Thread: Re-Finishing a Gibson LP BFG with Tiger Maple Top.

Welcome to the woodworking forum! There are some amazing woodworkers here as well as guitar builders. Something I've never had the nerve to do. You can be sure you will receive very good information here. They are all top notch blokes.

That is not a tiger/flame/figured top. Its plain jane maple. It wont 'pop', but it will change colour with some tints. The lines in the top that were there before you started sanding, were saw marks (lightly sanded for effect), not tiger maple.

I knew that the top was carved with the wave pattern but was unsure 'exactly' the type of maple it was.

Thanks for the clarification on it.

Appreciate your input.

what about a nice translucent finish, like a SG?
Yeah the BFG, all DOOMers know what THAT is!
Gibsons attempt to make a good guitar look old and used without the use. I agree, they didn't do much for me

Transtint is nice stuff to use. I left all mine in Chicago when I moved back. I used it on a teabox I made for the wife. It was made from flamed maple and looks great. Make sure you keep good notes on your recipe/amounts, you use as it is hard to replicate the same mix if you don't measure precisely.

it may be tiger
in certain light you wont see the ripple
best way to pick it up is to run some metho over it and look at it on a slight angle- unless it was "photoflamed" in which case the film has been sanded off

Well, a very generous member here has sent me a couple of practice pieces of Maple Timber to practice my staining techniques on & I can see by his samples that the guitar is definitely not Tiger Maple

I'm still leaning towards the dye with the amber transtint unless someone has a better idea or more experience?

Thanks for such a wonderful forum. I'm already getting my list together to do some pen turning as well!

I've got the 1st coat of Arm-R-Seal on the backside & have ordered the Transtint in Honey Amber. It's my first try at any tint whatsoever. Thankfully I've got a couple of practice pieces of Maple.



Really glad to see that Black Finish that Gibson had put on it gone.

Why are you starting the finishing process before the stain had been done? If any of that got onto the top, you'll be in for a LOT more work that you were interested in to get it off. The stain/tint/dye/whatever needs to be done before any finish/sealer is applied. Otherwise, it won't absorb into the pores - they'll be sealed shut.

I'm only staining the Top Maple. The Guitar is actually all Mahogany. The only places that are getting sealed now are the 'very' back & the neck/headstock.

I'm leaving the sides & top undone. I'm not flooding the sealer on the backside either so there are no chances of any running down the sides or anywhere near the top.

When I've got the stain/dye in hand next week I'll tape off the unfinished sides just below where the Maple meets the Mahogany & apply my dye/tint then.

If I were staining the whole Guitar I could see your point though.

Your funeral. Do it how you see fit, but you're much better off not beginning the finishing until the whole thing is ready to be finished. This could create a bad habit that will bite you someday. I hope it works out for you.

Your camera seems to have a problem with colours and the bright blue swimming pool in the background does not help either.

So here is the first pic with the colours rebalanced a little more.



Whatever you do, try it out on a scrap pieces first. Tung oil for example can darken timber so much you can never recover it. keep a good record of what you do and times in between coats and you should be OK.

Thank you very much BobL!

You're absolutely right about the color. Your picture looks much more like the actual guitar. \

Definitely going to try another piece of Maple before I actually put anything on the guitar.

I'm not totally new to refinishing these guitars though this will be my first attempt @ staining anything on purpose to get a more vintage look to it.

Here's a picture of a recently finished Vintage Mahogany Gibson LP.



It started out as a worn brown stain with very little to no sanding done by Gibson. It looked pretty bad when I got it. I have a before picture around here somewhere. I'll try to find it.