Color match

[Michael P. Lemieux]

Hello Everybody,
I'm in a jam. First of all, a guy brought me a Les Paul Studio all stripped down. He wants a gold top which is no problem, but what the problem is the mahogany is very streaky and mismatched not like a standard gold top with the honey brown transparent finish. He would like me to paint the back and the neck that honey brown color, but in an opaque to cover up the wood but still match the color. Now, my question is, does anybody have a rough idea what colors to mix to get me in the ballpark. What would be the base color, then the secondary color, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've attached a pic of the color I'm looking for. Thanks again so very much, Michael

[Donald A. Fortune]

Since I was a high end cabinet maker for many years before I started to make guitars, I think I can help you out..
go to stewmac.com and get their color tone liquid stains, they come in many colors and can be mixed to please.
then mix a small amount of a color to see what it reacts like and put it on a scrap piece of wood before you put it to your final piece. Best to you on your outcome...
Peace, Donald

[Russell Vance]

Hi Michael,
Donald has put you on the right track - the MEK Color tone dyes are a very good match for most of what Gibson do in their color range. The trick to normalising the color disparities is to wipe on a good quality wood filler (thinned with Naptha) just like Gibson do. Before you apply this, mix in a little (less than a few percent by weight/volume) of the dye to the wood filler and wipe it into the pores with a terry cotton pad.

Wipe it off in a scrubbing motion before it sets and repeat. The woodfiller/dye will help highlight the grain appearance and also slightly stain the 'flat' sections of the wood. This helps make everything a better color consistency providing the wood is not too disparate and mismatched.

The color you are looking for in the dye types is almost certainly "vintage amber" which when applied to the natural mahogany appearance will give the tone seen in your image. If you want to darken it a little to even things out add a touch of "medium brown". Do not use "red mahogany" even tho it sounds good - you need to keep the reds out of this mix.

If the base wood is so bad as to need an opaque you will need to use an oxide or a paint mixed into the nitro - this can be done but it is tricky (similar practice used for butterscotch blonde Teles which have touch of white paint mixed into the amber)

Hope this helps. Rusty.

[William F.Eden]

i just new our good freind Rusty would be there to help out. He always comes throuhg when things get tuff. [Have a nice day Rusty.] BILL.'''''''''''''''''

[Michael P. Lemieux]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the great info you've guys have given me now and in the past. As Stevie would say "Thank you so very much".
Michael