Over the summer I did a hand applied color fade on this 7 string guitar.
I’ve been wanting to do what I’m calling a black cherry fade for a while now. I’m not talking about recreating a “black cherry burst”. I’m referring to the color of the black cherry fruit.
The fade goes from pure black, to black cherry, to natural and I masked off the black limba body so that the color was applied only to the top wood.
Here are the supplies I used to create this finish:
- Rubio Monocoat
- Analine dyes (the ones I used are no longer available, but these appear to be similar)
- 3m vinyl tape
- Painters tape
- White staining rags
- Grey scuff pad
- Silicone mixing cup, stir stick, and plastic pipettes
- Nitrile gloves
- Cotton glove liners
- Sanding disc (I think I used 240 as my last grit)
- Random orbital sander
- Dust collection attachment
Quick note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. Additionally, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Any link I include is here to make it easy for you to find the tools and products that I used in the build process.
Want to see how I did it? I recorded a video of the process. You can watch it below.
And here’s how it turned out after drying:
I have to say, I’m happy with how it turned out!
I especially love looking close at all of the little details, like where there is depth to the color in the cathedrals of the wood.
This guitar is currently available in my shop.
I have a few builds going on currently and a whole lot of ideas for new things to make as well.
Stay tuned.
