Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey I have an idea for a guitar body drawn out and I wanted to know what y'all thought about it.

I want to do it with dye on a quilt maple laminate top, and I want to know if you thought that was possible.

Here goes:

Neat idea... why don't you tell us more about it?

Oh, and welcome to the OLF... Do you mind introducing yourself?

Darren

Hmm...reminds me of the Partridge Family bus....

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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."

Pretty cool but I can't see how it can be done with dyes on a quilted top. Looks like it would need to be painted to me.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

mmkay first of all my name is Ben, but somehow through school I acquired the nickname Omibijar, so don't be thrown off if I refer to myself as that. I previously had an account here, but it got deleted or something.



That's what I was afraid of. I had a few different ideas, like individually cutting and dyeing each piece and piecing it together like a puzzle, or cutting little grooves between colors so they don't blend into each other. I have never worked with dye, I've hardly even worked with wood paint- I wanted to see what was possible first.


... I don't understand. Why what? Why that design? Or why lacquer it?

You can do it! Here's a pic of something kinda similiar I saw... Hope the pic uploads! If not, www.brianmay.com/brian/letters/lettersjan06.html

I too think it would be difficult. Not because of the design but because of the "depth" that high quality quilt maple displays. The best thing to do is to get some stains, and some dyes and a test piece of quilt and experiment. I only know one thing on this topic that is for sure.......if you don't try it then you can't do it!

Let us know how you make out!

Shane

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Canada

So do you think it would look better as solid colors or dyes? I tried to have a friend photoshop what it would look like but he never got around to it, so I don't know...

I would say YES, it would be fairly easy to mask the different areas and stain them. But the key will be practicing and making sure your masking tape or what ever you will use to mask is a tight seal. You could stain and then seal each section as you go and then after all is done put in the black lines carefully with a pinstripe brush if that is the intent. I used the masking technique recently while staining my sons maple guitar.

One little hint about the OLF....Make your thread titles a little more specific and your get more answers to your questions.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

thanks man
Now I'm just worried about whether or not it will look good.

Goodness I'm having tons of trouble trying to decide whether to go with solid or dye.

Here's a thought, mask of all areas except the one you are working on, spray color- tone stains with an air brush. Don't apply the stain be too wet or it might bleed under the masking tape, just keep building up the color with multiple applications. GO with the stain, why would you cover up quilted maple with paint!

I agree 100% with Todd. Dye will never develop a good hard edge, it will bleed. Tinted laquer or shellac would be a great way to go as he describes. Be sure to practice on scap wood, adjusting the tint until you achieve the look you like. Take care to seal and prepair your surface perfectly. Be patient and mask your patterns carefully, only shooting one color at a time(be sure to use good light so you can see how it is looking). The key to making these things look good, is being patient and really making sure you mask well and are prepaired.

As for the look of dyed vs tinted finish. Some people prefer to try to dye with darker colors then sand back to "enhance" the figure of some maples. To me dye takes away from the look of these figures. You make the figure appear stronger at a distance, but these figures look best when light is able to play on the reflective suface naturally(that is what gives them the natural 3-D depth). By dying you are painting on shadows effectively, but this does not allow the figure to "move" as light hits it from different angles. The most amazing figured maple finishes are tinted clears in my opinion.

You are not going to need a large spray rig for this kind of work. It is a good investment, and by spending time with the air brush or gun you choose practicing on scrap. You will get used to laying down the coats, possibly develop your air brush technique.

Rich