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Folks,
I spent the week working on the sunburst I was so nervous about. In all I probably spent only 24 hours working to get this right.

In another thread posted recently someone was looking for a number of builds it takes to get perfect. I'm one to think the perfect build is elusive, but the perfect fix takes practice and is possible. And I figured out how to fix some pretty ugly goobers.

All in all I found that spraying straight dye diluted in water or alcohol did not work well for the sunburst. Spraying it for the base coats was fabulous and blotch free.

I started by spraying all the figured wood black, then sanding back so that most of black dye was present only in the figure and mostly pure white maple was visible. Then I found the right concoction for the amber and sprayed that. Next I broke out the can of Zinsser Bullseye Seal Coat Shellac. Thinned 1/2&1/2 with DA and sprayed blonde all over to seal. Then started adding dye to the seal coat, airbrushing a sunburst as I went. It was pretty slick.

Key point was being patient and constantly telling myself to slow down and wait for the DA to flash off. Constantly. Over and over. As in a mantra. SLOW DOWN.

I built up a base of dark brown and worked out to the edge. As I got the edge primed, I started adding black to the mix and the edge darkened up to a satisfactory depth.

Here's a couple shots after the first day of spraying nitro.







As for the bindings, they were initially sealed then taped off. Minimal scraping was required after the tape came off. However, transitioning from the back, to the sides, to the top, I would mask off the finished section with paper and move on. Once I was done, I took all the masking off and found that in a couple places the tape had leaked and some shellac had run into a finished section. And where ever there was tape, there was reisdue or goobered finish.

I was initially thinking I'd have to re shoot at least those areas, if not the entire box. Before doing that, I grabbed a french polishing pad, dipped it in some shellac, added a bit of oil and started polishing. The result was that most of the goober was fixed by melting the color together. Plus it smoothed out the finish to a beautiful sheen. Then I reshot the edge with the air brush and thus fixed the problems.

In the future, unless someone warns me of the evils they've encountered with this, I totally plan to seal with shellac and rub it out as it seemed to help the lacquer build up MUCH smoother and faster.

Hopefully through my anxiety and results someone else will find some success as well.
Thanks to those who helped along the way.

Dave

Looks GREAT!
I agree with your approach - with my limited experience with a burst, what worked for me was similar to what you landed on - shellac first, then spray dyed finish.
Although I did mine opposite to yours - amber all over first, then darker 1/2 way, then darker to the edge

Looks good, especially the back. That binding was masked off very well. Makes me less worried about trying it myself someday.

very nice Dave!

Wow, I guess a little anxiety can produce beautiful results. Inspiring!

Loving it!!!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Nice job, Dave. I don't blame you for being excited and satisfied. Just keep doing them, and they will get progressively easier and easier, and pretty soon, you'll wonder why you suffered all that anxiety.

Looks good. Thanks for sharing your experience, process and results.

Erik

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

I'm VERY happy with the results.

Next time I'll try for a more natural/woody color tone. But this one is fine just the way it is.

Dave

Dave: Very nice job.....CONGRATS!!!! Just a comment on being up tight about taking on a job. I find that I make less mistakes and things generally turn out better if I am keyed up a bit. It's generally when I get too cocky and sure of myself that I am less in the game and do something stupid. Again,beautiful guitar.
Tom

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

Good point, Tom.

Looks great. I usually don't mask for fretboards and bridge because it complicate things when wet sanding and buffing... having to worry about knocking the tape off and removing them without damage to the surrounding finish, etc.

You don't have to spray the dye for the black and sand back part, just wipe them on with a damp (NOT dripping) rag with the dyes in it is sufficient. Since I can't get the spray shellac outside of the US, I had to make do with Stewmac vintage amber dye (and for some reason they have the permission to ship them by air now, when before it's considered hazardous)

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

She's a beauty Dave!