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Can anyone who has successfully sunbursted a guitar clue me in on the basic steps and materials needed.

I plan to order the StewMac Step by step finishing book, but would like to order the supplies to do it at the same time. TIA

PS any online resources too would be nice

Hi Bruce, When I do a sunburst I use waterbased dies and airbrush them directly on to the wood. Starting with a yellow/amber base over the whole guitar then working out to the edges with the other colors. I have been told that I am doing it the wrong way though but it worked for me so I doubt I will change my method. Some add the colors to the finish in the first few coats. I like my method because to me it looks more natural.



This guitar was done about 8 years ago.John How38400.3784490741

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Why is that wrong? That is how I do it too. Base color first and shading from the inside out.

Bruce, you might also want to pick up a copy of stew mac's tape on sunburst finishing. Don MacRostie refinishes a Gretch archtop with a sunburst finish on it. It is a very step by step approach.

For me seeing someone do it is always better than reading about it in a book.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

John, I wouldn't say your method is WRONG, just a bit risky. If you were to put a couple of layers of clear down and then ad the color, you would have more opportunity to back up, more than you would if you stain the wood directly. That's my $.02 worth.
Paul

I use the colortone dyes to tint Targets waterbase shellac. I use an airbruse to lay down a couple of clear coats then an amber base coat and proceed with the other colors of tinted shellac working from the inside out. The shellac is thin and sprays nice out of the airbrush and also gives more control

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I'm not worried that my method is wrong because it works for me. I like the fact that I'm actually dying the wood because then there is nothing but clear finish on top and to my eye I don't want anything in the finish to cloud the wood, if that makes sense. I spray the dyes in very light coats and really don't have trouble with raised grain although I do raise the grain a couple times prior to shading. I may be doing a sunburst soon but it will not be like the one in the picture but just a subtle brown shading on the upper bout and around the lower on the top only. Rosewood sides will stay clear.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John--like they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Looks superb to me.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

You've shared this fine sunburst before, but if I didn't say it earlier, wow, it's a fine effort.

Now, how many color dyes did you use?

I'm guessing Colortone Vintage AMber and Black?

I have a little airbrush to do it with.

Now about those bindings, do you tape them off or just scrape them? And the center rosette purflings how did you keep those or get those perfected? I've heard of scraping it off edge binding, but the center circle rosette?????? How do you do that?

Bruce--
This isn't a sunburst, but the problem is just the same:




What I did was to mask off the lines. My outer rings are black, which makes the masking job not quite so hair-splitting. You can find a really flexible masking tape by 3M at car paint stores. Even so, some bleed-through will occur. You'll have to scrape some. But if you've painted the white lines w/ lacquer first, before you spray color, you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Great gourds! Sorry that picture turned out so huge. It's not that large on the web page from which it lept.

Red-faced,
Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Stephen, well, now it makes sense clear coat here at least keeps those purfling rosette lines accessible. I see that lots of time has gone in to figuring it all out. Thanks everyone.

Bruce, it's been a while since I did this but I do recall scraping the binding after spraying. I'm getting ready to do my sons electric which is maple with maple binding. The guitar body will be stained blue while the binding will be clear maple. I plan to put a thin black purfling between the two and mask the binding while staining. I will probably mask the guitar body and clear coat the binding before staining the guitar just to avoid any bleeding. The purfling line should make masking a little easier.

Steve, thanks for the compliment. The picture file you uploaded was probably the same size as this but the web site it was on was set to scale it to a certain size. Is this your black guitar?John How38400.6789699074

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Hi John, yup...that's it. The close-up is all washed out, but that inner ring is curly maple, which looks grand against black. The owner tells me he wants two more guitars. I was quite pleased. (I'd get to do a nice, natural, wood-colored guitar for him at last.) Then he said "ALL BLACK, you know, just like the last one."

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Hi Guys. For the Sunburst I?m using different colors. On a 3-tone, the first color is mix of Vintage amber/Yellow (5:1). The Red is a mix of Vintage amber/Winered (5:1). The Tobacco brown is a mix of Dark Brown/Black (6:1).

For a 2-tone I would use a darker inner color, Vintage amber/ Red (9:1) and the Tobacco brown.

If you want to get the color a little darker use black, to get a little colder (espacially the red) use a little ammount of blue.

You get the best results with the StewMac ColorTone Liquid stains.

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http://www.hl-guitars.at

Sorry I forgot one important detail! Before I spray the colorcoat the wood have to be filled and clear coated to get a smooth surface. The colorcoat is made of 20mL Nitro, then add the colors, stirr, then add about 120mL thinner. The colorcoat should not build to a thickness, the nitro is only for the lock down of the colors. Spray only a light mist, spray until you get the deep you desire.Let dry about 10min before you start spray the next color. I start with the inner color, next is the Dark outer ring, last is the Red, to get an even ?Burst.
About 1 hr after the last color I spray the first clear coat.

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