Wudtone - a few self-build examples

TTony

I've only built a few guitars over the years.

But until this year, I'd only ever been able to finish them with oil.  I had no spraying facilities and my attempts at using coloured wood stains had failed.  Badly.  So, back to plain oil finishes.

There's nothing wrong with oil.  I even experimented a bit with some wet-sanding with oil, using waxes, etc.  (Thanks to Wez for some tips on those).

I don't like bodies with thick coats of opaque paint.  I don't like the feel.  I'm sure that they don't sound as good.  And you're never too sure what odd bits of wood have been nailed together to form the body - you can't see them.

I think it was Stonevibe who first posted a Wudtone finish thread, so I shall be forever indebted to him for introducing me to Wudtone!  With Wudtone you get all the see-thru and feel-thru qualities of oil, but with the ability to add a little colour to the finish.

So, here are a few before/during/after pics of my experiments with Wudtone.  I'm not going to bother repeating the full build threads that I did originally.

Before pic:  A nice piece of Ash, in the shape-ish of a Tele;

The during pic:  This is with the first coat of Dairy Blonde applied

And the final pic ...

 

That's got one of Ash's finest - a Diesel Tap.  Brilliant pickup.  And - clearly - the only pickup that that guitar needs!

The whole Wudtoning process was simple.  Follow the instructions - mix up the colour blend that I wanted (actually, pure luck), apply it in a few light coats, and voila.

 

Nothing to do with Wudtone, but I love this neck ... one piece Rosewood, from Warmoth.  Expensive, but wonderful.

 

 

TTony

^^

That one worked well, so let's do another.

Before Pic:  Another nice piece of Ash.  Another Tele-ish shape;

During pic #1.  This is Cherry Flamenco.  First coat of the base stain coat.

IF only I'd known then, what I know now.  That's too anaemic.  I put the coat on as a light "dusting" of stain, much as I'd done the Dairy Blonde previously.

Wrong.  This base coat stain has to be really pushed into the wood.  Forced in with some hard rubbing.  Don't flood the wood with stain that lays on the top ... but use plenty of stain with plenty of elbow grease to rub it deep into the body.

Once the first coat goes wrong, it doesn't matter how many more coats you put on, the colour never really deepens to the extent that it should.

I tried rubbing it down and trying again, but that didn't work either.  I ended up doing a fairly radical piece of rubbing down ...

 

That exposed some pretty-much raw wood, and I could start again.

So, during pic #2.  Looks a bit better-redder, huh?

Cherry Flamenco is actually quite a lot more complex than the Dairy Blonde.  It comes with 3 separate stages of stain.

It's worth persevering with ...

Final pic;

 

 

 

 

 

 

TTony

And a third, abbreviated, photo story of using Wudtone;

This body had been in my "workshop" for about 5 years.  No exaggeration.  It was covered in dust, spider shit, and general workshop muck.  This is with it cleaned up a bit;

And then cleaned up a bit more

Before pic;  (A nice piece of quilted maple on a Korina body, since you asked!)

 

 

During pic #1.  Cherry Flamenco again ... now you see it;

 

During pic #2.  Cherry Flamenco again ... now you see it, and now you don't

 

Actually, that turned out to be a bit too aggressively sanded back for the finish that I was trying to achieve.  So I ended up doing this one again too!  With a couple of coats of Goldenrod over the top of the sanded-back Cherry Flamenco, this is how it was looking;

 

I thought about it for a week or two - as you can see, I'd stuck the neck in by this stage, so was a little reluctant to re-do it.

But I did re-did it.  Best way of learning is to make mistakes, work out what they were and how not to make them again ...

This is how it's currently looking (same colour combo - Goldenrod over Cherry Flamenco) after a couple of coats of the gloss finish too;

 

Still plenty to do on this one too, but the Wudtoning work is done.

citizen68

Don't usually like quilt tops but that is spectacular - The guitar looks like it's on fire!   Love it..

RedRabbit

Really nice, Tony.  Especially the last one.

I've got a Wudtone Black Magic Woman kit waiting to go on a tele build I'm doing.  Hopefully your experience will mean I'm less likely to do anything stupid.

TTony

Thanks Citizen.

RedRabbit said:

I've got a Wudtone Black Magic Woman kit waiting to go on a tele build I'm doing.  Hopefully your experience will mean I'm less likely to do anything stupid.

Andy @ Wudtone is usually pretty helpful (and he's the expert), but if you've any other Qs when you get started with it, there are a few people here with Wudtone experience who'll usually offer opinions too.

ddlooping

@TTony, have you finished that last one?

TTony

ddlooping said:

@TTony, have you finished that last one?

Hi @ddlooping.  Nope. . I went back to work .

Megii

Thanks for those pictures TTony, really enjoyed looking through this, even though it makes me want to build more guitars that I can't afford! That last one is so 3D-looking, quite amazing!

ddlooping

TTony said:

ddlooping said:

@TTony, have you finished that last one?

Hi @ddlooping.  Nope. . I went back to work .

It will be done, I'm sure.

TTony

ddlooping said:

It will be done, I'm sure.

yeah, but at current rate of progress, you'll have a Ghost built before I get that one finished.

ddlooping

TTony said:

ddlooping said:

It will be done, I'm sure.

yeah, but at current rate of progress, you'll have a Ghost built before I get that one finished.

I wouldn't bet on it. :-S 

ThePrettyDamned

TTony, I love those. I know I said that on the old forum...

The cherry flamenco is a stunner, I'd have that any day! And the dc, well...

It looks like fire! Very prs.

xmrchi

I know this is an old thread but what happened to these, they are lovely!

TTony

mrchi said:

I know this is an old thread but what happened to these, they are lovely!

Wow ... thread from the dead time !!

The single p'up Tele is still mine, and is playing beautifully thank-you-very-much.  The neck is just stunning (sourced from Warmoth) and the p'up (Oil City) is a stonker.

The red Tele was sold and is now in the tender loving care of another forumite.

I'd forgotten about the DC and haven't got around to finishing it yet - largely because I had a bit of a problem with the headstock, and I'm not sure that I've solved it properly, so haven't spent the time finishing it.  But it was a great learning experience in using Wudtone.

I've got a couple more Wudtone kits out in the workshop atm, headed towards a couple of GSPBasses guitars that I've acquired recently.

xmrchi

Let me know if any are made available.

TTony

Will do. I've got a couple more part-built or getting ready for build when I eventually get time!