I am in the finish stage of my guitar project. Here is the layout of the finish I'm going for.



I have tried using Mixol tints in clear lacquer but they obscure the figure of the wood too much. So, I have decided to try dyes directly on the wood surface for the red and blue...I'll use bleaching for the white. Problem is, I can't get clean lines between the different colors...the dyes bleed under the masking.

I toyed with the idea of cutting a thin channel on the boundries of the colors and installing a thin white celluloid binding but it really kills the design.

I thought about using wax, foam or some other substance that would get into the grain on the masked edge to keep the dye from bleeding but I'm not sure how I would get it back out of the grain. I even thought I could use a row of cotton pads on top of the taped edge to wick the dye up and over the tape. Not sure that would work.

I'm stumped. Any ideas on how I can do this without cutting a physical barrier into the guitar top? I'm so close on this project and this has already cost me a week of experimenting.

Peace,
Mark