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I stumbled on this guitar while searching for a Tele body today. How would you go about finishing this guitar to make the flames stand out??

Dyes tend to bring out natural figuring in wood, so perhaps that would work? Or do a single color pass, tape off the very edges of the flames ---WOOOO at the pain in the ass that would be to get just right -- and then do another color on top. I bet Surf Green with white/cream accented flames would look amazing...

neato!!

bumperooski

That's killer... 1 to dyeing it, painting it would be wayyy too much trouble to accent the flames and it'll be a huge disappointment if you screw up in a spot or two. Dye it and it'll be SICKKK

I showed it to my gf and now she's talking about bidding on it. She doesn't seem to believe my prediction that a 1-pc alder body with expert carving like that is probably destined to end up pretty expensive.

I wonder if, insead of taping the edges, there would be a way to paint a solid color over the top while leaving another color down inside the flames. That could look nice. I can't quite picture how to pull it off, though. But I'm no painter...

that thing is siiiiiiiiiiick!!!! WoW!


Originally Posted by St_GenesiusI wonder if, insead of taping the edges, there would be a way to paint a solid color over the top while leaving another color down inside the flames. That could look nice. I can't quite picture how to pull it off, though. But I'm no painter...

I have never painted a guitar this way, but my BYOC tremelo was engraved at my friends trophy shop and then I tried to fill in the engraving with paint. It was really tough and didnt turn out the greatest.

I'd buy that for a dollar.... Seriously, a nice dye job would make it killer.

My only question is why in the heck is he selling it instead of putting it together himeself!

This is just an idea - please try on scrap before doing this because I haven't tried it myself:

1) Wipe on a strong, dark red water-based dye, then quickly wipe it off the surface with an almost-dry sponge so that the dye sits in the flames.

2) Very lightly sand the top (400 grit?) so that the edges of the flames are nice amp; sharp. This will also take off the quot;fuzzquot; produced by the water-based dye and leave some red in the grain lines of the field (they'll end up orange in a minute).

3) Apply yellow water-based dye to to field. You may actually want to use an alcohol-based dye here so that you can wipe it on quickly, but I've found it harder to get even application of color with alcohol-based dye. You may need to add a little red to the yellow to offset the natural green-tint of some alder. Sand the fur off again with 600 grit (very lightly). (Bleaching the body to start with is another alternative to getting the green out.)

4) Airbrush sides and rim around top amp; back with either black or blood-red lacquer. I wouldn't worry about hitting the carved rim exactly myself, but you might.

5) Clearcoat and sand forever, buff, assemble and ROCK

Just a thought - hope it helps,

Chip