harmonicchaos Posted December 30, 2008 Posted December 30, 2008 I'm becoming interested in redoing my les paul vintage mahogany. I've talked about doing it before but this time it's almost 100% gonna happen. My plan is to refinish it in a tobacco brown or a dark walnut finish. I don't want it very shiny, i want just a light protective layer with a very low shine to matte finish. I still want it to have the texture of the unfilled wood so i don't want to fill the grain. I'm leaning towards staining the guitar the dark brown and then applying a light layer of nitro to seal it it and give a more lively and less dull look, i want to bring out the rich grain and mahogany wood. Is this doable and what do you guys think of the outcome? Also, will i need to take of the existing bit of color on the guitar (it's worn brown not cherry)? Or should i be able to put the stain on without much preparation other than cleaning the surface? If i do need to strip the wood first, how would you go about doing that with the mahogany? Here is my full refinishing plan for the lp... if anyone's interested *Bigsby *Black Gibson Custom Pickguard (the one with the white trim) *Refinishing with a clear dark walnut lacquer or varnish. *Strap Locks (done) *I may need a new pickup selector *I might get a blank truss rod cover and put the guitar's name on it I finally gave up on the binding though... ;) thanks
myspace.com/jessenoah Posted December 30, 2008 Posted December 30, 2008 i got nothin but i aint got the balls to mods like that
harmonicchaos Posted December 30, 2008 Author Posted December 30, 2008 Yeah, i like that kind of stuff. And i'm pretty handy with a paintbrush (see avatar) so i figure i can paint a guitar. I'm gonna get the bigsby after i refinish it and i'll probably get sweetwater to install that on for me (get a little nervous drilling into the TOP of a guitar that i'll have put close to a total of 1k in). Other than the paint and bigsy install, the rest is a piece of cake.
myspace.com/jessenoah Posted December 30, 2008 Posted December 30, 2008 the way i figure it about 2 grand worth of parts and work or a 2 grand nice les paul standard
harmonicchaos Posted December 30, 2008 Author Posted December 30, 2008 the way i figure itabout 2 grand worth of parts and work or a 2 grand nice les paul standard It's not that much. I'm doing 90% of the work myself. The parts aren't too much. Besides, i like making one-of-a-kinders, love the 'hog top, and i don't like to sell guitars. The only other lp that i've liked enough to want is the lp custom. For some reason standards just don't quite do it for me. Their wonderful guitars but just not quite what i want. They don't come in the colors i want and they don't have bigsbys either. By the way, i'm not saying that the vm is better than the standard, i just suits me better. Especially with the mods.
ChanMan Posted December 30, 2008 Posted December 30, 2008 To do it right, you'll want to strip and sand it first, then stain it. Results will depend, by and large, on the wood you are dealing with, I think, with respect to how well the grain will look. The results will be stunning if you pull it off, though! Good Luck!
Riffster Posted December 30, 2008 Posted December 30, 2008 I am planning to refinish my vintage mahognay one day as well, the main obstacle is my wife not wanting me to mess with the color of this guitar. I have mentioned this before, binding would be really hard and expensive to apply but you can paint a fake binding, if you are good with paints simply pinstripe it. If you are planning to refinish the guitar in a way that the wood stills shows the same could be done with the faux binding.
harmonicchaos Posted January 5, 2009 Author Posted January 5, 2009 i'm most likely going to be ordering the bigsby from sweetwater this week...
djroge1 Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 have you checked out this on-line modeler? (is that a word? modeler?). It takes a few min to load, but it allows you to change the color of the wood, hardware, pups etc... I used it a LOT before I made the changes to my LP. Here's the link: Model Have fun
James Allen Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 Wow, harmonicchaos, sounds like you are in for a definite learning experience. I'm not sure how to go about all that, but I wish you luck. I'm not even brave enough to try to take on a challenge like that. Good luck. I'm sure there's someone here who can give you some great advice.
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