Days Five and Six

Sanding days are here. Surprisingly satisfying, even if it did prove to be beechwood and not mahogany. Damn tinted sealer. But, I did finally have an excuse to buy an orbital palm sander so it wasn't a total loss. 

You're looking at about two hours time invested up there, taking it slow, 120 grit. There were fleeting moments of considering a relic paint scheme, but they passed. I will be looking at this thing for the next 30 years, every reminder of past laziness will nag at me for slacking. Have I mentioned I am an OCD sufferer? Except for the knob and switch depressions. Those will be covered by knobs and switch. Screw 'em.

Another three hours of sanding, almost there. I found that the face hump is a separate piece of wood and the grain obviously doesn't match. Not much I can do about this, except hope the black dye will disguise it somewhat. I tested the aniline dye on a piece of scrap beechwood, happy with the color. 

This is my skull mug, courtesy of Nicole. I like skulls. I want to try this type of abstraction on the face of the guitar. Not sure how to go about this yet, and am a little afraid of the risk. A subtle black guitar would be cool, but a subtle distorted skull image would kill. But I run the risk of more sanding if bork it. Kind of one shot deal laying down the dye.

Two thoughts on how to go about this: One would be to cut a vinyl adhesive stencil to the shape of the whites and lay this down, followed by a couple of coats of dye. Then, remove the vinyl and another light hit of dye. Any bleed under the stencil would only add to the effect. Second thought is to dye the entire body, then loosely paint the skull with bleach. I'm going to test this on the scrap piece tomorrow.

Cheers!