Cherry Red Stain

[Philly]

HI Folks
I'm about to start work on a new guitar project, an SG. I'm after a stain to give me that classic Gibson cherry red mahogany colour. Most of the advice on the 'net is from American sites and suppliers, so would be interested if anyone has any advice/experience with products available in the UK.
Cheers
Philly

 

[Sgian Dubh]

HI Folks
I'm after a stain to give me that classic Gibson cherry red mahogany colour.
... any advice/experience with products available in the UK.
Philly

Experiment with a base colour of red aniline dye, probably full strength. You could use either water based or a range of solvent based dyes (eg, spirit, pre-cat base stains, etc) as all should give that very vibrant colour.

Follow this with coats of sprayed lacquer tinted with a compatible dye, eg, add about 20-40 ml of spirit aniline dye (or pre-cat dye) to about a litre of post-catalysed or pre-catalysed lacquer. In both cases go for gloss or 90% sheen, and you might need to rub the polish out to get the very high gloss. You are limited to a dry film thickness of less than 150 microns with these polishes to avoid cracking. This means applying two wet coats of about 150 microns each, or three at about 100 microns each to allow for the requisite final cured film thickness of 150 microns or less after solvent evaporation.

This seems about right as you can still just about make out that the background woodgrain, which in the photograph you put up looks like it might be maple or some other white wood.

Just about any of the major manufacturers or the retailers that carry the products should be able to supply what you need, eg, Morrells, Fiddes, Smith and Roger, Rydenor, etc. Slainte.

 

[Ironballs]

Behlen do tinted lacquers and there's also a decent range at Touchstone Tonewoods, plus they have a mini guitar forum

 

[Terry Smart]

Hi Phil

You might also want to consider our Red Spirit Stain which should be close to the colour you're looking for and can also be used to tint our Cellulose Sanding Sealer and Melamine Lacquer.

You might also be interested in http://www.nocturne-guitars.co.uk which shows some guitars coloured using our stains.

 

[Philly]

Thanks Chaps - Terry, forgot about your spirit stains - cheers!
Philly

 

[Mike H]

Hey Phil

Use Paduk! It will stay that colour for at least 3 weeks. I would flog it it then because then it would gradually go brown!

Cheers

Mike

8)

PS: More seriously, spirit stains would be good but knowing you love of shellac watch out for side effects.

 

[Philly]

Mike
Ha! Paduak - good one :lol:

I do love Shellac, but for an electric guitar it will be melamine lacquer - they get too sweaty for shellac. I've a set of spirit stains on the way so I can tweak the mix to the colour I want. I have a plank of lovely Brazilian Mahogany (thanks BB!) so I'm on the way to a good result already.

Best regards
Philly

 

[Mikey R]

Hey Phil, have you got a project WIP thread open on this? Id like to see how you tackle it!