Official Luthiers Forum!

I've created a logo for my guitar, and to use on the next ones to follow. I've done a bunch of searching but haven't really come up with a good answer on how to do this. I don't want to make a sticker as I think that would be kinda hokey. How do the big guys make their decals, (do they even use decals?) and how is the best way to apply it and sink it into the finish? Lots of brands use a metallic color in their logos, and you can't print that on your ink-jet, do they use trick stencils and paint or what? Just would like to do it the right way right from the start.....

A simple way to do it, and there's youtube videos of this, is to print your logo out on transparency paper, cut it out and glue it to your headstock prior to applying finish. It shouldn't take too many layers to blend it nice and flat with sanding. Metallic paints may have to be done with stencil or screen printing perhaps. I'm personally going to get a proffesional branding iron made. They range anywhere from $75 to $300 and you can even get one with a date attachment. They can make them pretty small too since there's not a whole lot of room to play with typically. Just send them your logo and you can have it flame heated or electric. Electrics are more expensive.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I find decals to be stupid (talking about the very very thin Fender style decals here)

A thick professional sticker like the ones they use in the car industry will last forever, I usually have mine cut out from matt material so that the lacquer grips better for the first coat...

I dont have any pics but here is a guitar which has this logo...



I also had my signature scanned at one point and made into a sticker...



I've recently changed my design, I am now using a solid aluminium logo, the "H" is cut to reflect the logo on the pickups...

Aluminium is very cool, it does not oxidize and you can also use various corrosion techniques to make it become matt like on the second picture...

When I will have more money I will have a bunch made out from a fancy wood, that would look really nice

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http://hufschmidguitars.com

In order to look like the Fender style, it needs to be a water slide decal, with opaque metallic ink for the gold or silver.
I just get mine off ebay for my strat copies.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190481757401?ss ... 483wt_1205
They use the highest quality paper and inks.
It's best if you apply the decal after a coat or two of laquer, and then finish over it lightly until enough has been applied to sand it smooth.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I was told by my paint guy that the waterslide decals can crumble off sometimes when a finish is put on and I found that out unfortunately after I bought one from a guy on E-bay - he said that it will cost quite a bit to get the rub-on type, but Fender and some of the other larger manufacturer's use them. I didn't want to risk the Dueling Dragons on a "less than suitable" decal, so I went with the company he suggested called Scary Creative ( http://www.scarycreative.com/home.php?cat= ) - yeah, it cost around $150 for the gold decals on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, but I fit about 35 decals on the one sheet AND serial numbers.

The poor man always pays twice.

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Virgil,

Was that price just for the decals? Or did that include their layup time?

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Jim Hansen

I had provided the artwork in an .eps format and they did charge a 1-time set-up fee and I am pretty certain that it came to right around $150 all together (minus shipping)

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

The waterslides don't crumble unless some guy is just printing them on his ink-jet, which is why you have to be careful on eBay. I've never had a problem with the Dec-Art company, and I like the waterslides on the strat copies. 35 decals for $150 is a good price though, and those films are probably a cleaner look under the finish.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I got great results with an iron on transfer printed on an inkjet. And it doesn't look 'stupid'. I used the t-shirt transfer type.

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Music. And Stuff.

Wow, a whole page of great ideas! Still not sure yet which way I'm going to go. I might just do gold leaf myself, pinstripe it and sink it in clear, done that before on cars as a lettering technique, only this is muuuch smaller.

Virgil's decal guy seems closest to what I am looking for, but really? $150 for a sheet of decals? When I have my own artwork? I never mind paying the price for the best, but really? $146 for Copy, Paste, Print? and $4 for a sheet of amazing decal paper..... really? OK, I know more goes into it than that but....wow.

My guy's in Britain, the whole thing costs about $20 per decal shipped, but I don't have a metallic ink multi-layer printer to print decals with. That's the cheapest I've found for a customizeable one-off with unique wording, with the letter style I like, in the highest quality waterslide decal possible. They also do other styles of decals, and will print your unique art work for about the same price.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Scary Creative comes out to around $4.28 per decal - it only makes sense if you need a bunch - like I said, I fit around 35 on an 8x11 sheet. Good luck!

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Virgil, I know you are right. $5 a pop sounds like a deal and they are really nice. It's the (actually) $200 for foil that I just go "wow" to. By the time I use up my first sheet though they'd probably be throwing dirt over me......

Here's a pretty good shot of my rub-on transfer - it's kind of cool - it rubs on real nice but leaves a slight glue residue around the image, then as soon as you apply a finish, it all disappears (except the image of course!) - these guys have a pretty descent turn-around time and are very helpful too - you will see why the major guitar companies use them :

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

From the Scary Creative site:
"Rub on transfers are easy to use. Once you receive your order and are ready to apply, make sure the surface area is clean before placing the transfer. Use a plastic burnisher tool for applying rub on transfers. We recommend a clear coat to permanently seal the transfer and protect from wear and tear. Do not use nitro lacquer on reflective foil transfers."

The downside is that if you want to finish your guitar with laquer, you can't use metallic ink, eliminating gold or silver color choices, unless "foil transfers" means something else. Darn, I was wanting to get my "S" headstock decoration in gold, without the halo that waterslides usually have. I guess I should e-mail them, since it seems I can't use them on my strat necks, since I finish them myself in laquer, but they would still most likely work with the polyesters that Moe uses. So I guess for my strat copies I should still use the waterslides. My other concern would be using a tool to rub the transfers onto a wood that has weak crushing resistance, like some of the softer mahoganies, koas, or acacias, which are easily marked. Super hard woods like Maple or Cocobolo wouldn't be a problem, but softer woods might be.

I've e-mailed them to find out if the metallic inks are compatible with nitro.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

http://www.virginrecords.com/

Hey Virgil, your logo looks a lot like the Virgin Records logo, I just realized that. Cool!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Scary responded and said the metallic inks have no problem with laquer, just the foils. I might give them a go

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I inlay a pearl logo in my acoustic headstocks, but I did a tele recently where I used an inkjet waterslide that I printed myself. Printed the decal on clear inkjet decal paper, shot it with a couple of coats of non water based lacquer, then applied it to my headstock. I topped with about 9 or so thin coats of EM6000. No cracking, running, or curling, and the clear decal is invisible under the lacquer. Prior to applying the logo to the headstock, I had shot and leveled several coats of EM6000 on the headstock. No metallic ink, but still looks good.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Wow, Ken, that's really classy!

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Jim Hansen

Thanks Jim! I built a '72 tele and wanted the Fender look but with my logo. The water slide decal worked prefectly, and for the right project, I wouldn't hesitate using a water slide decal again.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

I've built a few Strat and Tele clones and used a similar custom decal I purchased from an Ebay seller (I think I found the link on TDPRI).

Mine don't look as good as yours (and it's not because of the decal :p )

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Jim Hansen

OK, I backed off just a bit on my requirements. I bought a box of Avery clear sticker stock for Ink Jets and came up with this. I shot a coat of clear (I'm using automotive catalyzed acrylic urethane clear for my finish), layed the sheet in the wet clear and squeegeed it out flush, and shot another layer over the top. I only have one coat of clear over it now, and am almost done with the finish on the body so more pics to come in my other thread tomorrow. I did have to wipe the sticky off the back of the stock before I put it down, using the clear to adhere it. It cost me $3 for 3 sheets and I think it will be fine for my first one? BTW, it's the pic that is slightly fuzzy not the logo. I just couldn't get my camera to shoot great in macro.