NGD: CU24-08 Beach Fade (Chuck Levin's Anniversary run)

Here's a CU24-08 I ordered from Chuck Levin's which was part of a Wood Library run for their store's anniversary.
They also had (and in some cases still have) a few CU24-08 and 594s in Northern Lights, Absynthe, and Laguna.
Ah yes... I also got one of their 24-08 in Northern Lights last month.
I won't really try to justify getting two of those... besides always wanting those colors and also not being terribly worried about resale value if it comes to that.

I had a fantastic experience dealing with Luke and Evan at Chuck Levin's, I wouldn't hesitate buying a 3rd guitar from them but I do hope they run out unique and awesome looking guitars.

Was a bit bored post-Thanksgiving so I made a curly maple truss rod cover for it earlier today.
I'm also trying to make couple in my approximation of Beach Fade (last pic) for a more typical Private Stock look.
The quilt maple one looks cool, the other one didn't accept stains quite as well and was a darker piece of wood.
The beach part matches perfectly the body and it was relatively easy to get the color.
The water is a bit dark as I ran out of patience trying to get an intermediate bright cyan. I'll try again one day, it just requires way too much trial and error to get a cyan color.


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THAT'S JUST ON ANOTHER LEVEL. BRAVO WITH A CAPITAL "GOTTAFINDMEONEOFTHOSE"!!!
 
Dude, that thing checks all my boxes! Frickin’ congrats on that hotness!
 
The link is indeed straight from that Reverb ad, it was in my watch list too. It either ended or sold. I had a slight problem with his asking price... He got an offer very close to that at some point which blew my mind, but also convinced me the risk of buying one was limited should I need to part with it in the future.
Yeah, the price was, shall we say, a bit too optimistic in my opinion
 
Fantastic choice and the truss rods are the icing on the cake
Congrats, enjoy it in good health
NB: I'm sure there are many among us that would love to see the northern lights sibling
 
For the NL one I didn't manage to get any picture I liked, it's one of those finishes that looks way better in person than on pictures.
I'll give it another try maybe this week-end, in the meantime feel free to feast your eyes on my former Private Stock Northern Lights CU24:
 
That is stunning, I can see the 3d effect of the top so clearly on my phone, WOW, WOW!!!
 
VERY nice guitar you've to there.

That top and the neck on that guitar look amazing.

Congrats!!!!
 
Truss rod covers for the Beach Fade are mostly done, I'll use the left one. I may try trimming a bit more of the excess epoxy on the sides though (tricky as I don't want to sand down to the wood/stain).



That is stunning, I can see the 3d effect of the top so clearly on my phone, WOW, WOW!!!

That was the goal, I was moving the light source around like crazy.
The woods on that PS were spectacular (a build from @Brian G ), definitely had a strong chatoyance everywhere. I only realized after the fact that the headstock veneer was book-matched, a nice match for the top/back.

The Northern Lights Wood Library CU24-08 from Chuck isn't in the same league, but still extremely nice looking and I'm far less scared playing it than I was with the PS (primary reason for selling it).
 
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Truss rod covers for the Beach Fade are mostly done, I'll use the left one. I may try trimming a bit more of the excess epoxy on the sides though (tricky as I don't want to sand down to the wood/stain).

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That was the goal, I was moving the light source around like crazy.
The woods on that PS were spectacular (a build from @Brian G ), definitely had a strong chatoyance everywhere. I only realized after the fact that the headstock veneer was book-matched, a nice match for the top/back.

The Northern Lights Wood Library CU24-08 from Chuck isn't in the same league, but still extremely nice looking and I'm far less scared playing it than I was with the PS (primary reason for selling it).

That’s an awesome finish job. I struggled getting some back plates to match in one color, you did a fade and made it look easy. Do you have any secrets?
 
Updating initial post with a flyover of the guitar, enjoy !

Getting the colors is incredibly difficult for me (except for basic ones, or when I get hints from pros about mix ratios)
For those truss rod covers I got the beach part quickly enough as the colors are very close to the base colors from TransTint. I gave up matching the blue, but the one I got worked quite well for such a small part.

Fade technique is the easiest part, this taught me all I needed to know:

The red/yellow fade was the first one I attempted:
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Things got a bit out of control after that:

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Looks like you’ve earned yourself a job in the PS department!

Do you use spirit or water based?
 
I was using denatured alcohol at first, but its sale was recently forbidden in wonderful CA.
For the beach fade truss rod covers I used water, far from ideal for thin pieces of wood like that (warp).
 
Just have to say that the beach fade guitar is one of THE most amazing paints I've seen. Then I was even more blown away that you have the ability to do some of these finishes yourself! Incredible work! Makes me want to pick up a low priced guitar, strip the paint, and see if I can do something even remotely close. What sort of stains are used to get that effect? Is it a certain type or brand that is preferable?

-k
 
I use TransTint since I still have several bottles of their colors and they've worked well for me so far.
Keda dyes are apparently awesome too, and the guy who makes them post a bunch of videos on Youtube showing how to achieve various colors.
 
I looked those up and they both look like good products. I can already imagine some dream color schemes. Following the dye process, do you clear coat the body afterwards? Sorry for all the questions. I've never done this before.

-k
 
Body and back plates was clear coated by a pro shop. I only do the finish on the truss rod covers or wood buttons since those are easy enough (typically I use wipe-on-poly).
 
I use TransTint since I still have several bottles of their colors and they've worked well for me so far.
Keda dyes are apparently awesome too, and the guy who makes them post a bunch of videos on Youtube showing how to achieve various colors.

This is Keda dyes. I made up test swatches for a build. The first one is one colour and the second a test fade.





The guitar with flat stain and under lacquer



 
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