# Cheap Douglas Refinish (and asking for advice on sanding arched tops)



## XeoFLCL (Apr 1, 2010)

I've began refinishing a guitar I left at a friends for the past half year that I didn't play much, and thought you guys might be interested in my findings and maybe give me some advice on sanding arched tops.

Anyways here's the victim:






Here's the body stripped of all electronics.. (Take notice of the hackjob I did way back when on the tone knob hole )





And my surprising find!




ASH!  Sorry my camera sucks, it doesn't catch the grain that well. It's alot more visible in person when wet. Anyways the website lists these guys as basswood so I was expecting a very bland piece of basswood, but to my surprise I've run into this. The grain so far on the corner is beautiful (besides that small brown spot, but it doesn't really bug me), and I can't wait to get the whole top off and see how it looks. I plan to stain the guitar black and finish it with tung oil with open grain, so this thing is going to look brutal. Anyways I'm having a hell of a time because there's a shitload of primer on this thing, does anyone have any tips for tearing it off faster or do I just have to suck it up and keep hand sanding? I can't use my sander because of the arched top.. and that's killing me


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 1, 2010)

I've got 1/4th of the finish off now, and am starting to wonder if this is ash or not. If this is White Ash, this would be my first time seeing the grain for it in person. I LOVE it though, I'm staining this baby purple.. It's definitely not basswood because it has some grain going on around the rings on it, which is very typical of ash. Not to mention there's FAR too much figure. If anyone knows what wood this really is (as I only know from looking at charts) then some chiming in would be nice I'm gonna have to email kurt this info as these are listed as basswood 

*EDIT: It's basswood.*  Shows what I know. but it's some fine looking basswood at that 

Also again bad pics. the flash pretty much knocks the figure out of the pic. There's alot more to it than you can see in these pics, compare it to the pic above, thats a more accurate protrayment of the wood. I'll take another tomorrow outside once I get another half down.


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## Andii (Apr 1, 2010)

That looks like basswood to me.

Someone here stained a basswood guitar and it was awesome. They used some sort of minwax grain enhancer before staining it. It looked amazingly three dimensional. I think it was a 7321.


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## gatesofcarnage (Apr 1, 2010)

Ya dude thats basswood but still awesome! Good luck on the rest of the refinish i cant wait to see it!


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 1, 2010)

I don't know.. the grain is very 3D, and the basswood I've seen has had little grain dimension to it. But you're prolly right. Still the grain to this thing is amazing and I'll be keeping it natural. Getting another half off today then the last half off tomorrow


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## MF_Kitten (Apr 1, 2010)

i keep hearing people talk about basswood looking like crap, but having sanded down to basswood twice, and having seen many others do the same, i can testify that it´s not really that bland. alder tend to be much more dull than basswood, even. basswood can have some nice waves and ash-like patterns, though not as "hard". basswood can look great with a stain on it


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2010)

Leon's old RG7621 for reference:


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 1, 2010)

Metal Ken said:


> Leon's old RG7621 for reference:


WOW that looks nice. Is this that RG that was mentioned earlier in the thread? If so, can someone link me to that grain enhancer he used?



MF_Kitten said:


> i keep hearing people talk about basswood looking like crap, but having sanded down to basswood twice, and having seen many others do the same, i can testify that it´s not really that bland. alder tend to be much more dull than basswood, even. basswood can have some nice waves and ash-like patterns, though not as "hard". basswood can look great with a stain on it


I've only seen examples such as on warmoth, and maybe one or two stained basswood guitars, so that's why I doubted it at first because it almost has an ash-like grain pattern like you mentioned. Very surprised with what I found on this cheap douglas I only busted about 150 on 

Anyways this guitar is prolly going to get hit with a very dark purple stain, I'll be slowly sanding it down over the next week as I have to hand sand the top and sides


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## Andii (Apr 2, 2010)

^^That's not the one I was talking about. 

This is it:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/pickups-electronics-and-general-tech/100002-rg7321-refinish.html


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## xtrustisyoursx (Apr 2, 2010)

I'm not sure how they do it, but every douglas I've dealt with (I've owned 3) has had insanely nice wood. The two I currently own have incredible birdseye figuring on the neck, and beautiful rosewood on the fingerboards. My Douglas tele has a really pretty ash burl top, and my 7 has a flawless ash body.


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 2, 2010)

Andii said:


> ^^That's not the one I was talking about.
> 
> This is it:
> http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/pickups-electronics-and-general-tech/100002-rg7321-refinish.html


Delicious  I'll have to take notes on getting some Minwax wood conditioner.. I hope Home Depot has some of it! Going there tomorrow to see what I can dig up


xtrustisyoursx said:


> I'm not sure how they do it, but every douglas I've dealt with (I've owned 3) has had insanely nice wood. The two I currently own have incredible birdseye figuring on the neck, and beautiful rosewood on the fingerboards. My Douglas tele has a really pretty ash burl top, and my 7 has a flawless ash body.


Yup. my Douglas SR370 has a quilted neck, really nice stuff. You also have a SR370 yeah?

Also anyone know if it would be too late to give some paint thinner/stripper a shot on the body? I've got the top down to 1/3 or so sanded and my right hand is killing me lol


BTW, This is the purple I'm going to be aiming for:




Surely I can use any wood dye yes? As in, I don't have to bust the 13 something bucks for the dye at stewmac?


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## Isan (Apr 2, 2010)

get the stew mac stuff it is much better quality then the generics


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## Wi77iam (Apr 2, 2010)

You ain't seen basswood til you seen TimSE's


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## Sebastian (Apr 3, 2010)

Purple !
That will be great !
Can't wait to see more pics


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## gunshow86de (Apr 3, 2010)

XeoFLCL said:


> I don't know.. the grain is very 3D, and the basswood I've seen has had little grain dimension to it. But you're prolly right. Still the grain to this thing is amazing and I'll be keeping it natural. Getting another half off today then the last half off tomorrow



Ash has lots of parallel grain lines though.











I can't wait to see this. Purple guitars make me want to jizz in my pants. That's my H-207 above, I'm planning on refinishing it in see-through purple, keeping the natural binding going.


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## Rokkaholic (Apr 3, 2010)

Go for purple! It is the sexiest color ever on a guitar


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## ivancic1al (Apr 3, 2010)

*Thread hijack* 

Does anyone know if Alder will look any good natural? Anyone sand down an alder guitar? I have a Jackson 7 that's gloss black...blehh. I've been tossing around the idea for a refin, but I dunno if I should keep it natural or paint over it again. Thoughts?


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 4, 2010)

Rokkaholic said:


> Go for purple! It is the sexiest color ever on a guitar


I'm having a bit of trouble finding a purple stain though.. So I might need to settle with something else.

Unless someone here knows where to get a purple stain


ivancic1al said:


> *Thread hijack*
> 
> Does anyone know if Alder will look any good natural? Anyone sand down an alder guitar? I have a Jackson 7 that's gloss black...blehh. I've been tossing around the idea for a refin, but I dunno if I should keep it natural or paint over it again. Thoughts?


Alot of strats are finished in see through amber sunburst and are made of either alder or ash, so I'd suggest checking them out. My Washburn WG587 is alder and it has a pretty constant grain pattern to it, which can be good or bad depending on what look you're after. Alder is however, a very closed grain wood so it's very easy to refinish and in some cases can be very attractive.


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## lctdmf (Apr 4, 2010)

Buy Purple - TransTint Dyes at Woodcraft.com

Buy Cordovan - TransTint Dyes at Woodcraft.com

First one is a pure purple dye, second is "Cordovan" which is a Red dye with Purple undertones.


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## XeoFLCL (Apr 9, 2010)

lctdmf said:


> Buy Purple - TransTint Dyes at Woodcraft.com
> 
> Buy Cordovan - TransTint Dyes at Woodcraft.com
> 
> First one is a pure purple dye, second is "Cordovan" which is a Red dye with Purple undertones.


I might be ditching the purple idea and going for gray instead due to availability. I picked up some stain and am going to test it out, if I don't like it I'll prolly order some of that purple.

Anyways I've been procrasinating like a mofo lately so I've only got the top half sanded down. I'll update with pics once I start dying the top (which will be this next weekend assuming I can nail the corners in a day or two)


gunshow86de said:


> I can't wait to see this. Purple guitars make me want to jizz in my pants. That's my H-207 above, I'm planning on refinishing it in see-through purple, keeping the natural binding going.


Also, your H207's body looks almost exactly like my C7's (it's also ash, 1999 model) but with a TOM instead, and mines in a royal red instead  I even have a blaze with black polepieces I might put in the neck position.

Also, props for the D-Sonic 7 in ash aswell, best combination for ash 7s out there if you ask me. Recipe for massive tone


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## XeoFLCL (May 24, 2010)

Okay so it's been 1 1/2 months, but I've been working on it once every few weeks and finally got to staining today! After much thinking and researching, I've decided to go for a distressed stain finish. Here are some progress pics and one with the first coat of tung oil 

















almost there


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## XeoFLCL (May 25, 2010)

Got it done 











Very happy with it, it makes the perfect black metal guitar


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## Nonservium (May 25, 2010)

Dude that is sick. Seriously. I really like how that turned out. Good job.


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## XeoFLCL (May 26, 2010)

Nonservium said:


> Dude that is sick. Seriously. I really like how that turned out. Good job.


Oh yeah, it's looks will prolly score itself as one of my live guitars out of my massive collection next show we play  I'm surprised how well it came out, I might take it apart next string change and do some small changes to it (more tung oil, higher grit smoothing) but besides that I'm really enjoying it


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## AcousticMinja (May 26, 2010)

XeoFLCL said:


> Oh yeah, it's looks will prolly score itself as one of my live guitars out of my massive collection next show we play  I'm surprised how well it came out, I might take it apart next string change and do some small changes to it (more tung oil, higher grit smoothing) but besides that I'm really enjoying it



You better enjoy it!!! I vote it as your most fun to play guitar. I didn't want to put it down even though it smelled like wood shop class. I may pick one of these up someday...


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