Official Luthiers Forum!

I haven't been able to find any info on how to do a burst, anybody know of one?
I'd like to do a amber burst ala the collings or martin guitars
Anybody know what stains to use?
can the stain be wiped on?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Put simply it is a matter of building light to dark. It can be done by hand staining, padding or by spraying. There is lots of info on the net. Lightest shade first the darker shades over.

A worthwhile first step is the "sunburst" video that stewmac offers....lots of good stuff from colour & intensity matching to spraying technique.

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Dave
Milton, ON

All good reccomendations, the video is a good way to go. To me it's about
1. The spray gun. Many use an air brush, I've never had great success with those but they
do work well in many folks hands. I use a detail gun ( a small gun popularized by the auto-painting industry), mine is gravity fed and HVLP. You can easily control volume and spray pattern, critical for a sunburst.
2. The base coat is very important, choose the color carefully, test spray it until you are
happy with it. If you have mixed it, mix enough and mark the bottle or storage container clearly. You don't want to run out in the middle of a job. Stains are widely available from Stew-Mac etc. They all work, I spray Nitro so it's pretty easy to mix up colors.
3. I use a two-step sunburst, some use 3, it's just what you are going for that decides.
I get a good result with a brown color in my Nitro and fade it into the base color. That's the real tricky part, also, a steady hand really helps. I start with a very light blend-in coat at the junction I have picked for the burst and then add more color toward the edge as I get where I'm going. They are really fun to do and not difficult after a few tries.

Never used had finishes but they obviously work as well.

Best
Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Just noticed the post on airbrush use and the guns mentioned there are the same type I'm
referring to. Lots of different names for them, I learned at a facility that called them detail guns but jam guns is another term. They require lots of maintenance if you plan on keeping the gun for some time. The small orifice in these guns will clog fast. The Devilbiss is usually
recognized as the premium sprayer although there are some other new guns that are excellent as well. Everything changed for the better when gravity-feed came in.

Best
Bruce

_________________
Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Someone here posted this link the other day. Might be of interest.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ ... x?id=30182

Lots of ways to skin a cat. The reranch forum recomends you shoot the center, then the outside colors and work your way back in. I personally find that the lighter to darker color method (as stated by Michael) works best for me.

Here is my progress shots:

The wood started out very white like this:



I shot the entire guitar in amber including the bindings. That will be the color of the center of the guitar. Then I taped off the bindings and shot the first coat of red. This is the middle color of a 3 color burst.



The back was solid mahogany and only got a 2 color burst. So here is the red as the main color on the back.



I then came back and shot the darker brown red on the edges like this:





Then I removed all the tape on the bindings and shot clear over it:



Hope this helps!

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Joe

PS: Notice a good burst always has the darker burst color in the waistlines, the tail section and in the cutway/neck joint areas. Not sure why...but it looks great!

JD

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Joe

Simonoff's book -- Ultimate Mandolin -- has a good tutorial in it on bursting.

Good luck!
dave

The Stewart-MacDonald / Earlwine book on guitar finishing is wonderful! It has all the formulas and techniques for all the famous manufacturers paint jobs. I learned more about painting guitars from this one source than any other place. Highly recommended!
Mikey

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

thanks to all of you who replied, lots of info here. I'll do some more research.
I did like the link to the fine woodwoking method as I am set up to spray but of late have been french polishing shellac. so rubbing the stains on appeals to me.
Thanks again,
Peter

Be aware that the vido at Fine wood working is water solvent stain on bare wood. This is a simple methosd but requires some practice to get the hange of keeping the tint consistant. Bi sugest building a dummy top and practice before just jumping in.