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Ok. My brother and I have a project to do for my nephews Christmas. I will be building him an SJ. I want to do a burst affect blue stain to a quilted maple back and side. Going from transparent blue in the center to not quite opaque blue at the edge. I plan to do the stain in the finish and not on the wood itself using transparent aniline dye . Is this the best technique? The binding is going to be natural curly maple. What is the best technique to keep the over spray off the binding, purfling and top? This is a jump in finish styles for me, but I’m not scared MichaelP38492.6155324074

i prefer dye to stain, but if you do either direct to the wood the grain will pop more.

you can mask the binding like matia did for his electic he had on site recently, or put a sealer on and scrape off the over spray. i don't have good success masking what with wrinkles and seepage and all, and can put a guide on a scraper to get a good, consistent scraper cut.

This is the easiest way to control the tone and graduation of the shading. You may want to use several different mixes of blue, starting with the pale and ending with the darkest you want on the edge. If you are familiar with how a three-tone fender sunbrst is applied, think of that method and translate it to a single color, varied-tone sunbirst. Remember that aniline dyes fade over time, the strongest affect being sunlight.

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Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars

Another guitar to look at is an older Gibson J-45. The cherry sunburst that was used in the mid 60's. It is red lacquer over a yellow stain on the top. There is no masking involved in either type of sunburst. it is all done with gun control.

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Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars

tht sunburst went over the edge and covered the bindings. as michael wants to have the bindings natural, one approach is to mask them.

Right about the binding, CMM. (too long at work reading email and spec's, time to go home). Gibson used to spray right over the binding at Kalamazoo, then scrape the color off with an exacto blade edge prior to clear coating. I could never mask very successfully, either. All of Gibson's color is in the lacquer instead of in stain.

Michael, there are some good hint on the re-ranch finish site. It is mostly geared to refinishing electric guitars in a vintage fashion, but they are very serious about good finish work and have good info.

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Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars

I will not mask with tape. I have had too many issues with lacquer solvent and tape adhesives. I figured that seal and scrape would be the way to go. After thinking a bit about it I may stain the base color and add the darker in the intermediate finish coats. I have use art mask with some success but it is very tedious work to paint on just perfect and you can scratch it off very easy. It is a natural gum in a alcohol base when the alcohol gases off your left with a gum seal that you can peal off clean when finished. It leaves no residue behind. It is great for small projects.

like i said to lance, 'tis a pity you didn't make it a few years back; would have been a candidate for the blue guitar book!

Ok I know that I just showed this in the "blue wood" thread, but I think it may belong here too:



I masked those bindings/purfling and it was a PITA to do, but it worked with no problems. I used tape that I got at an autobody shop. It was pale greenish in color yet you could see thru enough to line it up.(I think LMI sells it)I use mostly the stuff that was about 3/16" or 1/8" wide. No wrinkles ...

One thing though, I was putting the color on top of lacquer not staining into wood so seeping was not a problem.johno38492.7872453704

I do it pretty much the same way Johno does it. The tape I use sounds very similar. 3 M fine line tape. You can find it in good paint stores. And it is a PITA! But./.the results are nice.
Seal the binding well. The tape sticks better to it.
Glen S.