Official Luthiers Forum!

I have been wanting to try this but just haven't found the time so ... no time like the present. I used McFaddens 2 part Urethane and when I do more I will use nitro or waterbourne. Got some gunk globs that spit out of the gun even after filtering the mixture into the cup. I WILL use a suction filter next time on the siphon tube.

Sprayed 3 colors: Brown, Amber and Cherry bursts over yellow. All came out better than I expected but will take a LOT of practice to get more confident in the technique.

I masked off the purfling with vinyl pin stripe tape which saved a lot of post scraping but I will use 1/4" masking taped in the future as the solvents wreaked havoc on the vinyl tape. It was a bear to remove after two days.

Not sure how to treat the soundhole area. I masked the outer ring all the way to the hole and the top is natural in that area which looks kinda funky (yeah but I "planned it that way" will be my story that I'm sticking to.

Anyone else care to share any tips or ideas?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Two-color bursts are bit easier than three, but I found a nice trick for the three-color.
Spray the red on last. Yellow or amber first, then a dark brown or even black. Then use a thin mixture of red, and spray the red over all of the dark brown. Let it go just a bit further into the amber than the brown did, and you don't need much red at all so go real easy with it!
When you spray it on last, it turns the brown or black into a really nice chocolate looking color, and it makes it quite easy to tint the edge into the amber. Part of the key is to keep the red color thin in the mix, you don't need much of the color at all.
Where's the pics, Tim?

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Do you want pics with or without the flies? I'm clear coating today so stay tuned.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Hi Tim...
It looks really nice brother!!
Is there anything you do poorly? I don't think so..
Please show the final product when done.
Super nice job!!

Hey Walter, thanks for the comlpiment but the picture above is Mark Swanson's. Here is my feeble attempt at sunbursts.

Three bodies taped off with a clear sealer coat.


Three bodies with a lemon yellow base coat.


Left to right - Amber burst, Tabacco brown burst and Cherry burst. All of them are sprayed over a lemon yellow base coat. These are just pics of color with no clear on them yet. I'm shooting the clear coats today

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

They look great Tim. I really like the Cherry burst.

Yeah, I think it came out the best and most symetrical of the three. I wonder what the average upcharge is for bursts as this is a lot of extra work, not to mention the fact that you can really screw a guitar up in short order.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Tim - I like the color of the cherry burst best, but I like the bright yellow of the amber burst. To my eye, I think that bursts look best when they come down to the top of the sound hole. One other thing- the cherry top has less figure than the other two so maybe that's why that burst looks more symetrical.?

I like the one on the right the best. I like the shape of that burst....I think that the best bursts are the Gibson ones, if you look at photos you can see how they differ from other makers' bursts. The older J-45 burst is really sweet, many of them have hardly any yellow and the color goes far into the top. Kind of like a old gibson mandolin. For the most part, Gibson always seems to leave a "pear shape" of lighter color in the middle and the upper bouts are always covered in the dark color. If you compare that to an Epiphone burst you can see the difference right away. I think it's kind of funny, since for a time both instruments were made in the same factory but they had different kinds of burst pattern.
Good job, Tim! One othet thing that I find makes it easier to get a smooth and even burst is to make sure the color is mixed a bit thin, so that it takes a few coats to build up to the shade you want. That makes it much simpler to get things nice and even, and a good transition from color to color. It makes it harder to mess up. If you have the color too rich, color will build very fast and it is really easy to mess up.
And when you are spraying a burst, you can't have ANY runs!

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Tim,
They're looking good.

I agree, the vinyl tape is almost useless. It shrinks up when lacquer hits it and will pull loose. The old style tan 3M masking tape works much better. It used to be available in 1/8" and even 1/16". I have a few rolls left, but I think they have stopped making these widths. If you don't have tape narrow enough for the purfling, you can do it in two stages. Tape the way you did and spray outside, and then mask the outside and spray the inside of the SH. It takes some planning and you have to remember the shape of the outside burst since you can't see to match it up with the masking tape in the way.

The tape comes off much cleaner if you take it off about an hour or so after you spray the final color. Sooner than that and the lacquer will string out, longer and it will be to brittle and may chip. Same is true for scraping the binding.

I think they all look nice, but I particularly like the way the Amber (left) works with that Bear Claw. That would be my pick.

Tim, I like them all. However, I'll be the odd man out and say that I prefer the tobacco burst just for the more traditional look.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA