# Stain? Paint? Wood?



## THRobinson (Jun 29, 2014)

So, sanded a body today... Cort G254 guitar, got a neck and body cheap and liked the shape.

Plan was to sand off the paint to the sealer and primer/paint.

When I got the black paint off, I used some water on a cloth and wiped it down to see if I could see the wood grain, and looked promising. Could see grain and a nice reddish colour. There were a few chips that broke off the guitar, underneath was also reddish. Thought maybe was that Philippine Mahogany / Meranti wood, which some Cort's are made of. Also read that some are ash, alder, basswood... pretty hit/miss.

I was going to paint it a reddish bronze colour, and liked the red I saw so far so, decided to sand it down... took almost 2h with 40-grit on an orbital sander... got to wood and almost seemed that between the wood and poly (?) layer, was a think layer of reddish 'something'. Not paint, it came off fast. But took all that work to get the front done only. Only got the black off the back, nothing on the sides.

Anyways. very pale wood. Not sure if I should re-poly and go back to my original paint plan. In which case, where do you get poly that goes on that thick?

or... sand it all off and stain/oil it? I'm not sure how to get that reddish colour... never used stains or oils before but would like to, I liked wood grain and semi gloss finishes.

Any idea what the wood is? or what I would need to do to get that red mahogany colour back? Must be possible... it was red before sanded. Some of this same model originally came in a satin red woodgrain. I'd love to try something with a stain and maybe tung or danish oil.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I like using wood dye rather that stain. It lets more of the character of the wood show through. Try watching this youtube if you're interested. I feel it explains it well.
Something like a "cherry" dye is what you're looking for.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

garnet shellac. Easy as hell to work with and you can then put anything on top of the shellac. Shellac sticks to everything, and everything sticks to shellac. It also really pops the grain.


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## THRobinson (Jun 29, 2014)

Wonder if I can use my leather dyes... I have a few, mahogany is one... Fieblings. Had a few of them for when I was restoring vintage smoking pipes, but it wasn't a big bare surface like a guitar rather it was an already dyed pipe and was used to enhance the colour a bit.

May have to see if the local hardware store has any beech... or... is that beech?

From the photo, anyone know?

EDIT - Kept saying beechwood, meant basswood.


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## THRobinson (Jun 29, 2014)

Looked at Google images and garnet shellac doesn't look very red.

Ideally I'd like to use a combo of dye/stain with some sort of rubbed in oil... like Tung Oil, or Danish... no clear coat or anything like that, just layers of oil built up. Maybe wax at the end?

Seen it done a few time on YouTube, but know little of the process, which is why I want to do that.

I'd like to get as close to this as I can... colour not grain obviously.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

THRobinson said:


> Looked at Google images and garnet shellac doesn't look very red.
> 
> Ideally I'd like to use a combo of dye/stain with some sort of rubbed in oil... like Tung Oil, or Danish... no clear coat or anything like that, just layers of oil built up. Maybe wax at the end?
> 
> ...





Tarbender said:


> Here's one I finished using "Tru-Oil" from Lee Valley:


Try the leather dye to get the red, if you don’t like it you can always sand it off.

Garnet shellac will warn the colour, it has an amber tone. If you use it on top of the dye it will give it an aged look, which will look great!

Nathan


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## THRobinson (Jun 29, 2014)

From what I've been reading since starting this thread... stain is easy to sand, made of clays and dirts and sits on the wood with little penetration. But dye, soaks right in and hard to sand off.

I grabbed a piece of sanded pine last night to test the dye's with. Mahogany went on perfect, beautiful dark red colour then I wiped off the excess and blah... dried darker and browner. Bit of a let down really. Was hoping to use it for the body and the black that I have added to it around the edges. Very faint and subtle burst (vignette I guess). Will need to find something a bit better though. I'll give it a light sand and oil a bit tonight, maybe it'll change the colour a bit. Again, when it hit the wood it was the perfect colour and I didn't put on that much... but dried rather brown and ugly.


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## mr trick (Sep 21, 2013)

the dye will dry darker, and dull, I used aniline stains for 25 years, both water based and NGR, Lee Valley sells the water based as a powder. the look as you put it on wet is the end look, if you want it darker or deeper in colour, just sand lightly to remove the hairs that stand up, and add more. I have been known to put on 4 or 5 coats to get the deepest richest colours


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## Vally (Aug 18, 2016)

I’m using a water base dye on my PGK build, 5 colours for $30, make any color you want. Tru Oil for my top, can be purchased at lee valley, Amazon and some gun stores. Very easy to work with as long as you have some patience.


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## THRobinson (Jun 29, 2014)

Looks good, but Lee Valley doesn't seem to list much in the reds. Aniline does seem to make red, just not sold there. I see some TransTint brand dyes at Rockler. Ordered there once before with OK luck. Everything was fine, except the glue was obviously opened before... had to take the tip apart to clean it out to get the glue to go through.


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## Vally (Aug 18, 2016)

Look for keda dye on amazon, you get black, red, blue, brown and yellow. $30. It comes in a powder form and dissolves easily in water or alcohol. There are videos on YouTube .


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

These are the dyes I use mostly. Located in Canada, always good service.
ColorFX Dye Concentrates

When you dye wood, the colour you see when the dye is still wet is the colour you're going to end up with.
That real bland shade you see when it dries, really turns around when you apply clear coat or the sealer over top. What I do a lot of the time is test dye a piece of wood and then clear coat the test piece so I can see for sure what the final shade will be before I seal the body.


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