Finally getting my Bulldog done -- Pic heavy

[Throwing7]

A long while back I had purchased a flame top veneer Bulldog kit from Texas07R8 when he got his Solid Top Kit.

It got put on the back burner while I tended to my pregnant wife and because my only good place to work on it was at my parents house.

Now that the kid has popped out, I have found some time to actually get this project working.

here's the back and top:




The Top has a good bit of flame to it, while the back is less than impressive.

I've decided to do a black cherry flamed top and a black back and neck.

Here's some shots so far:

Taped up


Tenon


Grain filled and Sanding Sealer


Neck Heel


Primer (Zinnser BIN Shellac primer as recommended on Reranch)




I am getting my black and clear from reranch this week. I am using transtint dyes to do the black and red on top.

[SiriusAbbott]

awesome
congrats on the kid too!

[CARNAGE222]

Congratulations on the the new addition to your family. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this one. I think a bulldog kit is in my future....

[Webtroll]

I'm waiting on my order from StewMac and getting the neck glued and bridge studs mounted in order to get started on mine, so I'll be following your build closely. Looking good so far!

[zeppelin101]

Keep posting pics! Looks great man

[Texas07R8]

Damn Trevor! Looking good bro. Man I was wondering what happened to you. You've been off the radar for a while.

I think the black cherry will look fantastic! That's a sweet looking top that's not overly used.

The kit is looking great man... I know you've had a lot on your shoulders, glad to hear you're a dad, congrats! and welcome to the club! Hope the wife and baby are coming on as well as the Les Paul.

The grain filler looked real good, nice job. The white primer made me remember how much I like white LPs.

Keep it up man, it only gets better from here on out. If you need anything holler at me, I'm up in Missouri this week but I'm headed home tomorrow. I've got a Delta 12" drill press if you need to drill out tail piece and bridge holes, I bought it last week off Craigslist for $60! My previous tabletop drill press was only a 9" model and it wouldn't reach in far enough to hit the tail piece and bridge holes and you really don't want to hand drill those holes. I've got a fractional set of Forstner bits and I use the leverage of the drill press to press the bushings into the maple.

take care and give the wife and baby a hug from Raymond!

[Texas07R8]

knock, knock... where did everybody go????

Come on Trevor, still waiting for some updates bro!

[Webtroll]

Yeah, what he said!

[Throwing7]

No updates yet.

The little guy keeps me too busy. I think weekends are going to be my only chance to work on it.

All my black and clear came on Monday from reranch. I got some tinted clear to try and age the binding a bit. Do you think that would do much color distortion if I did the whole guitar with a coat or two of tinted and then the rest with clear?

Raymond, did you sand between any of your color coats on the back of yours?

In the meantime, here's a picture of my latest project:

[timgman]

Hey NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Congrads....
They do keep you busy though...

[Throwing7]

Alright.

I got the color coats done on the back and neck.....I think.

Forgot to bring the camera with me to the parents house, but going back there this weekend to hopefully work on the top. So I will take pictures of the back and neck while I'm at it.

I put four solid coats on the back. I think that should be enough. There is a little left in the can that I would rather save in case there is some touch up work to be done later.

I had my Bridge and tailpiece holes drilled locally by someone more qualified than I. Not using bushings for the bridge, putting the posts straight into the wood old school style. Figured I could put bushings in later if that doesn't work out.

I had Les Paul Model script waterslide and a really crappy looking gold Gibson waterslide (like they use on BFGs) on as well. I'm thinking now that I will go back at some point and want to put my son's initials as the brand logo (MDP) in Mother of Pearl possibly in the font that MAX was using for his guitars, maybe Gibson style but all Uppercase. Who knows? I'm sure I'll need help with that one though.

My pups came in a couple days ago. Going with Rio Grande Texas BBQ set in Zebra. Got them for 105 on ebay.

Anyway, that's it for now.....pics to follow this weekend.

[Webtroll]

The bridges didn't originally use bushings? News to me!

[Jason]

Sounds good. So are you going to try to do a burst with black to cherry on the top? Sorry, I couldn't tell exactly what you're going for by your description.

[Throwing7]

Originally Posted by Webtroll

The bridges didn't originally use bushings? News to me!

I've seen some of Scott's builds that have the posts straight into the wood...not sure if it's historically accurate myself....but what I'm going with for now.

[Throwing7]

Originally Posted by Jason

Sounds good. So are you going to try to do a burst with black to cherry on the top? Sorry, I couldn't tell exactly what you're going for by your description.

This is pretty much what I'm going for

You Tube

You Tube

Not my build. Just going for the color. the first minute or so is him removing his f-up.

[Jason]

Ah.. .okay.. so the black is basically a flame enhancer. I had a Schecter with that same basic finish. I think it looks a lot better with the black sides and back though.

[TKOjams]

Cool video and UFO rocks

[Throwing7]

Wooohooo.

Yesterday was the color work on the top.

First some bad news. I was struck by a case of Dumbass last week because I forgot to take the tape off of the binding after I sprayed the black. So, I had a few spots where some black peeled when I removed it. Not the end of the world. Luckily I have some black left, so I'm guessing that next weekend (or sometime this week if I get lucky) I will re-tape off and do another one or two coats of black with what I have left from reranch to fix my mistake.

On to the good news though. I've got pictures of the process with the top.

I didn't take pictures before I started, but a good shot of the top is at the beginning of this thread.

Here is the top after it's black dye.



I didn't worry about the uneven spots since it's getting sanded down anyway. In the second shot you can see a couple of my mess ups from the masking tape.

Here's the shots after the sandback.



I also wasn't worried about the uneven sanding spots as I wanted the final look to be somewhat uneven. If you get it too perfect looking it loses a bit of it's effect.

Now the fun part....The red dye




Notice how some of the blacker spots from earlier take a kind of murky depth when the red hits it. I was really glad that color came out the way it did. I was really worried I was going to be disappointed and end up sanding it all down and making a goldtop.....that wouldn't have been too horrible either.

And for the finale for right now.....since it is far too humid to be spraying lacquer and the wife was bugging me for dinner and a movie, I hit it with a couple coats of Sanding sealer until next weekend.

here she is all wet for you.





I appreciate all the compliments I've been getting. This my first rodeo with finishing a guitar so it would've been even more nerve racking without you guys and all of your support and advice.

[SiriusAbbott]

nice job thus far
looking forward to seeing the final results!!!

[pinkandblue]

I would suggest leaving those pick-up cavities unpainted... I know real Gibson pick-up cavities are painted but recently I was watching a promotional documentary about Eddie Van Halen's new "wolfgang" guitar and and he said something that got my attention.

He said they intentionally left the pick-up cavities bare as this would allow the wood to "breathe" over the years and "age better". I don't know if that's true or not, and I am certainly no Eddie Van Halen fan, but that statement rang true for me.

That's something you might want to consider.

YouTube - Eddie Van Halen's EVH Wolfgang Guitar

YouTube - Eddie Van Halen's EVH Wolfgang Guitar

[Webtroll]

damn now i need to order some black dye and wait for it. CURSES! love the top!

edit: Did you let the black dry overnight before applying the red? How long between the application of black and red? Did you use the same ratio of solvent to dye for both the black and the red and what was it? And finally WHERE WERE YOU ON THE NIGHT OF THE 5TH AT 10PM??? /points accusatory finger

[Webtroll]

Originally Posted by pinkandblue

He said they intentionally left the pick-up cavities bare as this would allow the wood to "breathe" over the years and "age better". I don't know if that's true or not, and I am certainly no Eddie Van Halen fan, but that statement rang true for me.

I don't know that unfinished fingerboards age any better than finished fingerboards, so why would the body be any different? I'd love to hear an expert weigh in on this as I fear Eddie will say anything to make more money.

[pinkandblue]

Originally Posted by Webtroll

I don't know that unfinished fingerboards age any better than finished fingerboards, so why would the body be any different? I'd love to hear an expert weigh in on this as I fear Eddie will say anything to make more money.

Clearly a distinct possibility! However, a fingerboard gets played and a pick-up cavity is rarely touched.

Seems like they'd have to go out of their way to leave the cavities unpainted.

If your man leaves them unpainted then he can always go back and paint them later...

[Throwing7]

Originally Posted by Webtroll

damn now i need to order some black dye and wait for it. CURSES! love the top!

edit: Did you let the black dry overnight before applying the red? How long between the application of black and red? Did you use the same ratio of solvent to dye for both the black and the red and what was it? And finally WHERE WERE YOU ON THE NIGHT OF THE 5TH AT 10PM??? /points accusatory finger

I let the black dry for about an hour...maybe less before sanding it and applying the red. The dyes are mixed with alcohol, so they dry fairly quickly.

I did not use the same ratio of solvant to dye...though it was fairly close. The red is slightly more saturated than the black. I don't remember the mixture off the top of my head, I have it written down on the veneer test strip that was labeled "winner".

I bought a package of flame maple veneer strips to test colors on. they were a little darker than my top, so I declared a winner when I got a result that was slightly darker than I really wanted. I figured brighter wood = brighter result. And luckily that worked.

The 5th of this month was a Thursday...so at 10 PM I was probably feeding the baby and trying to get him to go to sleep......unsuccessfully

[will c]

Hey, congrats on the addition to your family.

I must say, that guitar project is looking pretty sweet!

Will

[charlie0871]

I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out (it looks great so far). I am thinking about refinishing one of my Epiphone LP's from "cherry sunburst" to "trans blue" and am trying to find out as much as possible about the process as I can before tearing into it. As a leftie, my factory color choices are pretty limited so, I guess it's time to be creative!

[Webtroll]

Originally Posted by charlie0871

I guess it's time to be creative!

Try pink! Actually I got to check out a pink Stanley Clarke Alembic bass that was actually pretty cool looking, but I don't know if I'd want to paint my Les Paul that same color.