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Hello everyone,

I have some headstock veneers that have my logo inlayed into them and I want to make a headstock that is painted black with the inlay showing of course. How do you go about painting the veneer black and still have the inlay showing?

Thanks!

Wax the inlay. Mask it. Anything you can remove without destroying the integrity of your headstock


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Liquid mask:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXC099

Or Frisket from an art supply store, in my view using wax could contaminate the entire surface making the finishing job very difficult.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yes LIquid Mask would be my choice. You can also use regular Elmers glue as the same thing. When you are ready to remove it just scrape off part of it and use water to remove the rest. It is the poor mans Liquid Mask.

I use scotch tape. Put on a layer, exacto knife around the edge and it peals off easily.

others have said how to do it but in my opinion it is not a very viable thing to do and difficult to make look flawless. If you want it black you should set you inlays in ebony or mask the pearl and warm the headstock with a hair dryer to get the surface really dry and use a black water based stain like a fret board stain then sand any little bit of stain that got on the pearl off very carefully. You can touch up the stain with a super small brush of the type used in spotting photographs.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

The repair guys/gals will know better, but I believe Gibson has used the masking technique as a general practice. Inlay, mask, black lacquer, clear coat -- at least that is how it looks to me?

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I would be interested to know how Gibson does it if anyone knows for sure.

A generally accepted method is to mask the inlay, but not to count on it actually working. Then black lacquer over everything, and very carefully scraped off the inlay, just the same way as you would do the binding. Clear coat to fill, level and make the scratches disappear. Makes ebony seem like the easy way, but then, maybe it was also a matter of saving material cost for Gibson and others.

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
FRETS.NET

What ever method you decide to use... Practice on a scrap before you do it on your guitar. As Mr. Ford stated "not to count on it actually working" with experience on his side, he does know what he speaks of.

Most anything you mask it with will probably end up with some bleed through that you will end up having to scrape back. So trial and error will give you the experience to know what will happen on the final product.

Bob

It is all about planning and prep. I will showy method when i get time.


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Ken

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Ken

This is black paint over holly veneer. The inlays are white pearl.


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Ken

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Ken

As you can see I went a little overboard with the veneer.
Seriously though, the cutouts are oversized for a reason.


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Ken

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Ken

After the veneer is carefully positioned on the paddle, it will absorb the moisture from the glue and set pretty well. Maybe 30 minutes later i remove the clamps and set the inlay pieces in place like this. Then i reapply the clamps


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Ken

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Ken

Mix the mastic, epoxy wit leather dye


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Ken

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Ken

Dribble it in so it fills the spaces.


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Ken

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Ken

Sand it level. Like this.


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Ken

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Ken

Spray right over it. Some may use a spare blank to mask but i dont.



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Ken

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Ken

When the lacquer is not sticky an not too brittle it is time to scrape. In the right light it becomes visible.


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Ken

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Ken

Now you can see that this would be pretty tricky if the inlay has no black mastic around it. With practice i have learned to get pretty close. I use a pointed violinmakers knife.


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Ken

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Ken

Yep, then as Frank wrote, you spray lacquer over and sand back to level it. Look at old Gibbies. You will see the mastic.


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Ken

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Ken

Finished.


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Ken

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Ken

Thanks for the tutorial Ken.

You are welcome.


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Ken

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Ken