Mark Maneja
10 min read
Finishing is the one guitar-building step you cannot undo. So Steve Madden practiced on six plywood bodies first, then gave his quilted maple kit five thin coats of Tru-Oil. Here is his method, and how he fixed the binding when it turned yellow.
Finishing is the one step in a guitar build you cannot undo. Dye soaks in. Oil soaks in. Get it wrong and the guitar wears it forever.
Steve Madden knew that. He lives in Boise, Idaho, and has a background in cabinet and furniture making. So before he put one drop of dye on his guitar, he made six guitar bodies out of plywood and practiced on those.
It worked. His quilted maple top now looks a few inches deep. But even with all that care, one thing still went wrong near the end. The white binding around the edge turned bright yellow. Here is how he got it back.
Steve built his guitar from our Custom Shop, starting from the Custom Shop classic single-cutaway kit. He chose a single-cutaway body with a quilted maple top, white binding, and a striped maple neck with black block inlays. Quilted maple was a smart pick for this finish. Its figure looks like rippled water. Dye and oil make those ripples catch the light.
Because you only get one try on the real one. Steve did his homework first.
I watched many hours of YouTube videos from a couple of builders before I applied any color. I also made several Maple Ply blanks for color and pattern testing.
He used alcohol-based leather dyes. They mix into any color, and they stay easy to work. He tested each color and each step on maple plywood. Maple ply takes dye much like a maple top, so the blanks showed him what the guitar would do.
His plan was a sunburst. The practice bodies changed his mind.
I did make several blanks for testing the Angelus dies and patterns. Once I got the first coat on and did the sand back I decided against a burst pattern.
Making the blanks was worth the effort.
A sand back is how a figured top gets its depth. First, a bright color goes on. Here it was yellow. Then you sand lightly. The color comes off the high spots but stays in the soft ones. When the darker color goes on top, you see two layers instead of one.
Once Steve saw how much the quilt did on its own, he skipped the burst. The deep amber below is the result.
Steve chose Tru-Oil, a linseed oil made for gun stocks. He had used it on rifle stocks before, so he knew how it behaves.
First came the prep. He sanded out every scuff and every spot of glue near the binding. He worked down to 320 grit. He sanded the top by hand, so he would not cut through the thin maple. Then he blew off the dust and wiped it all clean. Our guide to sanding a body before finishing covers the same steps.
He left the fretboard bare. He taped over it, the frets and the nut. He also taped the neck pocket and the tuner holes. The rest of the neck got oil, just like the body. Planning your own neck? Here is how to finish a kit neck and fretboard.
Tru-Oil® should be applied in very thin coats using a clean, lint-free cloth. Work out some way to hang the neck and body while they dry before you start.
Between coats, he rubbed every surface lightly with 0000 steel wool. He blew the fibers out with air. Then he wiped everything clean. He waited two to three hours between coats, and often longer. Five coats went on everything.
Take your time with the finishing process. Being in a hurry only causes problems. My 5 coats took me 2 days.
Why so thin? Tru-Oil does not dry the way paint does. It hardens as it reacts with the air, from the top down. A thin coat hardens all the way through. A thick coat hardens on top first. The oil under that skin stays soft. That is where wrinkles and soft spots come from. Thin coats and patience are the whole method.
One safety tip for any linseed oil. Oily rags can heat up as they dry, and they can catch fire on their own. Lay used rags flat to dry, or seal them in a metal can of water. Never leave them in a pile. Our finishing safety guide has more.
This was the step Steve had never done. Every coat of dye and oil on the top also landed on the white binding around its edge. By the last coat, the binding was bright yellow.
The white binding had 5 coats of Tru-Oil® that had to be scraped off.
Here is the good news. Binding is plastic. It does not soak up dye or oil the way wood does. The color just sits on top as a thin skin. A sharp scraper, held flat and pulled along the binding, lifts that skin off. The clean white plastic is right underneath, and the wood next to it is not touched.
Scraping takes a steady hand and a steady body. Steve solved the steady part like a cabinetmaker.
I attached a strip of 3/4 ‘ pine to the body using the screw holes for installing the neck. This let me clamp and hold the body for scraping. It was pretty nerve racking at first, but I got the hang of it and after about 60 mins the binding was scraped and buffed and the body was ready for wax.
Then came the wax. He used a good furniture paste wax, four coats on everything but the fretboard.
Wipe on an even, thin coat. Let it dry and buff it out. Ezzy Peezy!
The finish was Steve's home turf. The wiring was not, and he said so.
I do plan to ask a guitar tech friend for help with the wiring. I am only about 50% confident working from the manual.
So he laid every part out and took photos. He worked out which wires were ground and which carried the signal. He found where each pickup joined the switch. Two days later, it was done.
I managed to figure everything out. The guitar is complete and dropped off with my guitar tech today for a professional setup.
His friend Shane, a guitar tech in Boise, did the final setup. Building the same two-pickup layout? Our wiring diagram for two pickups, one volume and one tone matches it. Our kit wiring guide explains each wire.
Look at the edge of the top. The white binding runs around it in one clean, unbroken line. That line is what makes the amber look deep. It gives your eye a sharp edge to measure the figure against. It is also the hour Steve spent with a scraper.
I am very happy with the project. It is definitely a homemade 1 of 1 guitar that I am very proud of.
His last line in the write-up sums up the whole build.
There are no Do-Overs when staining and finishing. Do your homework, take your time and have fun.
Beautiful work, Steve. Six practice bodies, five coats, an hour on the binding, and a top you want to reach into. See more of his photos in his build thread on our community.
Steve started with bare wood and ended with a guitar nobody else owns. Yours can start the same way. An unfinished kit leaves the color, the oil and the shine up to you. A quilted maple top gives that finish something to show off.
See the quilted maple guitar kits
Not ready to choose yet? Watch how a kit comes together, step by step, before you pick one.
Over to you: have you finished a guitar with oil? Did you practice on scrap first? Tell us on the community.
Yes, if you want a thin finish you can put on by hand. It is a linseed oil. Thin coats harden into a smooth satin or gloss. You need no spray gear, and it is easy to touch up later. It is thinner than lacquer, so you feel more of the wood.
Steve used five coats on the body and neck, over two days. He was happy with the result. More coats add more shine, but keep each one thin. Let each coat harden first. Rub lightly with 0000 steel wool between coats.
Start with two to three hours when it is warm and dry. Wait longer when it is cool or damp. A coat is ready when it feels hard, not sticky. Rush it and soft oil gets trapped under a hard skin. That leads to wrinkles.
Scrape it. Binding is plastic, so dye and oil sit on top as a thin skin. Hold a sharp scraper flat and pull it along the binding. The skin lifts off and the clean plastic shows. The wood next to it stays as it is.
Usually not. Steve taped over his fretboard, frets and nut, and left the board bare. Then he oiled the rest of the neck. Tape keeps dye out of the fret slots and off the part you play on.
Dye in maple is hard to undo. The same color also looks different on different woods. So test on scrap of the same wood first. Try each color and each step, sand back included. Steve changed his whole plan after his tests.
Doug DeLuca and his sixteen year old son turned a bare quilted maple top into a deep blue burst, and the figure still reads through the darkest part of the rim. Here is the dye versus pigment decision that made it work, why the edges are the darkest part of the guitar, and what you can copy on your own figured top.
Christoph and his son Fionn wanted a deep even black on an open-grained mahogany body with the figure still showing through, and the pores kept drying lighter than the surface. Follow the build from the bare kit to the finished bass, and see how they diagnosed it and what you can copy from their approach.
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