Creating a Subtle SUNBURST WITH A side of Staining a Custom Guitar

[@RuthlessMojo]

I just received an ES 175 style archtop today for my birthday. Bound front, back and neck, vintage voiced humbuckers, gold hardware, trapeze tailpiece and a florentine cutaway. In arctic white with cream binding. Absolutely stunning. My dream guitar.

[@cheapskate8656]

Congratulations, sounds beautiful.

[@RuthlessMojo]

@@cheapskate8656 Thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm really happy with it. It will be guitar number 15 in my collection. I only have a couple of models left to complete it.

[@paulferraby1202]

That S shape on the back. Unique and attractive!

[@EntropiaGuitars]

Mixing in the gun is never ideal (I sprayed cars for many years), some of the stain will sink into the needle chamber and not blend, not to mention there’s been no filtering. I don’t mean to advise an expert Luthier however I would filter the stain through a paint strainer first, add the water and mix, then add to the gun and do a test pattern to set the fan width.

[@void870]

My guess is that he probably had a test pattern off screen in the booth.

[@ApexWoodworks]

Owen, I don't disagree with your recommendation to do the mixing out of the gun cup. However I'd like to emphasize that because it's a dye stain, only the finest mesh strainer gauge would do.

[@billsguitargarage]

Nice to see the studio coming together! Got to see the area it was going to me in back in December when Rikki took me on a tour of the facility. Again, a big Thank You to tour crew that took me around that day!

[@SweetTGuitars]

Lovely stain Ben. I really like the burst you added. That guitar is going to be stunning when it gets a topcoat! Peace and Love.

[@jeffcarter5805]

Personally, I loved the marriage of the colour of the tape band around the body, with the burst ! and also, whatever the title is, the 6 odd minute great first piece of music!

[@davidglynnguitars8119]

Beautiful choice of colors. Love the Oxblood stain. The contrast around the edge will be an exceptional look!!!

[@mattdoliver1984]

Wasn’t sure about the stain colour before you sprayed the burst over.......Fire in the booth 🔥🔥🔥👌🏼👍🏼

[@timhallas4275]

I find it hard to believe that you have not discovered "Painter's tape" or "Frog Tape". They have been around for more than 15 years now. They DO NOT ALLOW seepage of any water based or acrylic based paints.

[@fepatton]

I really love the idea of spraying water-based dyes rather than nitro. I’m never comfortable spraying nitro for a variety of reasons. Excellent reason for making the switch.

[@jeffgillismba9552]

My all time favorite crimson guitar finish ever! You must show us the completed guitar.

[@JiggsysShed]

Funny that I should have spoken to you about a sunburst technique at Makers and then the next video I watch is literally you doing one. Thank you for the advice you gave. Will definitely be looking into a airbrush system in the near future. Love the subtle effect on this guitar. Thanks for all the inspiration Ben.

[@S-T-E-V-E]

We want a Shred Clone, that's the best original design you've come up with lately!

[@MrMartinoef]

Like the subtlety & depth through use of stains. How about doing a graduated finish or A union jack ! Or how about music genres - two tone - punk - metal - rock -progressive etc. Enough ideas?

[@andrewgalloway7344]

the red 'binding' is savage !

[@oldmanzen6682]

That stain was absolutely incredible. (Admit it, you thought I was going to say stunning.) I love it.

[@creativecomposites6193]

Fineline tape is good stuff think its made from Mylar so nice and strong and burnishes well. Nice shape!

[@void870]

I love that brown stain, it reminds me of the Slash Brown we use at Gibson, but ours is nitro instead. lol

[@nickjahraus9780]

Stain transitions are nice, it'll be a clean finish. Also good to hear you're venturing into the low end.

[@ladeeroundy8873]

At about 7:45 you are sanding the front of the body and there looks to be some writing on it? what does it say or what are the symbols or letters?

[@joeetheridge1471]

Loving the workshops new look

[@ophelon1022]

Actually, the red tape made me think a red stained 'reveal' binding with naturalish sides would have looked amazing.

[@markmilligan8773]

What a great job. I use rattle cans and want to move up to paint booth and compressor. Bun you have given me more confidence than I had at being able to do this. Thanks 😊

[@ptrisonic]

Sorry I'm playing catch up. I like this design, the one change I'd suggest is create a recurve around the edge ala Les Paul carve tops. it make all the difference and does not need to be deep because it's mainly an optical illusion...

[@jlphoto1143]

The new body shape is growing on me. This video was timely as I'm just about to start staining my first build and now I have some inspiration. I have now seen a green and this orange/brown, so how about an vivid blue or aqua for the next one? Carry-on Crimson Maker, and remember there is always time to 'start' a new project.

[@BBGuitars]

Looking great, please show us what it looks like when its finished though!

[@mitchtube3]

3m vinyl tape next time! Great seeing what water stain does through a spraygun though! Rather cool indeed

[@alanwilson5813]

Love the effect from the res tape. You should consider incorporating this effect in future builds

[@89190alexis]

Oh i wished we could have seen the final sanding / finishing process, great colour tho!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you. I think we got some footage of the finishing etc, at the very least I'll do an overview of a bunch of them, including these guys, on the extras channel. Now that you mention it though I agree. We should have waited and added the lacquerign into this video.

[@felvster6639]

The new body shapes look gorgeous. As I'm a sucker for reverse headstocks I'd love to see that as an option in the future. Really think it would go nice with the design. :)

[@redeyedrednek]

Agree. Im trying to tune down too so that extra length on the low strings helps.

[@chrisyoung8062]

to me this technique makes the wood look muddy and without depth. Because of the way the wood fibers absorb the stain you lose that dichroic 3D depth (the way the flame changes from light to dark when you move the guitar with respect to the angle of the light). I believe the wood should be sealed first with a clear sealant and then color can be applied. That maintains the 3D depth of the flame and makes the wood look amazing. What I'm suggesting is more work but hey, it's Lutherie the highest form of woodworking. It's supposed to be hard.

[@paulthornley8331]

Brilliant observation there Chris!!. As a furniture sprayer and french polisher of many, many years, I totally agree. Maybe using a coloured thixotropic filler would help to seal in and bring up the grain pattern. Just an idea. 😊

[@chrisyoung8062]

@@paulthornley8331 Thank You Paul. I used to make violins which as we all know require color to be applied. You never see blonde violins. But the color is applied in the varnish (not directly to the wood) in numerous layers. Many of the old Italians violins (i.e. Stradivari, Amati, etc.) appeared to have different colors applied in layers. Many seemed to have a yellow layer followed by layers of reds and browns. This gave them a sort of "glow" and as they aged and layers of varnish wore off you could see this coloration of the various layers appear. BTW I admire your ability to french polish. It's a lost art.

[@paulthornley8331]

@@chrisyoung8062 Thanks Chris. I was just a lowly "squirter" of 20 years. I am nothing compared to your talents. Best wishes. ☺️

[@misterghee1]

Well what I understood from stradivarius is no sanding just sharp cutting tools, to keep woodgrain open eh and of course an old style Rembrandt doesn't sand his painting whihiii it's al good Gday

[@misterghee1]

@@chrisyoung8062 I know loud beautifull blond 4 string&bow violins that wil put most brown ones to shame, in Amsterdam truly deep and in your face instruments playable with large or smaller hands, one tear

[@davidstout4826]

I'd do a burst after the first coat of sealer, then add a small amount of sealer to the stain you're doing the burst with. I also use zero fan and have it nice and round.

[@derekmurray7128]

Paint the chamfer red! the red tape looks cool!

[@ianthomson9363]

That's what I thought as well! I'd like to see a blonde instrument with a red chamfer, I think that would look good. I love the almost matching end grain on the bottom of the guitar- someone at Crimson has a very good eye.

[@ryansaper]

Frog tape and gel stains prevent bleeding on the edges, but I don't know if they work with water-based stains, and the frog tape is so strong that it may leave residue. But worth a try on a test piece of wood

[@ashdfgjt]

Lovely video, and a lovely watch you're wearing kind sir!

[@Brandywine6969]

When you said brown, I didn't expect it to like it, but wow, that guitar came out beautiful. I wonder what an emerald green and a cobalt blue would look like.

[@cheapskate8656]

That should look really good with the clear coat on. The green one is still my favourite :)

[@berberlowish]

Really like the new shape and really liked the new colour, although I thought the orange looked great... Kept thinking something was gonna go wrong during the brown base though because of the "slowed down coffin song"

[@wiltshiredoug9959]

Looks great. Love the new shape and the subtle burst. Water based stunning stains are so good (haven’t used the spirit ones yet).

[@stu-j]

I like the shape as its like a mix of my 2 favourite guitars the tele and less Paul. And the wood is fantastic for sure. Staining a guitar is just a great thing to do as flat paint just does nothing for me at all. Why have nice woods and cover it up with thick paint that chips of just by looking at it when you can stain then add a oil finish and yes it will age over time but not look like its been dragged behind a land rover for miles after 5 gigs.

[@robhudson1501]

Still loving that new shape but I keep wondering if changing the big butt theme for a raunchy with attitude standing on one leg butt... both top edges pushing toward the headstock and the butt end cut at a similar angle to the line of the two horns. Really awkward to describe lol... Hope you can see it on my wavelength but I bet you can't :)

[@luthiferbuilds]

That’s a beautiful guitar shape and colour

[@ADFinlayson]

kind of looks like claro after the second lot of brown, I like it.

[@oogkauwgum5123]

Have you tried washi tape for masking? It has sharp edges and behaves a lot nicer dan regular paper tape and comes an widths from 2 mm upwards. It’s used in scale modeling a lot where sharp edges are required

[@JackRoadkill]

Lovely discreet burst there, Ben. How about a CamoBurst on the next one?

[@atakdragonfly1675]

I liked it more right before you taped it. I think your intuition that it didn't need the burst was correct. That's just a matter of opinion of course. Color. But it was sweet.... It's still nice!

[@misterghee1]

Just very nice creativity👍

[@psguardian]

1. I'm poking again about full line of stains still not being on the site as shots (if I'm wrong please link me). 2. Have you considered vinyl pinstripe tape vs the paper mask? Pros/cons?

[@frankmusiol6871]

Sieht super aus👍 Frohe Ostern 🐥🐑

[@archloy]

Pretty result :). On next ? MoonBurst ! (You did not ask for anything already existing, right ?!!!! :p )

[@ApexWoodworks]

It would have been interesting to have seen it once it was topcoated. I'd suggest you shoot a satin sheen... but knowing you, Ben, you'll do something much entirely different! Rock on!!

[@timcoombe7880]

As a reborn descendant perhaps it should be a rescendant?

[@stephenearly9550]

Are you going to give it a satin or gloss finish? Or, as is?

[@markpotemra]

Blue to orange burst

[@Rick_Cleland]

I want to do a red to black sunburst with the stains.

[@gregoryh4601]

Very Nice stain job Ben. Careful the Next Time you leave the Work Place. When the Big Cat 🐱 is away the Little Cats 🐈‍⬛🐈 will play and try to hide there mistakes? Hehehehe. Thanks Ben

[@MaartenAnna]

Superinteresting, can't wait to see the finished product. Will you use a nitro finish? Or a matt semi-gloss wipe-on varnish (I used the Crimson guitar varnish on the back of a guitar recently, worked really well, if you use an old T-shirt, not so much using a paper towel).

[@russess5956]

Seeing those cavity covers spin off as you unscrewed them made me wonder if you could a make "spin on/spin off" cover. Held home with a magnet and a short thread it screws on to? Nothing like over-engineering, eh, Ben?

[@tahoemike5828]

That looked relatively doable, and straight forward. I'd still like to see you do one in an Emerald Green/Black. Basically the look that belonged on "Shred."

[@JesusIsKing373]

Dayummmmm thats so stunning!!!

[@edrosenquist6541]

Awesome job! Hey Ben. Would you use an initial coat of black stain over spalted maple before applying red, to make the darkest spalted colors pop?

[@SirRawThunderMan]

Truth be told, while I liked it orange, it's good in that subtle red burst too. Personally, though, I'd take it a step further and stain the edge bevel where the masking tape was in red too, I kinda think it looked better with the flat red masking tape on as a contrast, but that's just me.

[@U014B]

I'm probably in the minority, but I really like the look of the red tape around the edge of the bog oak-brown.

[@russess5956]

I thought the same!!

[@meshugganator08]

Where’d the music come from

[@kenwalker5384]

Could a "reverse burst" look good/be possible, I.E. darker in the centre fading to natural at the edge? maybe with a dark binding?

[@cheapskate8656]

Yes, but its in the eye of the beholder.

[@cmatte82]

It was funny. As you added the second layer of brown stain, I was thinking “man red instead of brown would look really good imo”. And then what did you do? Burst it with red.

[@VesiustheBoneCruncher]

Any chance of you guys producing a translucent water based hot pink? I don’t want a pink guitar but I would like to use it over another water based stain - I tried your Salmon, which is great, but was not working how I wanted it to with your purple. These guitars look great!

[@robertr4193]

Is that the water based or the spirit based stain you are using? I like the body shape as well and I would also like to see it in a slightly small size and maybe a 24" scale with reverse head stock shape. That first guitar you stained dark brown does have some nice flame figure in it. It turned out pretty well.

[@johnwalsh9507]

i like the smaller body - i would suggest moving away from the longer 6 a side headstock to the 3 x 3 headstock. this would better align with the more compact body and give a more balanced look to the guitar

[@JeffGillis-lv1rz]

Jeez, all that beautiful work but we don't get to see it finished with oil?

[@AndrewAHayes]

Ben, I am coming to Crimson for a 3 month course next year and one of my planned models will be a set neck tele with a blue stained maple fretboard and laquered finish, why are maple fretboards not stained very often if at all?

[@cheapskate8656]

I'll give you my 2 cents worth. I think it requires a completed fretboard (dimensioned, radiused, fretted, stained/burnt) to be fitted to the neck. This is because it is not ideal to be restaining or reburning a fretboard that is on an unstained/unburnt neck. Its probably that not a lot of people build their guitars that way, so, more often than not they use a timber that more closely matches what they want. That said, there is nothing wrong with changing ones build process if its going to give us something we really want.

[@hcolguitars]

Seems to be the "ultra expensive" way. Quiet good result! Worth it? Meeeh...

[@mrfatbobrider1969]

GIMME THE ORANGE Please 🙏 I love it dont bin it 😪

[@terryloveuk]

OK, perhaps a silly question but you know I don't play guitar, but watching this the question of finishes popped into my unruly brain. For say a someone who plays a lot (say some who is in a band that gigs pubs and clubs getting started and doesn't have a suitcase of spare cash) what finish, Flash Coat, lacquer, or oil based, would be the most durable, stay looking good and not need regular refinishing to stay looking good?

[@hcolguitars]

Professional polyurethane. Same as how a car is finished. No matter what a vintage gibson addict can argue, you can't beat polyurethane lacquer if it's done properly.

[@cheapskate8656]

Maybe something hard a glossy. I have seen some super glue (CA) finish that looks good.

[@Waggel86]

Flash coat is simply a thin, quick curing finish. The material used can vary and while the material might have an impact on durability, it's still a thin finish. How many guitars are we talking about here? What equipment are we using? Full spray booth, a small spray gun at home, spray cans, or brushed on finishes perhaps?

[@terryloveuk]

@@Waggel86 I neither play or build guitars, but I had a couple of younger friends who have followed indie bands around the pub and small club circuits (I even got dragged to a few gigs - the beer choice was usually iffy) and my thought was what should those bands be looking at when making guitar choices, the top makes are probably out of their budgets.

[@kilhattrick]

11:02 "It's too orangy for crowes."

[@johnhutton9105]

Lovely work as ever! I’ve got a kit on the way to put together that I might stain, depending on the quality of the wood. What sort of finish are you planning for the Ukraine guitar (also does she have a name yet?) 😁

[@drej1714]

I gotta say that I'm not a fan of the headstock at all. Doesn't fit for some reason. Reverse might look better or maybe a 3+3. Something needs to change though....

[@rjwhite907]

Burst it!

[@jonmatthews4254]

Not for me, no burst present is there?

[@Wargasm54]

Not a big fan of the “Parker Fly” bottom horn or the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” upper bout. But other than that, it’s a bitchin’ guitar.

[@snekmeseht]

Phillips screws. You're either really brave or you have a really expensive driver.

[@williamgilman4785]

you'll eventually screw it up , by over doing it, especially the head stock

[@walther9161]

Automotive tape will keep the bleed from happening…

[@popdufc4139]

You missed a bit

[@bukwok]

use cotton , dont use kitchen paper towel, because kitchen paper towel suck water too good, waste lot of stains, and some paper towel quality not strong enough, easy to break, or if you can find a perfect paper towel very strong and not very good absorb water,still cotton or old tee way better to me, but if just do one guitar time to time, not much different i guess, there so many way do things ,find a way work for you anyway, no right or wrong.

[@PaulCooksStuff]

They use a specific heavy duty paper towel after years of trying different ones. It's not regular household kitchen stuff. They might even sell it on the website, I haven't looked lately.

[@guitarsofold100]

The type of look you are after is only achievable with aniline dyes that Gibson and PRS apply!!! shooting water based stains results in a cloudy muddy finish as you have achieved.. A beautiful piece of timber needs to be treated with reverence and not hidden behind mud ! Watch the artisans in the stain department at PRS with decades behind them.. They are not Johnny come lately's

[@uke_mike]

i must be the odd man out but i really dont like the colour or the finish in general

[@paulneeds]

Not keen. To me, it looks dirty, and reminds me of kids messing up their paints and ending up with ‘that’ brown. Sorry..

[@robertdurio8756]

Ugh

[@thomasrogers4534]

The background music is awful, the exact opposite of my favourite luthier

[@lesbutler5458]

Yet another half arsed Crimson production. Is there any chance at all that we will ever see anything other than bumbling incompetence on this channel?

[@johnhutton9105]

LOL