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Does anyone know how to make a headstock decal like Martin's? That is, with gold lettering... I have made a decal for a tele in the style of Fender (kind of). I used transparent decal material, printed the lettering backwards and painted inside the gaps in the letters with Testers silver model paint. After that, I buried the decal under finish. It worked great. I found that technique at the telecaster forum.

I'd like to try to print my logo on decal material in gold but I'm not sure how to do it. I could use yellow color, but I don't think it would have the same effect. Thought I'd just through the question out there and see if anyone has done what I'm talking about... Otherwise, I guess it will slide down the posts...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Would real gold leaf work?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Try looking in a modeling magazine for custom decal services. I know they are in Model Railroader magazine as many hobbyists name their own model railroads and get decals made for their various train engines/cars, etc. They can be made for "any scale" in model railroading, so you should be able to get something made, a la Martin, for your headstocks.

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Hank Mauel

I've bought waterslide decals on Ebay in the guitar category. Around $15 for 2 decals including design services. The most recent ones I bought were gold with white border to go on a dark mahogany headstock. They worked great.

Although I have not used them recently, I used these guys a few years back for a custom headstock decal and a replacement Yamaha decal.

http://best-decals.com/index.php?main_p ... d4cb6c63b5

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

At one time you could buy gold paint in small glass jars. To my eye it looked about the same as the gold in the Martin decal. Try hobby shops or framing shops that sell supplies. I used it in the not so long ago past to make a decorative edge on homemade box frames.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

If you are looking for a paintable material that resembles gold you might try a craft store that sells rubber stamping supplies. My wife is into making her own greeting cards and there are all sorts of cool inks, and powders that do what you are looking for. Some are inks that you overlay on top of each other to look very much like gold leaf and others are powders that you use by laying a base which is clear and then you sprinkle the powder over it so it sticks where you want. You then heat it up with a hair dryer and the effect comes out. I think those are actually some sort of plastic but there should be something from that industry that will do what you want.

If you are just looking for a stencil type of application you could look to a sign making company that does vinyl signs. You can draw out exactly what you want on a computer and take it to them and they will use a plotter with knives that can cut out the design. I just recently did a Gibson J-40 for myself that had been ready for the scrap pile, someone had stripped it and removed the Gibson logo. I scanned in the logo from one of my other guitars and turned it into a black and white image. They cut out 8 of them for me on a strip of vinyl with the adhesive and I used that as a stencil to airbrush the logo on my headstock in gold.

So there are a couple of ways to do what you want if you are looking for something other than a waterslide decal.

Here is a shot of my Gibson logo but they can actually do very intricate cutting on a plotter/cutter and you can either use it as a stencil as I did or just use them as a decal and stick it on.

Hope this helps.

That looks great Bob. What kind of paint did you use in your air brush?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks Steve, I custom mixed it using lacquer base tint colors. If I remember correctly I started with base gold, and then tinted it with white and red to match the color that was on my LG-0 logo and then added a bit of gold metalic to give it some sparkle. My prior life I was a auto body painter and did a lot of custom work and I kept all of my tint bases and custom colors.

If you are thinking of doing your logo using a stencil as apposed to a waterslide decal you should have a look at some of those greeting card inks. They are really easy to apply and there are some very cool metallic finishes you can get. Just make sure they are permanent colors and won't fade (I am guessing most are since they are for greeting cards)

Bob