Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi there, hoping I can get some tips on how other people solve an issue that I'm currently battling. I'm finishing a bolt on neck and am trying to give it an opaque black headstock and want to leave the rest of the neck with just a clear lacquer. There's no binding, I'm just shooting for a straight transition from black to naked. I'm taping off around the sides of the headstock, the back, and about halfway down the fretboard to catch any overspray.

The issue I'm having is small amounts of black bleeding underneath the tape around the edges of the headstock. The tape I'm using is Scotch Blue with edge lock, specifically to try and stop this happening. I try to tidy it up with sandpaper etc and more than I bargain for comes off, taking black off the top as well leaving an ugly patch of bare wood.

I'm about to start respraying the black, but before I start I wanted to ask what other people do in this situation to stop getting the bleed and getting a nice clean transition between 2 colours?? Are there other prep steps necessary that I might be overlooking?

I'm considering next time taping over the face of the headstock to try and protect it before cleaning up any bleed, but I'm concerned that taping said tape off again will peel up the stuff it was trying to protect. I have no reason for thinking that might work, but I'm getting a bit frustrated.

I'm using StewMac waterbased lacquer with their black pigment.

Any help would be appreciated!

Have you pore filled & sealed the wood before masking & putting down the color?

If you haven't , you'll never get a clean line because the tape can't go down into the pores & the color can. The sealer will prevent color from penetrating the wood & leaching beyond the line.

You may also want to try 3M 233+ masking tape. It's what body shops use, you can get it at Napa or other auto parts stores that sell body work supplies.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

What about sealing the wood with shellac(if it works with waterbase) or a compatible sealer before spraying. I'd try that and the 3M 233 Kevin recommended.
I would also press or burnish the edges of the tape really well where the sides meet the top.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Cheers. This build was a kit that was advertised as coming already sealed, but I don't think they sealed the neck. I've re-taped paying a lot more attention to the edges of the tape being as tight as possible (not that I didn't do that before, but this time I spent about half an hour on it...) and given another coat of black. If this doesn't work I'll break out the shellac.

Thanks again, appreciate your advice!

Like Filippo said, wrong tape. Get too know the guys at your local auto body supply store. They have all kinds of stuff you will need to spray finish.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Get the green tape with the model number #2060. I've found it at Sherwin Williams and (believe it or not) Home Depot. It's specially formulated for lacquer and has very high adhesion. I've tried the blue tape and it doesn't work well. It's better for painting your house than your instrument.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

You can also do your masking, then shoot a few coats of clear before shooting the black. This will seal up any bleed through with clear lacquer instead of black.

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Mike Hoenerhoff
Elderly Instruments

simple solution:

mask off...spray a light coat of something clear...this will bleed under the tape and for all intensive purposes seal the edge....spray color...remove tape and you're set to go with clear coating the rest of the object...carefully sanding the transition point will reduce/eliminate the edge created by the layers of color transitioning to the clear only area...etc..