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The first picture shows what I'm talking about. I used StewMac's "red" purfling around the top and the rosette. The FB markers and peghead logo are red recon stone...a dark red. The purfling really looks more pink than red when looking at the features altogether. They don't match at all

The second picture shows an offcut of the top wood with strips of the purfling glued to it, and then each has a different color shellac over it. One of the position markers is below the darkest for comparison. I don't feel that even the darkest shellac changes the purfling enough, and I don't want the top to be much darker than that darkest color.

Anyone have any ideas how I can reduce the contrast between these colors (or should I use the dark shellac in the picture and forget about it). This guitar is not being built for anyone in particular and if it ends up with someone other than me, it will almost certainly be a gift. So it's not the end of the world. But it's annoying.

Thanks, Beth

Use the darkest and forget about it. Looks like a great guitar. It is very hard to match disparate materials, especially, at this stage......

I've always thought that if you can't match, a large contrast is a good thing,
Mike

Beth, six months from now you won't notice the difference, a year out you'll forget about it.
I think it looks ok. In fact, to tie it all together, you could inlay some of those recon dots in the rosette.
Pick some regular pattern, or go completely random. It will make it all look intentional.
If someone ever asks bout the color difference, you could put a patient smile on your face and speak to them in sympathetic tones about how they don't see the beauty.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I'm kind of persnickety about such things and I think it looks fine. The two reds may not match, but they compliment one another nicely. If it really, really bugs you, Steve's idea of introducing a bit of the recon stone elsewhere would tie everything in quite well.

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George :-)

Thanks, All! I'm documenting this build in a Doc-U-Build thread, so you'll probably see it finished. I am going to use the darkest shellac, and leave it at that. I like the idea of using the stone dots in the rosette, but I'm a little nervous about inlaying the rosette at this point, and I would have to order more dots.
Hopefully it won't be that noticeable. I appreciate the input.

I think once you finish the guitar it will look way better to you.
Drive on, Beth.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Remember that finishing in a darker shellac is quite tricky in that an uneven layer can easily become blotchy looking.
You could try a very dilute solution of potassium dichromate which will darken everything (after it is applied wet and exposed to bright sunlight).
The particular toning of this compound should bring the colors closer together.
Test, Test, Test different solutions on the same materials before you apply!!!
Also wear gloves with this stuff and keep it well away from pets and children.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=27343

The other problem with shellac is that it's quite orange (lots of yellow) which just intensifies the red/orange of the purflings, the dichromate has a very slight greenish cast (red plus green =brown) which I think will tone it closer to the dots. You will confirm this hopefully by experimentation.

were it mine i might consider dyeing the edges of the red purf darker with the finest of brushes. or maybe even plucking out the stone markers and breaking up their contrast using the same purfling scheme. fwiw, i use lmi's red purfling and i find it to be darker then sm's.

That looks really interesting and I might try it. I don't know how much tannin is in spruce. It might really make the quilted Mahogany prettier if I used it on back and sides as well. Thanks for the tip!

I agree with others that once you finish those purflings are going to darken and deepen significantly. Can you wipe it with naptha and get a better idea of how it will look finished? That said if I really hated it I would drill out the dots and replace with slightly larger.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

I've used the dichromate to darken spruce (considerably) a number of times.......the dilution will vary the effect.