Paint Your Guitar Sunburst

Transcription

Paint Your Guitar
Sunburst
Henry Potdevin
Opus Magnum Editions
Paint Your Guitar Sunburst - www.lepotdevin.com
1
To all my beloved ones for their pacience,
understanding and their expressions of joy.
2
Paint Your Guitar
Sunburst
Henry Potdevin
©
Copyright - Henry Potdevin - 2009
All rights reserved
Any duplication, adaptation or arragement of the compositions
contained in this book requieres the written consent of the publisher.
vers. 20090115c
www.lepotdevin.com
3
Introduction
I have dreamed with this Beatle guitar since childhood. I was fascinated with its shape and curves, its elegant
binding, the bright color combination with the magical color fading from one color into the other, the shinny
chrome parts and the flashing gloss finish. Additionally, the rich musical tones played on this guitar by the Beatles,
and early Rolling Stones records, made this guitar a must have.
When I decided to get my own I was faced with many problems. First, not all Casinos are sunburst on both sides
like I wished for. Lennon’s was dark brown on the back side, which I did not want. I also had preference for
McCartney’s and Harrison’s models which included a Bigsby but when Epiphone offered a Casino sunburst with
Bigsby special edition in 2006, I was not able to get one.
From the Internet I studied many Casinos which had features I did not like at all such as: clownish batches of
color on the lateral sides (I prefer the sides to be totally black), dark brown necks (I prefer scarlet) and there are
Casinos that have been painted yellow in the central part of the neck. Even worse, lately sunburst Casinos are only
comming with totally black horns.
I was in a terrible dilemma. If I would go ahead and buy one, most probably, I would get features I would not like.
Many times, I went to a store to find they only had a natural finish model available. They would offer to order a
sunburst version for me, through the internet, which would have wound up in a surprise and total frustration.
That is why I decided to buy a natural finish Casino and paint it my way. I am proud to have taken this decision and
now I have the sexiest guitar ever.
Henry Potdevin
Jan 2009
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Contents
6
16
A little background from this guitar
The Epiphone Casino´s colors
18
19
20
22
23
24
26
28
29
What we need for the job
Steps of the process
Planning and preparing for the job Work space
Work bench
Preparing dyes and laquer
Finish coat facts
Spray gun
Tests and practice
30
32
34
41
42
44 46
50
Disassembling the guitar
Masks
Cutting the masks
Wood sanding and stripping Masking tape
Guitar binding masking
Workbench ironwork
Mounting the guitar on the roaster 52 54
56
60
66
68
70
71
73
Paint plan
First color: yellow dye
Second color: red dye
Third color: black dye
Examining the dye work
Three attempts
Applying laquer
Sanding laquer
Buffing
74
75 Assembling the guitar
Finished work first pictures
81 Trouble shooting
86 Behind the scenes
5
A little background from this guitar
John Lennon tests Paul´s new Casino.
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Paul McCartney buys his Casino in 1964.
Dave Davies from
The Kinks - 1964
John Lennon and George
Harrison both acquire their
own Casinos in early 1966.
Keith Richard from the Rolling Stones - 1964
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BBC´s Top Of The Pops
show - June 1966.
The Beatles presented
«Paper Back Writer» and
«Rain».
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Beatles Rubber Soul
World Tour
June - August 1966
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8
9
Revolver
1966
George and Paul play the lead guitar duo on «And Your Bird Can Sing». Paul plays lead on «Taxman»
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John plays rythm
guitar in «Here There
and Everywhere» and
«Doctor Robert»
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The Beatle Guitar
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1967 - Sargeant Pepper´s recordings
1967 - Magical Mistery Tour
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1968 - White Album
Hey Bulldog
Paul plays all instruments in
«Back in The USSR»
Hey Jude
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1969 Let It Be & Abbey Road
Paul McCartney after the Beatles
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The Epiphone Casino´s colors
Same guitar model, different looks.
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16
Sunburst on an ES-335 type guitar
And here is
our objective
accomplished.
17
What we need for the job
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Do a Sunburst Finish
We will paint an Epiphone Casino with a natural finish and turn it to sunburst. Taking advantage of maple’s pale
tone, we will paint directly onto the guitar without sanding down the factory original finish.
What we needed:
Air brush spray gun
Compressor
Air hose (1/4») 5 to 10 meter long
Dyes (alcohol) Yellow, Scarlet Red and Black
Thinner
Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Empty bottles with screw cap or cork
Teflon tape
Graduated beaker or glass measuring cup
Polystyrene tablet (plastic)
Blue masking tape (or elastic preferably)
Electric Drill
Electric Jigsaw
Dremell drill
Screw drivers
Clamps
Pencil, marker, ballpoint pen
Fine art knife
Metallic straight edge
Cardboard (white)
Heavy industrial thick gray cardboard
Scissors
Pictures and illustrations of the paint process by Henry Potdevin.
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Steps of the process
Gathering materials
Making a guitar work bench (paint bench actually)
Preparing work space
Preparing dyes and lacquer
Tests and practice
Cutting masks
Wood sand stripping (not on this job)
Masking with tape
Mounting the guitar on the roaster (workbench)
Painting with dyes
Retouching and checking
Painting with lacquer
Drying
Buffing
Assembling the guitar
Timming:
This proyect will take several weeks for completion. In optimal conditions, this would be your schedule:
Day 1 - Assembling work bench Disassembling guitar
Day 2 - Tracing masks Cutting masks,
Day 3 - Masking guitar binding, fret board, stuffing and mounting on work bench
Day 4 - Yellow - 10 coats. One every hour.
Day 5 - Red - 10 coats. One every hour.
Day 6 - Black - 10 coats. One every hour.
Day 7 - Retouching
Day 8 - Lacquer - 10 coats. One every hour.
Day 9 - Lacquer - 10 coats. One every hour.
Day 10 - Drying - several days (or weeks)
Day 11 - Polishing and assembling
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Planning and preparing for the job
The drawings show the plans for the necessary Ironwork to hold the
guitar in place and allow it a rotary movement.
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Back to Contents
Ironwork
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Work space
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Assembly table
Paint mixing bench
Rotary saddle
You should be able to walk around the object and point your spray
gun from different angles with ease. The height position of the guitar
should allow you to spray onto it comfortably from above.
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Work Bench
Building a guitar work bench (paint bench actually)
Rotary stand for a TV set
A pine wooden board is the bench´s main part.
Observe placing the ironwork in place.
Fixing rotary stand to board
From my kitchen, I found this step ladder useful to support the rotary work bench. A simple keel through the center hole was enough to obtain a sturdy bench. The keel was fixed onto the board with glue and three screws.
Fixing the tv rotary stand to the wood anchor.
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Preparing dyes and lacquer
Use top quality products: dyes, thinner and lacquer.
For this job I used «The Guitar ReRanch» Alcohol-Soluble Dyes (Transfast Wood Dyes by Homestead)
one quart
/ one liter
Dye preparation
one jar of dye powder (2 oz.) into
one quart of solvent (thinner)
Personal observations:
Slow drying. Oily. Sticky.
ReRanch Yellow
After numerous coatings, dye will react and tiny
unpainted spots appear all of a sudden. If this occurs,
the yellow coating can then be wiped off with a rag
soaked in thinner. Then you are ready to start again.
The problem can be corrected mixing one part of yellow dye solution with one part of nitrocellulose lacquer solution. This will accelerate drying time between coats and will hold the dye much better to the
surface.
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How many coats?
Too few coats will not produce a vivid color. Too
many coats will darken your work and hide the
figures and strikes of the wood grain.
Testing before starting
It is highly recommendable you test paint on a similar piece of wood before you proceed to apply
stain onto your guitar. Try to make a sunburst
effect. Play around a little and get to know well
the products you are using the same as your air
brush, compressor, masks, etc.
Determine coat density, drying time between
coats and climatic factors that can influence the
quality of your work.
Drying: at least 1 hour between coatings
ReRanch Scarlet Red:
Quick drying.Good coverage.
Do not mix solution with nitrocellulose lacquer.
Lacquer will emulsify and separate from the dye solution forming blotches.
Drying: 1 hour between coatings
ReRanch Black:
Quick dry
Drying: 1 hour between coatings
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Half the quantity of dye concentrate in the jar is more than enough to paint the whole guitar. Just pile the contents onto a piece of paper and divide the powder in half with a knife.
Raise the piece of paper and pour the powder through a funnel into
a bottle. A bottle of wine will normaly have a capacity of 750 ml.
For 1 ounce of dye powder
you must add 500 ml (half
a liter) of solvent.
Let the dyes dissolve well; you can leave
them overnight to avoid pigment specs
on your work surface. Also, stir or shake
well.
The process is the same for the
other two colors.
Label your bottles for future reference.
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Finish coat facts
Today’s guitars, like this Epiphone Casino produced in
China, are mainly finished with polyurethane (polymer). You can apply nitrocellulose lacquer over polyurethane, but you can not do the opposite.
Since we do not want to sand down the original finish
and polyurethane is a reactive coating that will not redissolve once it is cured, nitrocellulose laquer will be
the ideal substance to apply with our work due to its
adherent properties.
Take into consideration that nitro laquer dries out very
slowly. Although it will develop a dry skin in a few minutes, underneath it will remain as a gelatine for days
and even months. Eventualy, after several years it will
shrink to a very thin and hard coating.
Do not expect to be using your guitar too soon after
finishing the whole paint job. You will probably have
to let the finish coat solvent evaporate for at least one
month before assembling the guitar. It is also wise to
wait another month or more to fully start playing the
instrument.
Some facts about finishing products
Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s guitars were commonly
finished with nitrocellulose laquer.
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lyester and acrilic finishes started becoming popular
due to performance trends such as high productivity
and good looking crystal clear finishes.
Polyurethane pros (oil based)
Easy to apply, very hard and strong finish, quick
drying, very clear, high gloss long lasting finish, much
more resitant to chipping and scratching than nitrocellulose.
Polyurethane contras
Thick coatings (although not as thick as polyester),
dents and chipping from impacts are hard to repair.
Nitrocellulose laquer pros
Inexpensive, easy to apply, fairly easy to repair, will
melt and fuse with previous nitro coatings, will evolve
into a very thin and hard coating. It is ideal for acoustic guitars since a very thin finishing will allow better
wood oscillation for resonance.
Nitrocellulose laquer contras
Slow drying, will age into a yellowish antique tone and
will crack over time, probably due to the shrinking
process it is inherent to.
Other facts to consider
Slowly polyurethane and other products such as po-
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Nitrocellulose Laquer - Clear
1 liter (quart)
Laquer preparation
Nitocelulose Laquer will mix with fine thinner in a
proportion of:
1 part of laquer to
2 parts of thinner.
As manufacturers seek more efficient and durable finishes many have begun using finishes other than lacquer. In
fact there are so many different finishes being used that it’s easy to get confused. It is often best to call the factory
with the instruments build date or serial number to determine exactly what finish was used and what repair options
are available. - www.fretnotguitrrepair.com
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Spray Gun
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Airbrush type: HVLP (high volume low pressure).
I recommend buying a model with a cup that can tilt so you
can fire downward or at any other angle.
Compressor: Craftsman 125 PSI, 3 gallons, 1.5 hp or similar.
Air pressure: 43 to 70 PSI (70 is maximum for this type of
airbrush). I use 43.
Distance: - how far away will you be spraying.
Hold your spray gun 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inches) away from
paint surface.
Appropriate distance will let you maintain total control of
your job.
Too near will soak the surface and create crater like effects or streaks. Paint will run and drip ruining your paint job.
Too far away paint will not reach the surface or will be dry before it does.
Most mayor paint problems derive from painting too close
to the paint surface.
Avoid suffering, frustration and waste of time. Paint from an
appropriate distance. Be patient. Do many coats instead of
soaking your guitar with excess paint.
Application:
Correct:
Fire the spray gun traveling with your whole body; not just
moving your arm. Shoot perpendicular to the surface at all
times.
Incorrect:
Wrist swing
In what direction? Paint parallel along the wood grain.
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Tests and practice
Calibrating your spray gun for each job:
Make tests. Be sure to have some practice on another
piece of wood other than your guitar.
Previously test your abilities, equipment and products.
Do not experiment on your guitar.
Get to know your airbrush intimately.
1. Delicate and small paint areas (example: Sunburst red and black areas or for retouching)
Pattern: Round or oval
Fluid: very small amount of fluid
Air: Very little air
Test for minimum spray possible. This is useful for tiny
spaces and for retouching.
2. Central guitar surfaces (yellow parts)
Airbrush adjustment and calibration: Your airbrush has
three knobs for adjusting and calibrating spray:
Pattern: fan
Fluid: medium to high
Air: medium (remember this also depends on the viscosity)
1. Pattern - choose a paint pattern
Round - ccw
Oval - cw
turn knob
counter clock wise
Tips:
Always fire a few spray shots on an auxiliary board
before applying paint on your guitar.
clockwise
Nozzle adjustment
horizontal fan
vertical fan
2. Fluid - graduate the amount of fluid
delicate spray - for edges or corners
heavy spray - for large print areas such as central body parts.
more fluid - ccw
less fluid - cw
3. Air - according to viscosity
more air - ccw
less air - cw
Note: sometimes turning the knobs around back and
forth will not make any noticeable spray difference.
Try to find the position where you can make fine adjustments. Once you find it, a slight turn makes a big
difference.
Try not to trigger directly onto your work. You should
enter spraying the guitar area from outside the guitar
borders, sliding the spray off from a hand held mask
or cardboard and onto your guitar.
Do not stop in the middle of the trajectory. Always
keep the spray gun in motion.
The spray gun should be in motion before you pull on
the trigger and after you release it.
Always point the spray gun at a right angle from the
paint surface, if possible.
Time:
Be patient. Take long !
Let coatings dry sufficiently. Let dry from one day to
another. Don’t rush !
Allow at least one hour between coats.
Don´t Rush
Do not soak
Keep your distance
Beware of dirt and fluff
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Back to Contents
For disassembling the guitar, lay it on a comfortable desk or table and protect the finish with a cloth cushion.
Carefully unscrew all accessories. The neck pickup comes out through the bridge pickup hole. With a small mirror
check the inside to detach one cable that is clipped underneath thewood top. Take your time and register where
each part comes out from. Note the ground cable that peeps out and contacts the metal tailpiece.
Recording ring heights can be helpful when
assembly moment arrives. Two cardboard
pieces can help you mark the height of the
bridge rings for calibration.
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The plastic knobs and the bridge thuds will be a little hard to extract
but a strong hand can exert enough pressure to pull them out.
Take notes
Register where each
part comes out from.
You don´t know how
much time is going to
go by before you assemble the guitar back
again.
You can buy or build a neck rest
to help support and protect your
guitar.
With a small hammer gently knock
the tunner rings out of their cavities.
Try to conserve the original
decals on the back of the
headstock. You can carefully lift
one of their borders with a razor
blade or an art knife and then
you can just pull them off with
your fingers. You can temporarily
stick them to the guitar pick
guard.
Before unscrewing the volume and tone controls (potentiomenters), be sure to tag them with masking tape
for quick identification at reassenmbly.
31
Masks
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For sunburst finishes floating masks will
allow you control of the process much
better.
Distance between masks and paint surface
is aproximately 1.5 cm.
Trace the contour of the guitar onto a
hard cardboard. A thick grey cardboard
will not curve and will stay flat at all times.
You will need three masks; one for each
color.
floating masks
Guitar
Transversal section
This graphic shows what each mask lets through. The yellow mask only lets paint fall in the center and the black
mask on the borders of the guitar surface. To abbreviate, in only one drawing, all the masks are shown together.
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To determine the width of the black and red bands of color take an impression of the front side of the guitar by
pressing your hand onto a sheet of paper. This will allow you to trace the horns, the f hole and the main curves.
Determine the width you would like for the color bands and trace the lines parallel to the border to
check how they will look. I used a width of 1.5 cm for each band.
With dash line, trace the contour of each of the masks. You can help yourself with a piece of paper as a template
to mark the selected width all around the contour.
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Cutting the masks
Since grey cardboard is thick and hard to cut
with an art knife, you will need a jigsaw to do
the job.
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This piece of board will allow us to cut two
masks: the black mask and the outer red mask.
34
Cutting mask separators
You need to make your masks float up in the air in order
to make the diferent colors softly transition or blend
from one to the other. Masks need to be raised from the
paint surface about 1.5 cm away.
The mask separators shown here have a double purpose:
they will hold the masks 1.5 cm away from the guitar surface and they will also fix the mask to the guitar edges.
Trace 16 rectangles 3 x 5 cm (30 x 50 mm)
The cutaway is 3 x 1 cm
The separators have a T shape to glue them onto the
mask from underneath.
35
Back to Contents
You can easily cut these straight lines with the jigsaw but
some small cuts are better done with an art knife and a
metal straight edge.
Notice one wing of the T shape is attached to the bottom
rectangle. You can cut the two pieces together and with a
knife make a half deep cut so you can fold the flap sideways.
The other wing of the T shape has to be cut apart and then
glued to complete the figure.
These are all the pieces ready to be glued to create the T
shapes.
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You will also need to build four boxes to fit into the guitar pickup holes. These will hold the the black and inner red masks
up an away from the paint surface.
Cut 8 rectangles 6.3 x 8.5 cm
Cut 8 rectangles 6.3 x 2.7 cm
Paste the parts together. When dry, fit them into the guitar
pickup holes, put some glue onto the upper box edges, wait a
few minutes for the glue to dry a little and fix the mask on top
at even distance from the guitar borders. Allow enough time
for the mask and the boxes to bond together before pulling
the boxes out of the wood holes.
37
Back to Contents
These are the inner red and black masks with the pickup boxes
attached underneath.
Here are the yellow and the outer red masks with the T shape
separators.
These are the same masks, turned upside down to check the
distribution of the separators.
This is a close up view of the mask separators.
38
The inner red and black masks have to protect the back side
of the guitar also. Since there are no pickup holes on the back,
I tried gluing tiny pointed legs 1.5 cm tall. As I was expecting,
they trapped red dye dust that caused problems on the yellow
finish. For that reason, I decided to change these separators to
regular pins that worked out fine.
Make sure not to use the separators shown here. They trap
paint and stain the yellow area with red paint .Change these
separators for regular standard pins.
This shape was left over from the mask cut outs. I found it
could be useful for protecting the front and back sides when
painting the guitar laterals.
Another left over was the shape shown here. I figured this
would also be handy as a hand shield to cover some parts you
do not want to get sprayed and for testing spray before firing
paint onto the wood.
39
Wood sanding and
stripping (Not on this job)
The only real sanding you will be doing on
this this guitar will be the F holes. They
come painted in black and I preferred them
to be the same color as their context.
You will have to work this out combining
the use of a steel file, Moto-tool drill and
sandpaper.
You must be extremely careful not to eat
away the wood or else you will produce
deformations to the beautiful F Holes.
Once you finish sanding the black paint off
you can retouch the exposed wood with
nitrocellulose laquer.
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40
The finish on this guitar tested not to be
nitrocellulose laquer since thinner would
not dissolve it. This fact proved to be an
advantage since it allowed me to wipe off
the paint job several times and start again
with no problem.
With a clean cloth, wipe off all grease and
fingerprints on the guitar finish.
Not much sanding is required. You will
only need to gently sand the gloss finish
on the guitar. For this you can use a 1200
grit sanding paper.
“Properly preparing your finish between coats is an important step. With finishes that require building to achieve
a thick coat it is extremely important to sand with fine sandpaper between coats to remove bumps and high spots.
Wet sanding with special «wet sanding» paper is an excellent way to smooth out the surface without creating lots
of airborne dust, which could land, in your next coat of finish. The best advice we can offer is to test your finishing
techniques on a piece of scrap wood before you move on to your recently completed masterpiece”.
Understanding wood finishing
41
Masking tape
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Cut a piece of cardboard a little bigger than the size of the
guitar headstock.
Place cardboard over the headstock and press with your
hands and fingers over it to make an impression of the headstock contour on the paper. Now you can trace the markings
with a pencil.
You will need to draw a parallel line next to the border to cut
the shape slightly smaller so you can fix this mask with masking tape to the headstock edges.
Cut sleek strips of masking tape. This will allow you to work
curves easier. You can lightly paste the tape onto a polystyrene
(plastic) pad and then with an art knife and a metallic straight
edge you can cut the strips.
Very carefully mask the black finish borders of your guitar
headstock.
Finally place the cardboard mask in place and fix it onto the
headstock with masking tape.
42
Cut a cardboard to make a mask for the fret board.
Also cut cardboards to protect inner parts of the guitar if you do not
want them to get painted.
Cut two 5.7 x 20 cm pieces of plain paper to protect the bridge holes.
If you let paint into these holes the bridge studs will not fit back in
easily.
Roll the paper and just stick it into the bridge holes.
43
Guitar binding masking
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Gently paste strips of masking tape onto a
polystyrene (plastic) pad and then cut narrow
strips of tape for masking the curves on the
front and back sides of the guitar binding.
With very narrow strips of masking tape, mask
the front (top) side of the binding.
Shown are the most critical curves which I
thought would be difficult but the tape went
around them quite easily.
44
After you finish masking the curved narrow side of the binding you can mask the lateral side which
is much easier since it goes around the guitar but with straight edges at all times. You will probably
need to hold the guitar on your lap for this procedure.
Mask the fret board and stuff the inner
part of the guitar with tissue paper if you
do not want paint getting inside the body.
45
Workbench ironwork
Headstock cramp angles
With a piece of electric wire make a template of the
angles you will need to bend your ironwork. These
angles will allow a smooth rotation of the guitar
when mounted on the “roaster” painting bench.
Hold your ironwork firmly with a press and bend the
ironwork to meet the angles you desire.
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Be industrious.
Be ingenious.
46
Headstock cramp holes
Make a template of four tuner holes from your guitar headstock. You can take an impression onto a piece of cardboard by
simply pressing with your fingers over the holes.
Use a nail and a hammer to mark pin points on the plate,
where you will drill the holes.
Hold the cardboard template into place with tape and mark
the the four points with the nail.
Drill the four holes into the iron plate.
47
Fixing the cramp to the
guitar headstock
Cut a rubber pad to install in between the iron
plate and your guitar headstock to protect it
from scratches.
An old mouse pad can provide you excellent
rubber for this purpose.
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With a sharp point mark the holes on the rubber pad.
Drill the four holes into the rubber pad so the
screws can pass through easily.
Test that all pieces will ensemble together well.
48
You will need four screws with their nuts and
washers to hold the cramp in place.
Shown are the metal cramp, the rubber pad
(in place) and the screws ready to be fixed
onto the headstock.
The cramp is now assembled onto the guitar
headstock. You can now screw on the nuts and
washers on the back side of the wood.
49
Mounting the guitar on the work bench (roaster)
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Proceed to mount the guitar onto the work bench.
I found it necessary to install two clamps onto the ironwork disk to balance weights and be able to rotate the
guitar on its axis smoothly.
50
The work bench allows full rotation both:
on the guitars axis (rotate the guitar around)
on the base vertical axis (for rotating the board around)
You should try to have enough area to walk around
the bench anyhow.
51
Paint plan
-
Layers
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Intercalating color layers with laquer layers
will allow you to get your job fixed every now
and then giving you the possibility to make
minor repairs if necessary.
Yellow - Remember: too much yellow will produce an orange look.
1 - Laquer
3 - yellow
1 - laquer
2 - yellow
1 - laquer
Red - Be sure the concentration is right. Red
tends to look gold if poorly concentrated in
thinner.
4 - red
1 - laquer
1 - red
Black - Be very careful not to spray black onto
areas you want as color.
2 - black
1 - laquer
1 - black
52
Laquer
First, carefully take binding masking tape
off and check for imperfections.
3 - laquer
1 - sanding check for imperfections
4 - laquer
1 water sanding - 1500 - 2000 grit
rub orange skin off
1 plain thinner for gloss finish
Let laquer thoroughly dry (for solvent
evaporation) several weeks before buffing. Laquer can produce indentations
(impressions) on its surface even from
cloth texture, cloth wrinkles and fingerprints. The good news is, if exposure to
the marking agent was not too prolonged,
nitrocelulose laquer will slowly pop up
back and return to it´s original flat finish
within a few days.
Buffing
Hand buff - one guitar will be no problem
Product used - 3M buffing compound
53
First color: yellow dye
Painting vertically or at a slant is ok if you are
sure you will not soak your paint surface and
let paint run down and drip.
Don´t Rush
Do not soak
Keep your distance
Beware of dirt
and fluff
I found I much preferred painting with the
guitar in horizontal position.
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54
The nozzle should pointed perpendicular to
the paint surface. The cup on this airbrush can
easily be tilted to suit any preferred angle.
Yellow was slow drying and after several coats,
suddenly, an array of clear, colorless freckles
appeared where you could see the bare wood
underneath.
I was very worried but, investigating, found
out that a mixture of yellow dye and half
nitrocellulose lacquer could improve the
performance. It did but I had to wash
everything off with thinner twice and start all
over again.
55
Second color: red dye
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The neck was easy to paint and quickly reached a beautiful tone with just a few rounds
of paint.
Regular pins pushed through the grey cardboard helped a lot to solve the mask separation problem. You have to be very careful,
though, not to slip the mask and scratch the
painted surface.
You can see the light coming through between the mask and the guitar. The pins lifted
the mask and were invisible to the color dust
floating around in each spray.
56
The red mask is composed of two parts: The inner mask and the
outer mask. This will assure a pure red band and fade away from
the mask borders into the yellow and the black.
Once the masks were in correct position, measuring from the guitar
edges, I marked black guide lines for future repositioning.
Masks take off much of the worry from ruining the paint job. With
their help, it is quite easy to spray the paint and get the desired
results.
The mask separators on the edges trapped a little red around their
base line in contact with the wood but this was no problem since
black covered these spots entirely.
Don´t Rush
Do not soak
Keep your distance
Working with a shield on your other hand is practical since you get
to fire and test your spray before doing it on the art piece.
57
You must turn the headstock around to paint from this
position considering the Casino headstock laterals are
not flat but rounded.
Back to Contents
Painting the front side second is better for you have
already experimented with the other side.
Wonderful! Everything is running straight.
F hole detail.
58
Checking the transition on the horns.
Everything looks neat.
Now we are ready to spray the black; tomorrow.
59
Third color: black dye
Back to Contents
The black mask still had the cardboard separators.
They were also taken off and replaced by pins.
Driving a standard pin into this thick, hard grey cardboard is not easy. You have to help yourself with a pair
of pliers and, holding the pinpoint short, you push it
in little by little.
.
Ready to spray the black and looking for alternatives
to mask the neck.
Very important at this stage is to check if all the tape
protecting the guitar binding is firmly gripped. Being
a pressure sensitive adhesive you should go over the
tape with your nails to check for any lift off.
If I were to do the job again I would make the mask
broader at the neck-body joint. I retouched this picture to explain what I mean.
A wider red strip will show the beautiful union between themaple body and the mohanny neck. Also
the red from the body swiftly flows onto the neck in a
beautiful manner.
60
Try to temporaily protect the neck from receiving
black spray dust.
Spray the back side first and repeat
the procedure on the front side
before proceeding with the lateral
sides..
Don´t Rush
Do not soak
Keep your distance
61
Painting the guitar sides
Cut out, from a white cardboard, the guitar silhouette to protect your work when spraying black
over the laterals.
Back to Contents
I used the system shown here, firing the spray only
from the middle of the lateral down to the lower
edge and pointing the airbrush at a downward angle. Not taping the mask firmly is not a wise thing
to do for spray dust can get under the mask.
Today, I would rather tape the whole cardboard
mask to the binding masking tape and feel much
more safe.
Then I turned the guitar around and did the same
procedure from the opposite direction as shown in
the next page.
62
This mask strip with the guitar contour was left
over from the black mask. I found it useful for
protecting the upper side specially considering
that this is an archtop guitar and the white cardboard mask had trouble adapting to the wood
curvature.
Assemble the two masks together. They will only
be briefly sitting on top of the guitar. For extra
protection place small portions of tape, holding
the masks firmly in place, and stick them onto
the binding masking tape.
This is a two tempo procedure since you will
have to do one section at a time .
Fire your spray pointing down at an angle; do
not shoot perpendicular to the surface or else
balck spray might filter inside the mask and stick
onto the guitar red or yellow parts. Also, cover
the mask border with a hand held mask for more
security.
Spraying at an angle will also prevent black paint
from falling over the guitar opposite side (underneath).
Take your time. Do not rush. Do every part
slowly. Stop every now and then. The concave
sections are critical and you must be very careful
with spray not getting in under the mask.
63
Painting the neck black stripes
I wanted a thin black stripe
running along each side of the
neck and flowing from the guitar body up to the headstock.
For this purpose I used a thick
cardboard with a straight edge
as a hand held mask.
Back to Contents
Hold the mask in place and
about 1 cm away from the
paint surface and spray the
black dye along the neck. In
seconds you will have a faded
black stripe along the neck.
The strip thins out and ends
at the headstock. The concave
surface there makes it a little
difficult to work a straight line
there so be careful there not to
ruin your work as I did a couple
of times.
Hand held masks have the problem you have to hold them
very firmly or else, you risk
ruining your work.
This is how the strip looks. The
picture is from the end of the
process. See pictures at the
end of the book.
64
Time for inspection. Not bad for the first time. Only a few things I don’t like:
First, some black spray reached over the red part of one of the horns. Although it is almost imperceptible, I wish not to let this pass.
Second: I would prefer a wider red gap passing through the neck joint.
Third, some small red stains over the yellow area proofed to be impossible to repair.
Fourth, The neck also has small defects related to the black strips.
You can refer to the trouble shooting section at the end of the book to see find more information about the problems described here.
65
Examining the dye
work
This is how the guitar looks after the dyes
have all been sprayed.
It is time now to check for any
imperfections. Do not worry. Many of
these can be solved.
Back to Contents
66
At this point you can spray one or two coats of lacquer
to protect the dyes. This will help from spoiling your
work by any accident. You will need to stuff tissue paper
back in again to prevent lacquer from getting into the
guitar interior.
You can now begin to unmask the guitar binding. Be
very careful and slowly lift the masking tape watching
not to peal off the dry paint.
BEAUTIFUL !
67
Three Attempts for one desired result
Back to Contents
If you are a beginner, don´t expect to obtain optimal results easily.
First time:
The job looked swell but a small part of the red area had been stained with black mist making me feel unconfortable so I decided to scrub off the whole front side and start again.
Second time:
The black frame became VERY wide; not the look I
was wishing for (too gloomy). Conclusion: the error
was, I sprayed paint at angles that permitted black to
get too much under the floating mask.
68
Third and last time:
New masks were created to obtain more colored
surface area and less black. This time the horns
were all done in red. The black frame was redisigned to form a wave pattern around the guitar
(sometimes slicker, sometimes wider) instead of
a single uniform width. Gorgeous !
Please refer to the trouble shooting section to
consult problems you may encounter in the
process of painting your guitar. Page: 80
69
Applying lacquer
Back to Contents
Adjust your airbrush for a fanlike spray not too small nor too wide. Do not shoot too
close or craters will form with waves spreading away like if it were stones thrown into
a pond. Let dry for 30 to 60 minutes between layers.
Back side - The final layer I give with pure thinner alone. This produces a
shinny finish close to mirror but buffing is necessary, anyway, to achieve the
ultimate shine.
Uncover the headstock
and apply two layers of
laquer to homogenize
the front and side edge
finishing.
Once you finish spraying
nitrocelulose laquer, you
must let the guitar sit
out and dry for a prudent
amount of time. This will
allow laquer to slowly dry
out. Remember, laquer will
feel as totally dry to touch
but will stay as a gellatine
underneath for a few months after. It is better to let
it rest on the work bench
where the guitar will not
be in contact with anything
that can cause pressure on
the fresh laquer.
I left this guitar rest for one
month before proceeding
with the buffing step.
Front side - last laquer layer.
70
Sanding lacquer
One month later: last inspection. Place the guitar on a table. Orange peel
skin is small but present .
Orange peel is almost intrinsic to this finish. Here you can appreciate the unsmooth resultant
surface do to this phenomena.
A piece of cloth is neccesary for
wiping the residual water and
inspecting the surface.
Before buffing, it is necessary to wet
sand the surface. Choose a very, very
fine grit sand paper to smooth out
the orange peel effect and prepare
the surface for the buffing step.
Folding the sand paper in halves or in
fourths permits a greater finger grip.
You can unfold the paper and change
sides as they wear out.
Have a cup with water near for
dipping the sand paper in.
71
Back to Contents
Now is the turn for the front side to look
shinny and beautiful ! Always experiment
with the back side first.
Try not to soak the surface too much for
water can get into the screw holes and
into the guitar interior wetting the dry and
unprotected wood inside.
72
Buffing
Once you decide the guitar surface is smooth and ready for
buffing , you will need to polish your guitar to a mirror like gloss
surface. I used a 3M liquid car polishing compound that worked
out perfect for this job.
Close up of view. Left half has been buffed. Right has not..
This process is very gratifying since the mirrow shinny surface
soon shows up and you feel your work is coming near to completion.
73
Assemmbling the guitar
Back to Contents
The final day has come when you will assemble the guitar back again.
Protect the guitar surface, at all times, from dents
and scratches.
Remember the neck pickup goes in first through the
bridge pichup hole.
Introduce thin electric wires through each hole, as if they were electric fishing tape, and bring one of their ends
out through the bridge pickup hole. Attach this front wire end to each of the components and slowly pull them to
their position.
74
Finished work first pictures
Eureka ! Mission accomplished. Connection test was ok
and the guitar sounds greater than before due to the
sexy new look.
75
76
Back to Contents
77
78
Back to Contents
79
Trouble shooting
Back to Contents
Repairs, retouching and checking
You are not free from trouble. Don’t panic. Repairs are possible but you also have the option of starting all over again.
Blank spots in the yellow area
Yellow was susceptible to creation of blank specks after
a few inmaculate layers. Unbelievable unpainted spots
appeared in the yellow coating all of a suddeen. You could
see the bare white wood through these spots and more
paint would not cover these spots either.
Trying to solve this problem got even worse. Finally I had
to wash of the yellow coating with a thinner damped cloth
and start again.
I finally overcame this problem spraying yellow dye solution
with half content of laquer solution in each applyed layer.
Red paint stain on the yellow area
The first time, I made the mistake of using cardboard mask
separators instead of thin pins to raise the masks away from
the guitar surface. These separators trapped red dye mist
and marked the yellow area with red stains. I carefully scrapped the red off with water and 1200 sandpaper.
Blowing a very gentle spray with little fluid you can fill empty holes.
Later, I change the mask separator system to pins to avoid
this type of problem.
A very fine paint brush is handy for some retouching. Unfortunately, sometimes trying to repair can make the problem
even worse; specially when the sector is not a pure color
but the blending of two, like in this case.
I tried protecting the sector with some lacquer to start
working on the problem. Fortunately, I finally did the whole
guitar side again.
80
The black stripe termination on the sides of the neck came
out almost perfect but not totally. I had to clear the imperfect
section with 1200 wet sandpaper, repaint the red and then do
the black stripe again.
Don´t Rush
Do not soak
Keep your distance
By accident I got my fingers, smeared with black dye, printed
on the impeccable red I had achieved on the neck. I had to wet
sand the stains off and repaint this sector too.
Precious time was wasted in these repairs. The problem was I
was not going for any less than total satisfaction.
At the end, the whole neck was wiped off with thinner and the
whole job was redone perfectly.
81
Retouchinng
Alittle retouching can be done without having the
mask in place. In this case, red dye is being applied
without a mask but being carefull of firing the airbrush at a slant, away from the guitar center and
towards the edges.
Back to Contents
82
Binding inspection
The guitar binding can gently be scraped
with a razor blade and a knife if any paint
has filtered under the masking tape.
Excesive scrapping can surpass the binding
limit and then you will have to remask the
binding and retouch with a very fine artist
paint brush.
When the guitar has passed all checking
points, you are ready to apply laquer.
83
Back to Contents
The guitar and neck joint, on the back side, was too dark with black dye.
From the beginning, I wanted red to go between the black and flow onto
the neck.
I decided to wet sand this sector and redo this part.
Fortunately, in this sector, red is next to the black so I could repaint the
red and then finish with the black fading over it.
Fixing this problem, another one rose when I sprayed red on this sector
and a golden cast started to glow instead of red. I had no idea what was
going on. Today I suppose this was probably due to low concentrated red
dye in excesive thinner.
I ended repairing this part several times with no success.
Finally I had to stop wasting time trying to repair and did the whole back
side all over again. I suppose a finner artist airtbrush would have been
ideal for this repair job.
84
The repair was quite succesful but
not enough to reach the desired
quality level.
Starting over
If you are not satisfied, it is quite easy to wipe off
the whole job with thinner and start again. I found
this much more efficient than wasting time trying
to repair defects that grew worse with each action
I took.
Freerhand retouching the horns
without a mask.
Designing more artistic black
curves with the help of cardbard,
black marker and scissors.
New masks, last attempt.
85
Behind the scenes
Back to Contents
Before and after - Retrospective
86
87
Back to Contents
Three of my favorites
The first guitar, to the left, I built when I
was fifteen with a set of instructions from
Popular Mechanics Magazine (1970).
88
About the author
Henry Potdevin is an
American bred GermanColombian citizen born
in 1955. Architect,
painter, photographer,
musician, carpenter, and
writer.
A naturally gifted designer, graduated from
architecture in 1980
and served as a Architectural Design Teacher
from 1984 to 1999.
Since 2002 he has been
working in his latest
proyect: LePotdevin
eBooks: a web site dedicated to the publishing
of interactive art books.
89
Paint Your Guitar
Sunburst
Step by step, the process of turning a natural finish guitar into a
beautiful sunburst guitar.
90

Paint Your Guitar Sunburst

Transcription

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