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Who would take a beautiful set of figured wood and go cover it up with a sunburst??? Well me for one. And it looks like Don is planning to do the same thing in his thread. I had seen pictures of a lot of natural finish sapele, so I thought I see how it looks under a sunburst. I tried to let as much of the figure show as possible. I really like this wood. The sound turned out exactly where I wanted it............like mahogany. I love mahogany guitars, and this gives you the figured look with that mahogany sound.

Wow....gorgeous guitar!
I think it would probably take me 100 tries to get a burst that nice...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Wow, that looks great James!!

JUST BEAUTIFUL JAMES.
YOU DID A GREAT JOB!
CONGRAT'S BROTHER!

WALTER

[QUOTE=Don Williams] Wow....gorgeous guitar!
I think it would probably take me 100 tries to get a burst that nice...[/QUOTE]
I tried to tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Thats one of the purdiest guitars i ever seen. Beautiful sunburst James !

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

WOW! Beautiful job!

James, Fantastic Burst! Your bursts have always been done so well.
Great job all around!

LanceKLanceK38620.8238541667

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Thanks guys. The yellow/amber really makes the grain pop out on this wood. It is by far the most pleasant building experience I have had. The wood bent like budda and it was easy to work with. Even the smell is pleasant.

Brian, this is the first set I bought from you on eBay. (Before I knew who you were.) I have great plans for those other sets.

Bob, I have been eye-balling some of these sets on your site. You have some really great looking sets.

Don, the most difficult part is getting the right tint colors. I use Mohawk Ultra Penetrating stains in black, dark red mahogany, Van Dyke brown, and yellow. I use varying strengths of each. The amber is a mixture of the brown and yellow with just a smidge of red. Experiment.

One thing to avoid is trying to do too much color in each coat. Use several weak coats of a color rather than trying to get too much color at once. This gives a much better transition area. The dark colors also tend to get darker after it dries a few days, so go slowly. Take Mario's advice on the spraying angle away from the center. I will usually hold the guitar above my head and spray from beneath on the darker outside colors so that overspray and/or spits and sputters won't get in the lighter colored burst area. I look like a fool when I'm spraying, but it works. Nothing to compare to stripping a beautiful burst off and starting over. Ask me how I know.

Hi James
Great looking guitar and burst. Yours are the best I have seen. Thanks for the compliment on my sets. New sapele sets soon. Bobc38620.8606828704

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

I agree with the others, it is a fantastic burst. Very nice job of transition between colors. Someday I'll get brave enough to try one , NOT.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

I think I figured out how to get a great burst....

...send it to James to spray.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Awesome James, I can't wait to see what you d owith the other sets!!!

James...Beautiful Guitar and finish what did you use Nitro?



P.S. wy did you throw it on the ground?

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Thanks Dave. I used McFadden's nitro.

I tried every tree in my yard trying to find a place where the glare was not so bad. I got tired of dragging the blanket around with me. I finally got over close to my shop and let the shop block the reflection of the sky. You can take 25 pictures of a sunburst and you're lucky if 2 or 3 of them will show the true colors of the transition area.James Burkett38621.5605671296

Really, really nice!!!!!!1

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Nice burst!
Cool Guitar!
Your stuff is great James

That looks great James. Covering over the edges of that figure is not worse there than covering the edges of curly maple. I like the effect.

John

Thanks Addam.

I really appreciate all the help you gave when I was switching over to McFadden's. I really like it compared to the Mohawk Nitro. The Mohawk Ultra Penetrating Stains work really great with the McFadden's, so that cut down on my experimenting with colors.
Don't give up on me, I'm still planning to start sending them to you for the finish.