Ben Castellana's Sunburst Les Paul

[Ben Castellana]

I had originally intended to post images of this guitar in "Mistakes Made While Building Early Guitars" thread, but this guitar, in spite of its problems, has become my Number 2 guitar for gigging. I started this one in 2006 and completed it in 2007. There were a lot of firsts for me with this one: the first carved top, the first bound neck, my first attempt at accentuating grain with stain, my first encounter with spalted wood, etc.

I built two guitars, one right-handed and one left handed. The bodies are mahogany with spalted maple caps, the necks are mahogany with a maple center stripe, and the fretboards are cocobolo - one of my very favorite woods. I also made knobs from the fretboard cutoffs. Because I was trying to learn more about binding techniques, I fretted the left-handed neck before binding, and bound the right-handed neck before fretting. Both were a pain, but I think the latter was much easier in the long run.

Both guitars suffered from problems with the finish - I used a new product, and I did not do a very good job of sealing the spalted parts, which suffered greatly during wet sanding. The finish on the right-handed guitar was so bad that I set it aside (after several disastrous attempts to fix) awaiting a day that I had more patience. The left-handed one was not so bad, so I went ahead and started using it.

[Ben Castellana]

Problems that developed included a large crack opening along the grain of the spalted top. Also, the finish started flaking off the back of the neck. I'm sure that this was a user error with the new finish (which has subsequently been re-formulated by the manufacturer).

[Ben Castellana]

A few more construction shots.

[Ben Castellana]

My rig and a few favorite guitars at a recent gig. The sunburst Les Paul (finished 2007), Firebird (2009), '58 Flying V (2005), MIM stratocaster, and Mesa Roadster amplifier.

I also built the white 4x12 cabinet to replace my Mesa/Boogie 4x12, which weighs over 100 lbs. The new cabinet is built like an aircraft wing - thin plywood on ribs and filled with foam, and has neodymium speakers. It weighs less than 50 lbs.

[Ben Loutrelle]

I like the blue top on the righty!

[Dave Locher]

What did you use for the stain, and what are your thoughts on how it worked for you?

[Robert Smallwood]

I like the way you've managed to fade in both bursts. Are you spraying or using the D Myka rag on a stick method or something other?

Nice jobs.

[Ben Castellana]

Thanks, all; of course, the righty gets the most attention (I'm really pleased with how that one turned out the second time around BTW). The stains are Stew MacDonald ColorTone liquid stains; I really like the boldness of the colors they offer. For both of these guitars, I accented the grain by staining the top with a diluted color (stain + DI water) directly on the wood. For the red burst, I stained with red, and for the blue, I stained with purple, then blue. I sanded the stain back after each application to try to build some depth to the figure. For the red sunburst, I then stained the top with a bright yellow, then sealed with water-based polyurethane. The blue one has a much more complicated history, since I finished it like the red one, then sanded it back almost completely several years later.

I've tried a couple of methods for sunbursting and fading, including spraying with a cardboard cutout several inches from the body and eyeballing it. The sunburst on the red guitar was done with a detail gun using a cutout; there is still way too much overspray on that guitar for my taste. The sunburst on the blue guitar was done by hand with a Paasche hobby airbrush, built up in three or four coats. I'm still not completely happy with the airbrush because the polyurethane viscosity causes some unevenness and spattering. I'm thinning the polyurethane quite a bit, which is why I have to use so many coats to build the sunburst; perhaps I'll develop better control with time and experience. I've completely given up trying to fade with my HVLP guns, though.

Still learning and borrowing whatever I can from the contributors to this site (thank you all, by the way).