Translucent finshes on a guitar (?terry...)

[blurk99]

Evening all, i've got a question that hopefully someone can answer - possibly Terry because i've been looking at the range of chestnut wood dyes...
i'm going to apply finish to a guitar soon and this is the effect i'm after..

http://home.flash.net/~guitars/cherrylp.html

but in case i louse it up i need it to be reversible so presumably i'd need to seal the top first, then apply dye - but a sealed surface won't take dye will it? so can anyone shed light on the correct products to use for this sort of finish?

cheers

Jim

BTW Philly - lots of ideas for the next PRS...

http://home.flash.net/~guitars/gallery.html

 

[Terry Smart]

Hi Jim

You should speak to Philly more about this one... he's good at removing finishes from guitars! (Sorry Philly!!!)

You can apply a thin coat of sealer and then stain over it to limit the depth of penetration but I don't think that will help in this case; it's a good trick to avoid patchy areas on absorbent timber but this isn't the case here.

By reversible, do you mean removing the stain if that part goes wrong or removing everything? I'm assuming you mean just the stain...
If all goes wrong, our stain can be washed with meths; this won't remove all of it but it will get rid of a lot of it; working with fine steel wool or NyWeb/Webrax will assist. Hopefully sufficient of it will be removedso that when you re-apply the stain it won't notice. Another assumption here is that you'll be applying the same colour over the top.

Why do you think you might louse it up? The hardest part of using our stains is getting used to the drying time - they're very quick, which makes them tricky on large areas (dining tables etc) but on the area you're looking at it shouldn't be a problem. What you want to avoid is allowing the stain to dry before the next pass with the brush/cloth, as the overlap will show.
As always, I'd suggest a practice run first on some 'spare' wood.

How are planning to apply the stain? Spraying it is the best if you are able to do so, a brush probably next as you can load the brush more than a cloth; the more stain applied, the less likely it is to dry before you want it. You can wipe off the surplus with a clean cloth.
And do you know what you want to put over the top of it? It might be worth mentioning that you can tint our Cellulose Sanding Sealer and Melamine Lacquer with the Spirit Stain if you want.

I hope I haven't asked more questions that I've answered and that this helps. If it doesn't feel free to ask again!

 

[Philly]

Jim
I used Terry's stains in his melamine lacquer for my guitar. Will give the result you are looking for. I first sprayed about 10 coats, de-nibbing and levelling the surface before applying 1 coat with the stain. Gently denib that before finishing off with 8 coats of clear. It came out really well (the third time :twisted: ) and I learnt a lot!!!!
Thanks to Terry for reminding me....... :lol:
Cheers
Philly

 

[blurk99]

thanks terry and philly - that pretty much answers all my questions - i hadn't thought about adding the colour to a coat of the sanding sealer

cheers

jim