sunburst laquer

[rocket]

hey all, does anyone have any info on spraying a sunburst nitro laquer job? i've just got these two babies ready for sanding sealer and want to put a bit of a burst on them but haven't done it before, can anyone enlighten me? Cheers Rod.

[Nick]

Nice looking non cutaway Rod (not that the other one's too shabby either!).
I used to use the Colortone dyes available from StewMacs until the terrorists stopped liquids being shipped outside the US, they were good as they could be added to any finish. But if you want to spray a nitro finish (or any Lacquer for that matter) you could use some alcohol based Aniline powders.
LMI do some (there maybe an Aussie supplier for them?), these are just mixed with Alcohol into a coloured liquid concentrate and then added directly to the finish in differing quantities depending on the shade you want. I usually lay down an Amber base using the water based Anilines directly onto the wood (You'll have to carry out a few rounds of grain raising first) then spray the burst using a jamb gun aiming the gun toward the edges (not square on to the surface). Once you've built up the burst you are happy with hit it with a couple of clear 'sealing coats' let the whole lot dry for a week then scuff sand the clear and finish the guitar as you would normally.
You could, if you wanted (and it gives a nice merging style of burst instead of the clearly lineated bursts you get with spraying), build up a burst using all water based dyes by wiping directly onto the wood with rags. I think there's some youtube vids showing this process so maybe a search over there will help, as they say, a pictures worth a thousand words. Once the surface has been left to dry it can be sprayed as normal

[Stu]

Hey Rod.

I use the LMII aniline dyes and do bursts after a few light coats of nitro.
If I'm going for a really lightweight transparent burst I'll mix the dye in with a thinned nitro mix and shoot it that way.
If I require a very dark and nearly full colouring I'll use less nitro,( to
negate extra build-up) and use more solvent. I sometimes go pure solvent and dye using a smaller touchup gun for finer burst lines
around the perimeter.
I also take several passes over each area and progressively build up to the amount of bursting required. This gives a little more control and
less chance of 'patching' if doing it in one pass.

Cheers, Stu