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I have an Imbuia SJ thats just reached the finishing stage. I was aware of the slight color mismatch when I bought the set and thought I could match the back (slightly lighter in tone) to the sides with a little walnut stain during the finishing but as you can see the color difference is several shades under the first coat of z-poxy (with a coat of stain on the back). So now from a esthetics perspective, I’m sitting here wondering if I should darken the walnut stain I used and try to darken the back some more to more closely match the sides or leave it as is? I’m afraid if I darken the back considerably, I’ll lose the subtly of the Imbuia grain pattern. The finish is going to be varnish by the way so both back and sides will darken up a bit more.

This is going to be a donation to a youth auction at the church I attend so there is no perspective buyer to please. However, I was hoping the exposure may introduce some future buyers to my work and I’d hate for people to look at this and wonder if I am color blind. What do you think – leave it as is, fully darken the back to match the sides, slightly darken the back to bring them closer together without a perfect color match?

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

Seems a prime candidate for a burst finish. A little black on the edges will separate the two tones enough that they will be much less noticeable. Shame to hide any of that pretty wood though. The owner of one of the cabinet shops I worked in would always try to tone the lacquer to fix color issues, and when he was done playing and making it worse, it usually just got remade.

If the recent thread from "guy with a question" taught us anything, it is how that exposure can be either good or bad, and how much more interesting the bad is to talk about then the good.
Rob

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

perhaps its just the picture, but i think it looks awesome. i wouldnt change a thing. it is, after all, wood.

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sweat the small stuff.

I agree.

John

Let the wood be itself. I'd leave it alone. I agree, it looks awesome.

I agree as well, from the picture, it looks great.

We had a weird cabinet door experience, Solid doors with grain running vertically, and the drawer fronts running horizontally, this is standard, but in this small kitchen, the light made the two look very different and caused us tons of grief, so there will be some color mismatch just from the light hitting the sides and back from different angles, you may be looking too hard at it.
Rob

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

Looks fantastic to me too

Leave it alone IMO. If anyone notices, tell them "It's hard to get enough lovely wood like this from one tree, so I had to make the set from two different logs. Gorgeous, isn't it?!"

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

That is beautiful! I would leave it alone also, looks to me like your reputation will be just fine!

Joe

That's a shame right there. You know, I'll send you my address and you can ship it to me just so you can get it out of your sight........



I wouldn't change a thing either. It's beautiful, especially with the koa (yes?) bindings and back strip!

Besides...........no one looks at the back anyway

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Thanks for the opinions guys. My opinioned in-house style and design consultant (aka my teenage daughter) also agreed. Time to start brushing on some Behlens.

Hey Rod - yeah it's koa bindings - turned out to be a nice coffee and cream color palate.

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

just to add one more brick to the pile, i agree as well. leave it as it is. i think it looks great.
one of the big draw backs with staining for us rookies is that we invariably sand through and start to wreck the very bottom layer of our finish. it would be waaaay too much work to restain and not get witness lines or shadowing where you're trying to patch up the sand through.
get on it with that clear coat!!

UPDATE

Put the first coat of varnish on the body last night and it evened out the tone a bit more. I think it going to look alright. Thanks again for the advice.

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Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

Doug, that looks fabulous.
If this is any consolation, we have four Martin HD-28's in the shop right now for various repairs. None of the backs match the sides any better than yours...and a couple not as well.
So I'd say if Martin can get away with it, then so can you!
Especially when your guitar looks so nice.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

You are in fat city on that beauty. I really like Imbuia-almost poreless, like Maple. Nice work. mt