The Steel Guitar Forum

Im currently refurbishing a SD10 Emmons that was originally green.
Has anyone done a green lacquer guitar up ? We are having trouble
finding the right green for the job. Can anyone suggest perhaps what brand or type colours are the best to use? I would really like it to end up looking like this one in the picture.

That appears to be an aniline dye stain. here is a link but can also find it at woodworkers stores

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... 20Products

Water Soluble Bright Green Aniline Dye (1 Oz) | 845-142

Caution these stains mix with water or denatured alcohol and are very very potent. A little goes a long way so do not mix it too strong. The beauty of aniline stain is their clarity. The will not make the wood look cloudy or opaque like oil based satins do.

After mixing the powder allow it to set for at least an hour before applying as it continues to dissolve rather slowly and gets more intense until it's fully dissolved

Try it on scrap wood then allow to dry and apply a coat of finish to see what the final color will be as it look's very different with finish than without.

After your happy with the color on the scrap then put it on your guitar. If you thinks its too intense you can wipe some of it off with an alcohol rag.

Let me know if you need any other advise and good luck

Forgot to warn you not to allow it to touch the inlay as once its on the light wood inlay its green forever

Paul, before you get too far you might want to remove the Emmons decal and make sure the stain is actually green. My 1974 D-10 was green for 40 years until I decided to restore the guitar entirely. It turned out that the finish was originally Ocean Blue and exposure to sunlight must have turned it green. The same thing was true of another green Emmons here on the forum.
It didn't matter to me since I was removing the original finish no matter the color. I knew I wanted a clear finish since the birds-eye veneer is so nice. It also turned out that the most stunning veneer was under the necks.
Good luck!
Peter

Jim Clark, builder/owner of the Clark Custom Guitars, built stunning lacquer finish guitars. The last one he built for me before his passing used Shaeffer fountain pen ink to stain the cabinet in a Peacock Blue. He often times used food coloring also. He said he got the ideas from Zane Beck in his (Jim) earlier beginnings of building guitars. Very few if any of Jim's guitars lost their original colors or stains. Just a thot!

Funny you say that Peter, the finish was old and flakey but I got a shock when I stripped it down and noticed that it was green. The badge was the first thing to come off and it was a hell of a suprise !

Dekley used leather dye for their stains and I've never heard of or seen one that faded.