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I scorched one of the sides of this Monkey Pod OM while bending and I'm planning to try to stain the rest of the guitar such that it all blends together. I haven't tried this before so any advice would be much appreciated. Are there any other remedies to scorched wood besides staining?



Thanks,
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Sorry, I do not have an answer, but I have some monkey pod that I was going to use, and was wondering what temps you bent with (did you use fix style bender?).

Thx!

Glenn

Have you tried scraping the scorched side to see how deep it goes?

you could try scraping away at the section that will be removed for the end graph to test how deep it goes.

Chuck, in regards to staining, the most controllable way is to add a little toner to your finish and build it up slowly so you don't overshoot the color and end up with too much, which requires you to strip and start over. Trans tint or analine dyes (probably a little red-brown by the looks in the photo) in very thinned out lacquer would be my approach. Spray this mostly on the non-scorched side but put a little on the scorched side too, to help even everything out. And don't forget the back. Good luck!

Glenn,
This was a mistake on my part. I use a Fox style bender and I'm usually VERY cautious about watching the temp. I begin the bend on most woods at about 220F and then bring the temp up to around 300F for about 10 minutes. On this one side I got distracted and let the temp creep up to about 320F even though I have a router control that I use for a temp control. I was surprised that it scorched that easily (his is my first go at Monkey Pod). Obviously I was more focused on the other side

As you can see from the photo, I have already routed the binding rabbets and I got way more burning that I ever do with any other wood so I would advise you to be careful with it.

Barry,
Thanks for the advice. I know you're in The Woodlands (we met at the lunch thing last July. I was the one who couldn't make it to your shop.) Maybe before I do the finishing - about a week away - I could bring it over for you to look at. I have scraps to practice on...

It doesn't look too bad, so I agree with the others to try scraping first.

Chuck. I would be glad to look at it for you. I've got lots of dyes too if you need any.

Chuck, they don't look too bad, but when I want to stain mahogany dark (lots of light mahogany now days) I use oil stain with paste wood filler over unsealed wood, so the wood takes as much stain as possible.
If the binding is rosewood or dark plastic, all the better. If the binding is maple, sealing is necessary, and scraping after tinted finish, before clear finish.

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David, I do the same thing.

Chuck, I would recommend that you do a seal coat on the body, fill the pores as desribed above, and then seal that. Then bring it to my shop. This way, we will have a better idea of the required tint.

Barry,
My process is to seal with vinyl sealer, fill pores with Zpoxy, sand all but pore fills away, seal again and then lacquer. Should the stain go on after the Zpoxy? The binding will be Ebony.

BTW, I tried scraping and sanding without much luck.

Thanks,
Chuck

The filler and sealer coats should all be done first. Then I put the toner in the first few coats of lacquer and thin this a LOT so it doesn't build too much thickness. Then scrape the bindings (if necessary) and start shooting clear lacquer.

I would attempt to sand it first before trying any stains or dyes.

Chuck,

Where do you measure your temperature? I've accidently taken Koa and Maple to over 425 F with
no scorching. It could be just these woods are not as oily, but it sure looks to me like that side
saw way over 320 degrees. I measure with a digital food-type probe that I insert between the
wood and the blanket (stack is steel slat/moist paper wrapped wood/blanket/steel slat).

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Chuck buddy Jeff Yong has probably bent more monkey pod than anyone on the planet. His Monkey Pod guitars have won blind listening tests at guitar shows. He is also a great guy and a dear friend.

I am sure that he would help you out if you email him. I don't want to post his email but you can contact him through his web site here: http://www.gimmusic.com/

Tell Jeff that Hesh sent ya.

Gene,
I also use the digital temprature probe (Wal-Mart) and I use two blankets and two spring steel slats for bending (I learned this method from the John Mayes "Side Bending" video - thanks John). My "sandwich" is a blanket, a slat, the wood (misted lightly) inside brown kraft paper, a slat, and the other blanket. The temp probe is inserted between the top blanket and the top slat. I have checked the probe in a pan of boiling water (I'm at 210 feet above sea level near Houston) and it shows 211.7 degrees at a full boil so it is accurate. I control both blankets from a single 15 amp router control and I know that at a given setting one blanket is a little hotter than the other. After this incident, I labeled one of the blankets and did a lot of testing so that I now orient the blankets such that I get the most consistent temprature between the blankets as I can and that I'm always measuring the temprature of the hotter blanket.

Hesh,
Thanks for the link. I'll certainly contact Jeff as I really like the Monkey Pod. Glad to see you back posting again.

Barry,
I'll PM you when I'm ready to bring the body over.

Thanks to all for the help.

Chuck

Chuck if you are using ebony for the bindings, will you also use ebony for the tail wedge?

That picture doesn't show much scorching IMO and if you have a dark line between the two, I think you'll have (well, most would have) a very difficult time noticing any variance in the coloring of the wood. Just make the wedge a little bit wider and my guess is that the little bit of color variance will hardly be noticeable. Nice thing is, you can do this now, before any worry of finishing.

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