This is a really great video, I've recently become interested in guitar finishing techniques, who would have ever guessed that you sand the burst out as oppose to painting it on, really cool!
That turned out nice!...Thank you for taking the time to make an share these vids. Very informative. You and Drak make some of the sweetest Teles. I own one of yours :)
Awesome. Can't wait to see you do it. Hopefully soon...my body and neck will be arriving soon and I'm ready to get rolling. Love the videos, you do great work and give us builders great info and insperation, thx
Thanks for the response. I played around with some of the alcohol version I already had, on a piece of similar wood. I can certainly see the appeal for the water version. I ended up with some decent sections, but honestly wasn't as cool as yours. I don't guess keeping the wood a bit flooded with alcohol might allow for similar blending?
To keep from getting streaks just take a damp rag and wipe it across the wood before putting down the stain. I use alcohol in my stains so, all I do then, is wipe a rag with denatured alcohol across the wood. Streaks can be a huge problem especially if you aren't putting stain down as thick as you are.
Hi, first I just want to say thank you! and congratulations!, great work, great instructional video. Hey!, do you have any videos finishing a guitar with tru-oil?, I think we all would love to see how you do this kind of finish. again thank you very much!
Hey thebigDguitars, I love the color scheme. Any particular reason you chose the water based TransTint over the alcohol version of the same? Was it to allow better blending? I recall you mentioning using Lemon Yellow as one of the colors, but I was wondering what you used for the other. I thought I heard orange at one point, but it seemed that red was also mentioned. Thanks for the entertaining and informative video on the subject. Lee
Looks great! I'd really appreciate your advice on a burl top I plan to stain a similar yellow/red burst but with a slight black burst at the edge and ideally a high gloss clear coat to really add shine and depth. -What do you use to fill the voids in the burl to get it flat? I've seen differing opinions on epoxy or crazy glues mixed with sawdust or dye. And how might this affect the staining process? -If you were to do a gloss clearcoat instead, would you just do the dye stains and then the clearcoat or is there a step to do in between?
Are you going to make a video of THIS guitar all put together? I want to see the finished guitar please. Now I have a Midnight Blue Telecaster that I would love to have in this Orange Nuclear Burst. How much would it cost me to have my guitar done this color? I think an acrylic see through pick guard on this telecaster would look awesome.
wow, that top is absolutely gorgeous! i bet that cost a fortune! very helpful vid, for a blackburst i'd just do all the steps until you apply the yellow here and finish with clear right?
I'm going to try this method with hand sanding, on a ukulele. I'm looking at using aniline wood dye, 5 color kit, rustoleum 316 bulls eye clear shellac, and birchwood casey true-oil stock finish, all off of amazon.
Id like to talk ratio on the dye/water/or alcohol. they say mix it 1 quart 1 oz of dye. also said you can use 50/50 mix of distilled water and alcohol.. But thats just a TON of dye. what ratio would you recommend for just small amounts like you have there in that jar. Just bought some dye and wood. your videos have given me enough confidence to try this a few times before i build a body. so id like to pick your brain on that. message me on here if you would or post the reply for everyone.
At 11:03 there is a man wearing a turbin and his mouth is forming an "O". there are also two opposing lions on either side of his face. Anyone else see this? Beautiful work man!
Question: do you ever paint not manually? I've seen several videos on the web and a lot of them involve some sort of spray gun. I personally like this hands-on approach, it looks beautiful, but are there notable differences?
nicely done. how did you apply the shellac (with a rag?) talking about rags can rags impregnated with water based stains or shellac auto combust when left drying?
Wow! How much of that pattern is in the grain and how much is in the layering of stains? It looks like some crazy burl design at the end is that the grain coming through or from the stain wiping pattern?
Very nice tutorial. I'm trying to get the correct colour recipe for a butterscotch tint like on the 52 telecaster.Would you happen to know the correct ratio using the trans tints?
Hey BigD, nice presentation . . . quick question, after you completed the staining process, did you use anything to seal it (like a Sand & Sealer Aerosol) or did you go directly to the clearcoat ?
hi!, great job man!, beautiful finish!!, Do You think that its posible to put a really thin coat of clear finish to seal the guitar after the stain is applied, because the grain raise that you get with waterbase stain?, because I'm thinking doing a lemon drop finish on a lp replica with poly finish. thanks!
does it work as good if there is no interesting grain to the guitar? i think the body is maple, but there's no visible grain, just random pores all over.
Which color do you prefer leather dye or trans tint? I'm trying my hand for the first time at staining two of my old guitars that I have sanded down and I was hoping for a finish like this one and I'm a newbie at this. I have bought leather dyes to do the job and I'm practicing on pine but I only bought a couple of trans tints but not enough to do this finish.I like all of the bursts you have done but I have tried my leather dyes and the samples don't turn out so good. I like the color of the dyes but there hard to work with. What do you suggest?
How do you suggest doing a prs charcoal burst. Is it just black dye, sand back then lightly wash again with watered down black then lightly sand or are there other colors involved. Thx
I'm no luthier, but I'm also not inflicted with two left hands...are there any telecaster guitar kits you could recommend? I'd love to make my own guitar but don't have the tools or skill for the fretboard and neck
I'm am wondering why you use oil instead of a spray finish? I am a professional finisher by trade and a nice high gloss finish would bring out the depth of the wood far more then the oil can
+Kim Smith alot of guitarists now a days are not too into the high gloss finish anymore, we want the wood to be able to breath, and the thick high gloss finish has lost interest with many guitarists these days.
Hello there, I want to do this on a quilt maple flying v project, except I want a 3 tone tobacco sunburst, what colours should I use in what order?? And how long do you wait inbetween coats of dye? cheers
Was wondering about using this technique on a swamp ash strat to give an old fender style two tone black sunburst finish do you reckon it would work or swamp ash is too grainy.
Hey. I have a lot of acrylic paints that i don't use, i prefer oil when it comes to my art. but could i mix these with water to achieve the same pigments you use? :)
I don't wanna use a new body and make a wrong turn with my own experiment. I'm gonna be buying a quilt top tele body and want to put much care into this custom tele. It's gonna be my baby
your vids are epic im gonna subscribe after this but i have A SPATED maple top lp so can i stain that if so how can i stain it i am begging you to reply
Hey the bigdghitars thanks a lot for your videos. At the end of this you say you put 5 coats of something but I do not understand what of as I am not mother tongue. Would you write it down please? Thanks :)
What shade of red dye did you use? In the video you said 'Deep Red.' I went to Rockler but they don't have it. Mahogany Red however seems very deep. Can you help me out on this one?
+Adrian Massi I had just red. I don't see that online anymore. Odd... I was using just red, plain red color. like this: www.veneersupplies.com/products/TransTint---Bright-Red-2-oz.html
You can Tru-Oil over shellac? I'm in the midst of french polishing a mahogany strat body that I "was" going to Tru-Oil only. Instead I decided to FP it, but I'm only at 5 rubbing sessions. Does this mean I can finish it up with Tru-Oil? (I didin't like the smell of the Tru-Oil. Does it go away after a while?
Why not just spray the poly over dye without shellac. 2 thin coats first, very very light sanding and then start regular clear finishing and spray bursts and whatnot.
Found some dyes that are suggested for guitar finish use. But you keep talking about grain lifting. And these dyes say 25% wood alcohol with water and pigment, will not lift grain significantly. I'm new to this so I apologize if i sound like a babbling idiot haha. What does this mean with the grain lifting and not?
Dylan Reynolds Slowly grasping this concept of wood staining. So grain lifters are good for burst and natural finish guitars? Because they bring out the detail? Sorry i have to ask so many questions. Could i possibly get you on the relaunch of my podcast? I would love to have you on the show to talk about making guitars and whatever else you'd like to talk about. I'm a life long musician (for the most part) and I want my podcast to involve music too. and what better than to include a guy who makes guitars?! :) I plan to make guitars as well. I just need the woodworking equipment and practice.
As you introduce water to wood, the water will penetrate the wood grain causing it to swell up. The amount of water allowed to penetrate the grain will dictate how much the grain will raise. To understand this, take a scrap piece of wood and sand it from 80 grit to 400 grit. Then take a wet paper towel and rub it over the sanded piece of wood and let it dry. After it dries, it will feel very rough. This is the grain that have risen up. You can continue to sand it back and wetting the piece of wood several more times, each time less grain will pop and eventually you will have very little to no more grain that raises.
haven't seen that done, but I bet you could try... Fender did a foto flame years ago, It was a transparent film they put over maple. water will raise the grain but you could try sander seal first then try some flames then seal it...
Ha ha. You"re talking as if any of us are going to even come close to attempting this. You're an Artist. Most people like me do well to wipe our guitars down with a damp rag once in a while :)
Ok!, thank you!! one more question, do You think that I can go directly with tru-oil over the waterbase stain?, or you always need shellac to seal the wood?, sorry to ask this dumb questions but I´m just starting to build my own guitars! thanks!
Buncha dudes watching a faceless stranger rub oil onto a hard body? Smells like guitar porn in here. Seriously, beautiful work! The finish really brought out the flame on that piece.
The fast-motion segments with your explanatory voice-over is most illustrative.
Good demonstration!
that is a BEAUTIFUL guitar. the wood is absolutely gorgeous. love the stain!
This is one of my favourite stains that you've done. I'm not sure how many times I've watched this.
This is a really great video, I've recently become interested in guitar finishing techniques, who would have ever guessed that you sand the burst out as oppose to painting it on, really cool!
Stunning grain you brought out there. Fantastic job
That turned out nice!...Thank you for taking the time to make an share these vids.
Very informative. You and Drak make some of the sweetest Teles.
I own one of yours :)
Such a beautiful color. I'm refinishing a stock on one of my plinking rifles, and this is the color I want it to be.
GREAT VIDEO AND GREAT INFO!! Now I''m FINALLY ready to take on a project such as this myself!!
Awesome. Can't wait to see you do it. Hopefully soon...my body and neck will be arriving soon and I'm ready to get rolling. Love the videos, you do great work and give us builders great info and insperation, thx
Beautiful core D, it all pops! Thanks.
Just in awe of your skill.
Wow a lot of work but it looks incredible. Great job.
Beautiful piece of wood. Did a great job...
Really a nice job. I would love to see what the finished guitar looks like.
awesome guitar. the color really looks nice and pops nice.
That pattern is beautiful.
Absolutely gorgeous. I want to marry that guitar!
Thank you for these awesome tips.
breathtaking wood!!
Thanks for the response. I played around with some of the alcohol version I already had, on a piece of similar wood. I can certainly see the appeal for the water version. I ended up with some decent sections, but honestly wasn't as cool as yours. I don't guess keeping the wood a bit flooded with alcohol might allow for similar blending?
NICE MAN!!!!!!! looks sweet, and its a really fun vid to watch, i enjoyed it! =)
To keep from getting streaks just take a damp rag and wipe it across the wood before putting down the stain. I use alcohol in my stains so, all I do then, is wipe a rag with denatured alcohol across the wood. Streaks can be a huge problem especially if you aren't putting stain down as thick as you are.
Wow, incredible pop.
Holy crap. I looked after you sanded, went "meh..."... once you put that yellow on, WOW it looks AMAZING! lol
Hi, first I just want to say thank you! and congratulations!, great work, great instructional video.
Hey!, do you have any videos finishing a guitar with tru-oil?, I think we all would love to see how you do this kind of finish.
again thank you very much!
Hey thebigDguitars, I love the color scheme. Any particular reason you chose the water based TransTint over the alcohol version of the same? Was it to allow better blending? I recall you mentioning using Lemon Yellow as one of the colors, but I was wondering what you used for the other. I thought I heard orange at one point, but it seemed that red was also mentioned. Thanks for the entertaining and informative video on the subject. Lee
Looks great! I'd really appreciate your advice on a burl top I plan to stain a similar yellow/red burst but with a slight black burst at the edge and ideally a high gloss clear coat to really add shine and depth.
-What do you use to fill the voids in the burl to get it flat? I've seen differing opinions on epoxy or crazy glues mixed with sawdust or dye. And how might this affect the staining process?
-If you were to do a gloss clearcoat instead, would you just do the dye stains and then the clearcoat or is there a step to do in between?
Are you going to make a video of THIS guitar all put together? I want to see the finished guitar please. Now I have a Midnight Blue Telecaster that I would love to have in this Orange Nuclear Burst. How much would it cost me to have my guitar done this color? I think an acrylic see through pick guard on this telecaster would look awesome.
Ok cool. Is it two step process. Black dye then sand back and then light wash and light sand? What do you suggest. Love the charcoalburst look...
So nice .. incredible . I'm wondering, how thick is this mapple top ?
wow, that top is absolutely gorgeous! i bet that cost a fortune! very helpful vid, for a blackburst i'd just do all the steps until you apply the yellow here and finish with clear right?
I'm going to try this method with hand sanding, on a ukulele. I'm looking at using aniline wood dye, 5 color kit, rustoleum 316 bulls eye clear shellac, and birchwood casey true-oil stock finish, all off of amazon.
Id like to talk ratio on the dye/water/or alcohol.
they say mix it 1 quart 1 oz of dye. also said you can use 50/50 mix of distilled water and alcohol..
But thats just a TON of dye. what ratio would you recommend for just small amounts like you have there in that jar.
Just bought some dye and wood. your videos have given me enough confidence to try this a few times before i build a body. so id like to pick your brain on that. message me on here if you would or post the reply for everyone.
where can i get these stains? beautiful finish by the way
At 11:03 there is a man wearing a turbin and his mouth is forming an "O". there are also two opposing lions on either side of his face. Anyone else see this? Beautiful work man!
Question: do you ever paint not manually? I've seen several videos on the web and a lot of them involve some sort of spray gun. I personally like this hands-on approach, it looks beautiful, but are there notable differences?
nicely done.
how did you apply the shellac (with a rag?)
talking about rags can rags impregnated with water based stains or shellac auto combust when left drying?
Wow! How much of that pattern is in the grain and how much is in the layering of stains? It looks like some crazy burl design at the end is that the grain coming through or from the stain wiping pattern?
Very nice tutorial. I'm trying to get the correct colour recipe for a butterscotch tint like on the 52 telecaster.Would you happen to know the correct ratio using the trans tints?
Hey BigD, nice presentation . . . quick question, after you completed the staining process, did you use anything to seal it (like a Sand & Sealer Aerosol) or did you go directly to the clearcoat ?
He says at 13:08
Frigg'in extraordinary!
Some of these I wish I had back.
Hey man, I love your work. Can you apply the same technique to make it blue? In that case, what other color should be used with blue?
Do you have to use the Tru-Oil? I have a bottle of french polish and liked that flat look
hi!, great job man!, beautiful finish!!,
Do You think that its posible to put a really thin coat of clear finish to seal the guitar after the stain is applied, because the grain raise that you get with waterbase stain?,
because I'm thinking doing a lemon drop finish on a lp replica with poly finish. thanks!
This is probably a dumb question, but could you use food colouring as a cheap water based dye?
does it work as good if there is no interesting grain to the guitar? i think the body is maple, but there's no visible grain, just random pores all over.
Which color do you prefer leather dye or trans tint? I'm trying my hand for the first time at staining two of my old guitars that I have sanded down and I was hoping for a finish like this one and I'm a newbie at this. I have bought leather dyes to do the job and I'm practicing on pine but I only bought a couple of trans tints but not enough to do this finish.I like all of the bursts you have done but I have tried my leather dyes and the samples don't turn out so good. I like the color of the dyes but there hard to work with. What do you suggest?
How do you suggest doing a prs charcoal burst. Is it just black dye, sand back then lightly wash again with watered down black then lightly sand or are there other colors involved. Thx
black is it. I have tried it with grey but black works best. Need to do one of these.
I'm no luthier, but I'm also not inflicted with two left hands...are there any telecaster guitar kits you could recommend? I'd love to make my own guitar but don't have the tools or skill for the fretboard and neck
I'm am wondering why you use oil instead of a spray finish? I am a professional finisher by trade and a nice high gloss finish would bring out the depth of the wood far more then the oil can
+Kim Smith alot of guitarists now a days are not too into the high gloss finish anymore, we want the wood to be able to breath, and the thick high gloss finish has lost interest with many guitarists these days.
lol nyookyooler finish. Thats a beautiful guitar. very nice job.
Hi there, do you disolve the transtint dye in water of this process? or is this just 100% dye that is rubbed on the guitar?
Thanks, Paul
i see it, or two eagle heads facing opposing ways. did you notice the set of evil eyes in the bottom? :)
Hello there, I want to do this on a quilt maple flying v project, except I want a 3 tone tobacco sunburst, what colours should I use in what order?? And how long do you wait inbetween coats of dye? cheers
Was wondering about using this technique on a swamp ash strat to give an old fender style two tone black sunburst finish do you reckon it would work or swamp ash is too grainy.
Hey. I have a lot of acrylic paints that i don't use, i prefer oil when it comes to my art. but could i mix these with water to achieve the same pigments you use? :)
I don't wanna use a new body and make a wrong turn with my own experiment. I'm gonna be buying a quilt top tele body and want to put much care into this custom tele. It's gonna be my baby
Hi, I'm trying to stain Thuya Burl that is very oily. Can you give me an ice what stain I should use. Thanks for your time
How much wood is actually taken off by sanding the top multiple times?
how sanded should the wood be before you begin applying the water based dye?
your vids are epic im gonna subscribe after this but i have A SPATED maple top lp so can i stain that if so how can i stain it i am begging you to reply
Hey the bigdghitars thanks a lot for your videos. At the end of this you say you put 5 coats of something but I do not understand what of as I am not mother tongue. Would you write it down please? Thanks :)
Question. Can you do this same Atomic Burst with any kind of guitar? Or does it have to be quilted and or flamed?
What shade of red dye did you use? In the video you said 'Deep Red.' I went to Rockler but they don't have it. Mahogany Red however seems very deep. Can you help me out on this one?
+Adrian Massi I had just red. I don't see that online anymore. Odd... I was using just red, plain red color. like this: www.veneersupplies.com/products/TransTint---Bright-Red-2-oz.html
You can Tru-Oil over shellac? I'm in the midst of french polishing a mahogany strat body that I "was" going to Tru-Oil only. Instead I decided to FP it, but I'm only at 5 rubbing sessions. Does this mean I can finish it up with Tru-Oil? (I didin't like the smell of the Tru-Oil. Does it go away after a while?
Do you have to sand in between each coat of Tru Oil, or just at the very end to smooth everything out?
Can you do this with back of body and neck also?
that is so beautiful... :)
great video!! :)
Shouldn't you have routed pickup and control cavities first?
Is there a particular kind of rag you use? Ive mostly been using torn up t shirts.
What is that top? It's absolutely gorgeous! I want so much!
that is a maple burl Top!
what kind of rags are you using? microfiber? or like a papertowley type rag?
wouldn't it be easier to start with the yellow and then going to the red?
what king of cloth do you recommend using to apply/wipe the stains?
Can I use shellac to seal in my waterbased dye and then apply wipe on poly over the shellac?
Why not just spray the poly over dye without shellac. 2 thin coats first, very very light sanding and then start regular clear finishing and spray bursts and whatnot.
can i use this water based dye on a maple body bass with a quilted maple top?
Found some dyes that are suggested for guitar finish use. But you keep talking about grain lifting. And these dyes say 25% wood alcohol with water and pigment, will not lift grain significantly. I'm new to this so I apologize if i sound like a babbling idiot haha. What does this mean with the grain lifting and not?
Ahhh finally got it i think! Grain raise is a good thing?
Dylan Reynolds Slowly grasping this concept of wood staining. So grain lifters are good for burst and natural finish guitars? Because they bring out the detail? Sorry i have to ask so many questions. Could i possibly get you on the relaunch of my podcast? I would love to have you on the show to talk about making guitars and whatever else you'd like to talk about. I'm a life long musician (for the most part) and I want my podcast to involve music too. and what better than to include a guy who makes guitars?! :) I plan to make guitars as well. I just need the woodworking equipment and practice.
As you introduce water to wood, the water will penetrate the wood grain causing it to swell up. The amount of water allowed to penetrate the grain will dictate how much the grain will raise. To understand this, take a scrap piece of wood and sand it from 80 grit to 400 grit. Then take a wet paper towel and rub it over the sanded piece of wood and let it dry. After it dries, it will feel very rough. This is the grain that have risen up. You can continue to sand it back and wetting the piece of wood several more times, each time less grain will pop and eventually you will have very little to no more grain that raises.
Can you use the water based tints to create a faux maple flame top?
haven't seen that done, but I bet you could try... Fender did a foto flame years ago, It was a transparent film they put over maple. water will raise the grain but you could try sander seal first then try some flames then seal it...
Ha ha. You"re talking as if any of us are going to even come close to attempting this. You're an Artist. Most people like me do well to wipe our guitars down with a damp rag once in a while :)
What colors did you use? I know yellow and red but specific name?
Grain filled first?
is the dye just food coloring?
Can you tell me how would i go about getting a burgundy burst?
what are you basing your guitar off? send me a pic I will do a video!
That is cool...
where's the finished product?
An orange NOOKYALER Stain! haha....good job though man. looks awesome
is it possible to over saturate ?
que tipo de pintura es?? alguna marca en especial???
What do you use for shellac?
What kind of paint did you use ?
Why does the audio drop out?
The pattern at the top at 1.21 honestly to me looks like a face.
Check it out! Lovely job on that guitar,nice.
what number is the sanding?
Ok!, thank you!! one more question, do You think that I can go directly with tru-oil over the waterbase stain?, or you always need shellac to seal the wood?, sorry to ask this dumb questions but I´m just starting to build my own guitars! thanks!
Buncha dudes watching a faceless stranger rub oil onto a hard body? Smells like guitar porn in here.
Seriously, beautiful work! The finish really brought out the flame on that piece.
Woow, 18 people have unliked this... what are you thinking you clowns. That looks amazing to me.
omg i thought i was the only one who saw the face the lions i didnt see still
but the face freaks me out
That was beautiful
Like a Select Telecaster
yeah, I definitely see a spacey looking dude with an "O-face"...that's some way out grain he's working with