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when I start spraying the colourtone water based lacquer that I have on order from those lovely people at stewmac........I've been thinking.......

firstly, being waterbased, it'll be less prone to bloom because of high humidity right?

and less connected to lacquer but to paint.

I'm making a Les Paul. Black paint & cream binding. how do I stop the binding being black?

If I Paint before I stick, then I can't scrape.

If I paint afterwards then the binding will get painted and need sanded clean again which will open the possibility of sanding off the paint from where I want it.

sorry for sounding daft, but I'm a noob at this spraying game

ta..

Martin

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using a small artist brush, coat the binding with shellac before painting. mask the binding after coating with shellac. Paint the body allow to dry then carefully scrape off the the paint from the binding using a razor knife blade with the edge burnish to a hook like a cabinet scraper. The shellac will prevent the paint from getting into the binding.

No waterborne Acrylic lacquer is not akin to paint. It is akin to solvent based lacquer. The difference is what the solids are and what the solvent is. The way the product works is the same. The water is the solvent carrier and the solids are acrylic.

You could also try to tape over the binding with some 3M FineLine tape. It is really flexible and easy to work with on curves. After you spray on color you might have to scrape a little bit on the edges but not the whole binding.
Another good scraper is the back of an exacto blade. The shank that goes in the handle already has a nice scraper edge on it and works great as a scraper, just make sure you tape over the blade. I use all of my old xacto blades for scrapers when the sharp blade goes dull.

Good luck buddy!

Homeboy

here is how I would do it .. in fact I have a similar guitar to do, but the top will be a trans dark red/brown. Spray a couple, maybe more, coats clear first - get it flat. Then mask the binding off. Then shoot the black, hopefully you get what you want in only a coat or two. Then remove the tape, and spray more clear. After 4-5 coats, you can lightly sad off any ridge at the transition area to black from the clear binding. Now spray the final coats and let cure.

When I darken/black out an armrest, its done the same way.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
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I think the last note about getting it flat for the color coats is worth considering. Especially on sunbursts or with transparency, but even for the solid colors. when the color goes down on a flat surface, you will greatly decrease the chance of sanding through. That is also solved by applying enough clear coats on top to level without going through.