Whoops! What would you do?

[Andrew]

A ridiculous mistake I made that Im paying for at the staining stage. I dont think I need to tell you what I did, thats pretty obvious...

Im wondering what other builders here might do in this situation (beside not f***ing up to begin with :p). Ive considered inlays or a plate of some kind (the neck/headstock inlays are nickel silver thats a very close colour match to chrome), racing stripes (lol), trying to dye the guitar dark enough that the glue line doesnt stand out so much, or simply continue on with the process as planned and see how it looks/live with it and sell the guitar at a discounted price and just be honest about the flaw. Maybe theres something that hasnt occurred to me.

In the finishing process I still have to sand/scrape back the dye followed by a second dyeing, followed by sealing and shading. The back gets grain filler too but that doesnt apply here really.

Im trying to stay positive here. Perfection would be an affront to nature anyway :p.

Id like to hear from Russel Vance in particular. Your dye work on a guitar pictured in a recent thread was fantastic, I could certainly benefit from your experience.

[Andrew]

Can only upload one pic at a time for some reason. Heres what Im talking about:

[Andrew]

With the bridge:

[Russell Vance]

Hi Andrew,

Not an uncommon early days mistake - I still measure twice, thrice and then dry fit all components - high anxiety is where I like to be when drilling holes in expensive pieces of wood. 

Your dying looks fine and that is a worth piece of wood.  one of the steps I carry out from time to time is sand off all the dye so that only the dye left in the stripes is visible and hit it again with a same strength dye and rub it vigorously - this makes the stripes darker and contrasts better. 

With your dilemma here there are a couple of things you may wish to consider,but none of them are "silver bullets".   

Firstly you may try darkening up the dye till its practically black and then rubbing the surface to get some contrast back in and then finishing with a dark lacquer shaders - just remember, the finish schedule is built for being hit with a couple of stage cans - and the new ones are hi-intensity white LEDs - these really cut through even the darkest shaders coats.   So your goofs may not be visible under normal light and nobody is going to see them while on stage.

Secondly, in the cabinet makers bible there is a section titled "how to make a feature out of a fork-up"  - so Dye the whole thing as black as and hit it with dark shaders and spruik it as the "new anti-bling" trend towards dark mean guitars that have understated figure and don't look like coffee tables or the inside of a pimp-mobile Bentley.

Thirdly, Inlay a black powder coated brass base plate that covers the goofs and inset your ferrules into it and advertise it as a "custom built bridge stabilizing sustain plate" guaranteed to improve your tone and acoustic coupling to the exquisitely figured AAAAAAAA+ maple top........ - the old Yamaha RG's had a big lump of brass under the bridge just as I described (or was it the Ibanez Artist -) and you could also leverage that as" a heavy resonant brass bridge support  is custom fitted at no extra cost"....you get the drift.

Fourthly, make up a shiny black plastic decoration plate with pointy bits that matches the design "look" of the guitar and place it under the bridge area as a feature decoration.   

All these things may get you over the line whereas selling it with exposed goofs or evident mistakes is just going to lose money outright.   Good luck Andrew and welcome to the "I wish I had taken my time and measured and checked" club.   I feel like I may be a founding member.  We are at vancecustomguitars.com if you want to see where we are going with the anti-bling theme.

Rusty

[Andrew]

Thanks Rusty, I feel better now :). I did in fact measure several times, but I used the measurement for the tailpiece :p. I was dealing with some distractions at the time. I usually try not to work like that, but it happens I guess.

I was worried about a decorative plate or inlay being too blingy, but that may be my best route. Ill do some thinking on it over the weekend. Unfortunately I dont have much flexibility with toners as Im working with rattle cans for the time being. Either way Ive got a lot of humming and hawing to do.

I appreciate the advise (and consolation lol). I may be after you for further sagey-goodness, if thats okay. Ill definitely check out yuor site.

[Mark McLean]

Russell

I love where you are going with your guitar designs.  I am not an electric guy, but if I was looking for one I would go for exactly that.  I hope this venture goes well for you. 

cheers

Mark

[Tim Mace]

Bob Ross would easily turn this into a happy accident! I still don't see a flaw unless it's the circular indentations !

[Andrew]

Thats the one lol. Plugs from where I drilled for the bridge incorrectly.

I made up a plate yesterday to see how it'd look. Its not bad actually. The neck inkay and truss rod cover are the same material, maybe a toggle switch plate too.

Im just trying to decide whether itd be better to route the recess before or after I seal in the stain. I have to use an acrylic template and double stick tape, so probably after.

[Robbie Collins]

I think I'd make a slightly larger plate aligned with the humbucker hole and, as Russell suggested, with curlyques like the guitar body.  I also like his idea of an black brass plate inlaid into the top. You can cut brass with a bandsaw and it's easy to file and sand. I'm thinking 1/8" brass bar:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8-x-2-x-6-long-brass-flat-bar-stock-/3509...

I haven't used this but here's one way to blacken brass:

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=287

Just my opinion so consider the source ;-)

[Andrew]

I considered contours to match the body, but I dont want to go too ornate with it and overdo it. Keeping it to a shape similar to the bridge keeps it nicely understated and wont throw off the visual balance, I think. Also Id rather be able to inset the piece after the finishing is done so I dont have to do any additional messing around with the stain, and curvy/sharp shapes wont lend themselves to that...

Not shooting down your ideas. They could be done to look great, but I dont want to overcomplicate things at this point. Also my inlay routing skills need work.

I thought of doing elongated curved diamonds to match the fretboard inlays, but to cover the scars adequately theyd end up being at least two inches long if I was to go for the same height to width ratio, and thatd be overkill. Not to mention it being a royal pain to get that shape symmetrical - and there would be no room to play on dyed maple like there wood be on unfinished ebony.

I could, however, buff the plate up and have it engraved along with the others, might keep it from looking like such an afterthought.

Thoughts?

[RETROROD]

I think that what you have in the last picture looks great....

[Andrew]

Ah ty ty. Ill take all the support I can get :p

[Russell Vance]

Agree, perhaps a matching material ring for the selector switch would make it thematic and more like it was intended to be that way.  Robbies ideas are what is possible but if your inlay skills are sus: keep it simple is good. Looks fine, Rusty.