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Hi Everyone

I’ve been working on my third build and really wanted to spray a sunburst finish. I’m at the point where I’ve porefilled, final sanded and sprayed three light coats of nitro. It’s been hanging for a couple of days now. Next step is to spray the colour but I had a couple of questions.

I’m looking to get that vintage Gibson look and was wondering what the colour process might be? I’m kind of thinking to start with a yellow, then a reddish brown and then a darker brown. I’ll be mixing the colour into the nitro and spraying directly. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. Pics attached

I also wanted to use the dyes/tints that Oxford sells through solo music as it’s quite local to me.

https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/o ... universal/

All the best

Carlos

I would buy Jeff Jewitt’s course in Lutherie Academy, Robbie O’Brien’s site. He has a recipe for Gibson trad that will 100% get you there.

Here is my test panel for that recipe.



Brad


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Thanks Brad! I did see the course and would love to go through it but it’s a little too pricey for me at the moment. Will definitely get it in the future though.

That’s pretty much the colour I’m going for. Looks beautiful!!

I second Jeff Jewitt. Also get your self some cheap tops as in 1A. sand them up join them and practice first. I have experimented with spray on and soon to experiment with a French polish sunburst.

You might want to try it with a an airbrush as a lot less material is applied so it gives one a chance to even out the sunburst effect easier.

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It’s hopefully not over sharing. The recipe uses vintage amber and golden brown ColorTone stains from StewMac and then a black pigment for the outer so it’s opaque.

You might be able to match those colors to the closest thing provided by your supplier.

Brad


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I did my first sunburst using water based anilines from LeeValley under nitro. I was quite happy with how it turned out. It's the guitar in my avatar.

Roger Siminoff has a good description of how Gibson did the hand wiped Loar era sunbursts in his book on mandolins. I followed it when I did my F5





I used Colortone dyes to make my stains, alcohol as the solvent. The stains are applied to bare wood, if you have sealed or applied anything else it may not work. The mandolin got a brown stain to pop the flame on the maple, then sanded back almost to bare wood. Amber, red and brown to do the sunburst itself. Keep a rag wet with DNA to help blend the colors.

Like any other finishing question, you should practice on scrap.

As you probably also know, many modern sunbursts (Fender for example) are not done with stains but rather tinted finish. Its an entirely different look.

You mention you will be spraying nitro……easiest to use Mohawk/behlen N.G.R (non grain raising) stains to do the sunburst with nitro. You will need to use four shades…Yellow, Red, Dark walnut(vandyke brown), and Black, in that order.
The NGR stains mix directly into your clear nitro. They should be mixed in a glass container before you add to your spray gun.
The best gun to spray a sunburst with is a touch up gun, something similar to a Devilbiss EGA if using conventional air equipment.
These suggestions are what worked best for me when I was using nitro, I’m now using water based and that’s a different ball game.
It’s best to practice the mixing and spraying on test pieces as others have mentioned.
Good luck and have fun!!!!!
Cal

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Steve Gilchrist is who inspired me to do the water based bursts. I wish I had his skill.
https://www.gilchristmandolins.com/finish

Another thumbs up for Jeff’s burst course. This is a sprayed burst using home made shellac and Jeff’s Buckeye Burst formulas. The top coats are EM6k. Post pictures when you are done please!

Best of luck, M

Honestly I gotta say all you folks are amazing. That’s what I like about this community… everytime some one needs a hand, some one is there to help.

Love the examples as well. I’m going to try my own formula that is based on some of the suggestions I’ve read and I’ll let you all know how it turns out. It’s a guitar I’m building to mark a milestone and I’m not overly concerned if it comes out PERFECT as it’s a guitar I’ll hold on to for a while:D

Just a question about masking. What methods do you folks use when masking the binding,purflings and sides off?

All the best

Carlos

I also have an airbrush setup that I bought years ago from someone for $75 bucks. Maybe now is the time to use it!

What do you all think about the airbrush method? Is it more precise and forgiving than an HVLP or LVLP gun?

I will love hate relationship with Sunburst, but I’ve persevered and I think they come out pretty good.
To answer your question about the tape I use the quarter inch and 8th inch masking tape and just tape it off really carefully the binding on the purple and whatever the real hard part is, if you really want to take off a rosette It’s almost impossible, but I found a way TJ Thompson sells a metal stencil that you put over some tape and cut it with a knife and it makes perfect little circles. It’s really expensive, but I bought it anyway and it works great.
As far as the sides, you can buy this stuff, the Car body guys use.
It’s basically brown paper with a piece of tape on the edge of it in different widths makes it easy anyway here’s a couple that I really like. I spray them with a dye in the lacquer- just make it up as I go along.




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Gorgeous burst! Perfect transitions.

I used the 3M Fine Line 471 for masking the purflings and rosettes. I used the center of the black purfling lines as the transition point. This is described and demonstrated in Jeff’s vid.

M

Some gorgeous sunbursts posted. I still prefer the ones that are done with alcohol or water based dyes as the wood grain shows much better to me than toner based bursts which I've tried as well, but I'm just a long time amateur.

Thanks Brad. Your sunbursts are lovely! Do you start with clear nitro and mix the dyes as you go in the same nitro you started with in the beginning or do you have the colours mixed with nitro and change the nitro completely every time you spray a colour? Lol. Hope my question makes sense

Also wondering what the dyes are that you used for the second photo of the sunburst. You don’t have to share the exact formula just to get an idea of the dyes used if possible.

Thanks again!

Here's my process:
I use the same dyes for all my sunbursts-Mohawk Dye Concentrate-most likely what the supply houses re-package sell in very little bottles.
After taping all the binding etc. I seal with Zinser Seal coat de-waxed shellac-I pad this on with a paper towel, when dry I sand with320 grit
I use a regular (good quality) spray gun for the whole thing,not an airbrush.
Then a couple coats of clear nitro then quick 320 scuff sand then I add the base coat, usually some shade of yellow or amber and spray the entire guitar.
Then I spray the darkest edge coats gradually diluting it with clear to blend towards the center-aiming the gun at an angle away from the center.
At some point I spray a clear coat to let me see whats it actually looks like.
The after a few hours I peel the tape off carefully and the next day scrape any stain off the binding with a razor.

The best advice I can give you after doing sunbursts for 50 years is to stop before you think it's done and look at it the next day...You can always add more color, but you can't take it away!

Also make sure your gun doesn't drip..I ruined many sunburst by one little drip or sag or run-there is just no coming back from thet and i have had to strip the entire guitar and start the process all over again-no fun!

Thank you Brad. I’ll definitely look into those Mohawk dyes in the future. Could you use lacquer thinner as a reducer to give the colour coats a little more time to dry so the blend in a little better?

I've sprayed a couple of sunbursts and mixed TransTint dyes in denatured alcohol for the layers of the sunburst, very light coats. Once it didn't look like I wanted and it wiped off with alcohol and started over. Then sealed and clear coated over with nitro. You could also add it to thinned clear finish but it would be hard to back up if you didn't like it.

Theres no reason you couldn't, but the thinner it is the easier it is to get drips or sags.....

I use retarder to slow it down.