Warmoth does a variety of different things as does jackson. I think Sully told me he shoots tinted clear. I believe his blue firebird quilt was a tinted clear shoot.
Anyway here is the color.
After I let it dry I need to decide what I am going to do with the back. I think I am going to dye it purple and have a natural binding on the edge. the back is basswood so its going to not be the best choice for dye but I am lazy. I will for sure use KTM 9.
I will be editing this thread as it progresses.
I also like it better than the Warmoth
Comment