Here we have a paulownia body, originally spray painted black.
First it was sanded back just far enough so that the black paint remained in the pores of the wood, then I hand-applied canary yellow analine dye.
After vinyl sealer, approximately 10 coats of gunstock oil was applied and it was buffed out to a high gloss finish.
The Process:
As you can see, this paulownia body was originally covered in thick black enamel (spraypaint) finish.
Paulownia is generally a light, but resonant tonewood.
Due to its relative abundance and resulting low cost, low-weight and sparkly tone, there are definitely scenarios where it’s an excellent choice.
And this particular body, once finished, ended up in the mid-2lb range.
Paulownia is a “ring-pored” wood, meaning the pores are concentrated along the annular growth rings – similar in that regard to swamp ash.
Paulownia can vary greatly in appearance from piece to piece.
This piece in particular was cut fairly close to the quarter with relative grain uniformity (considering the species), and I wanted to keep just enough of the old paint job around to enhance the aforementioned cosmetic qualities.
It’s very common to see suble flame-like figure in between the rings, which is enhanced by coloring with analine dye (versus a pigmented stain) and finishing with a good oil-based clear coat.
I wasn’t sure what exact type of finish was on here, but I took a gamble that the alcohol solvent wouldn’t react with it.
The yellow dye went on without issue, and at this point the flaming between rings is starting to show.
With one coat of vinyl sealer applied, the color gets subtly darker, and now we are close to seeing what the final color will look like.
Really digging the black pores at this point.
The client gave me the choice of a few different necks, in varying degrees of browns and yellows, but this one (pictured) matched the best.
And now for the clear coat, gunstock oil in this case.
The oil I applied with a thin piece of plastic bag, balled up inside a coffee filter, in very thin coats.
The biggest pitfall I found with gunstock oil is that it doesn’t burn into itself like lacquer does, so it was very important to thoroughly scuff-sand with the grey scotch brite pads, between coats.
Failure to do this step results in strange looking water-marks, which are the result of the finish not properly bonding to itself from one coat to the next.
The final level sanding was done with 1000-grit wet/dry sandpaper and instead of wet-sanding with water, I used Naphtha, which seemed to be way less aggressive (though way more expensive).
Once it was level, I applied a veeeery thin coat of 50% reduced gunstock oil with naphtha, which saved me the time and hassle of buffing.
With the finish done, I levelled/crowned/polished the frets, made a bone nut, shielded the electronics cavities, installed the hardware and set it up.
It was at this stage I realized that the control plate looked crooked, but some measurements with the straight-edge assured me it is not.
The optical illusion is a result of the crookedness of the wood grain.
With the action down nice and low – 0.050" (low E @12th fret) to 0.035" (high E @12th fret) – the only issue now is “to pickguard, or not to pickguard”.
We tried it both ways, and the client and I both decided that a big piece of plastic only obscures the beautiful woodgrain, and doesn’t really look right for this build.
As an alternative solution, the client found a chrome pickup ring for the neck pickup.
With the pickup hole sufficiently covered, the guitar is now complete.
