Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Filippo,

If you ask LMI nicely, they should be able to come up with some ERIW back and sides that are the opposite of your mismatched set, so you'll end up with two sets that look great. I recently did something similar and LMI were very accomodating. You'll probably have to take some color matching photos - not sure how good this method would turn out though. As for darkening/dyeing the wood you have, I don't think you'll ever get it quite right, and besides, you'll always know that they don't match.....will you be happy with that on your conscience forever?

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"

Forget about the mismatch and send them to me for proper disposal!

If I were you, I'll probably fp some seedlac/orange shellac until it looks good enough. Otherwise, there some finishs like tung oil or epoxy that darken wood more than shellac does when used as a seal coat.

I've been through this problem with several sets. I ordered replacements sets (even sent samples) from here and there and tried rearranging. You can get pretty perfect matches in the end, but after spending countless hundreds of $

But in the end, you can make the first few FP sessions with a blonde shellac on the sides, and a very dark one on the back. It will make a difference. Also the back and the sides are separated by the binding, and are in separate planes. The eye sees a lesser difference compared to when the boards are side buy side flat. So you could be OK even if they are not from the same log. I would also suggest a high contrast binding too, ebony or maple instead of rosewood.

Is this the guitar you build now? Shows us some pics.

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Build log

My kohno is just like that. Probably the amber finish they use concealed it a little, but it is still obvious and it doesn't bother me.