Grey/black stain questions! Help pls!

AjCalderon

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Ok so I bought a book matched truss rod cover from reverb that I’m stoked on but need help with suggestions on what stain I should pick up to try and color match my grey/black CE24. Any suggestions would be amazing or do you think I should just suck it up and take it into a local Vegas luthier and have them do it quick and properly since I don’t already own stain/clear coat? I’m thanks!!!
 
Ok so I bought a book matched truss rod cover from reverb that I’m stoked on but need help with suggestions on what stain I should pick up to try and color match my grey/black CE24. Any suggestions would be amazing or do you think I should just suck it up and take it into a local Vegas luthier and have them do it quick and properly since I don’t already own stain/clear coat? I’m thanks!!!
I should add that it’s curly maple
 
Some great products out there.

Leather dyes in powder form, ready mixed dyes in liquid form.

Cans of clear lacquer are readily available too.

All I would say is, practice on some scrap pieces first.

When I stained a guitar top, I used some of the off-cuts to practice the finish I wanted.

It depends if you want to play, or you want an easy life (send to luthier).

Good luck either way.
 
Someone on the forum posted pics of the process he went through doing back plates and TRC. They came out really good. I wish I could remember who it was, or what thread it was in.....:(
 
Ok so I bought a book matched truss rod cover from reverb that I’m stoked on but need help with suggestions on what stain I should pick up to try and color match my grey/black CE24. Any suggestions would be amazing or do you think I should just suck it up and take it into a local Vegas luthier and have them do it quick and properly since I don’t already own stain/clear coat? I’m thanks!!!
Take it to the luthier and talk to them about it. Just because you ask doesn’t mean you have to let them do the work. Get their opinion and start a relationship with someone who might be a resource in the future.
 
A “book matched” TRC? It’s 2 piece? :confused:

Yes, 2-pieces. I happen to dig the look. And by the way they’re much more time consuming to do.

Edited: also the only way to get a chevron/reverse chevron like on my PG:
FR78aRl.jpg
 
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Here's the prior thread:
https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...avity-covers-for-ses.41549/page-2#post-538625

I don't have the concentration of the dyes listed there for the frostbite backplate, but I took notes I need to dig up.
Between the pictures of the frostbite/grey fade and the mix ratios you should be able to find something that matches your black/grey finish best.
The good news is you only need black and diluted it, that's much easier than having to mix different colors.

I'll re-iterate what I said before which is that the bottle of dye itself will cost you as much or more than the cover itself.
Having it done by a local luthier though will cost you even more; but honestly I don't think many of them will be very good at dyeing + clear coating this type of stuff. For that you want a real guitar finish shop, I'd suggest Pat Wilkins Guitars for an absolutely flawless finish.
 
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In that other thread I had a pictures showing the first step which is a fade from black to natural.
The markings on the paper towel show where I applied the 5 different stains I had made:

WsAYIG7.jpg


From my notes, the mixes were (each for 1Tbsp of 91% isopropyl alcohol):
1) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 28 drops Keda black
2) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 12 drops Keda black
3) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 5 drops Keda black
4) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 1 drops Keda black
5) Straight alcohol

If using TransTint you'll need a lot more drops.
You'll probably want to be be somewhere around #2 and #3.
As suggested, start light as you can always darken the mix and apply again.
Whereas if you start too dark you're mostly out of luck: you can try to pull out some of the dye with alcohol to brighten things up but you can only do so much if it's way too dark to begin with.
 
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In that other thread I had a pictures showing the first step which is a fade from black to natural.
The markings on the paper towel show where I applied the 5 different stains I had made:

49522251033_c83b0973b4_c.jpg


From my notes, the mixes were (each for 1Tbsp of 91% isopropyl alcohol):
1) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 28 drops Keda black
2) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 12 drops Keda black
3) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 5 drops Keda black
4) 1Tbsp 90% alcohol: 1 drops Keda black
5) Straight alcohol

If using TransTint you'll need a lot more drops.
You'll probably want to be be somewhere around #2 and #3.
As suggested, start light as you can always darken the mix and apply again.
Whereas if you start too dark you're mostly out of luck: you can try to pull out some of the dye with alcohol to brighten things up but you can only do so much if it's way too dark to begin with.
This is amazing and extremely helpful! Probably just suck it up and buy the dye and get to playing with it. I’m sure I can find other uses for it eventually. The matching chevron pattern is a need for me haha. I need to bring some of the body color up to the natural headstock on the CE24. Especially since I have black hardware on the way!
 
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