Thanks Guys! I appreciate the feedback!
Bruce, the knobs that go to 11 are legit. Funny to read the blurb from Nigel again. I really need to get a hold of Spinal Tap and watch it again! You can get the knobs from AllParts. They have the hat knobs and speed knobs that go up to 11 so you can get more volume out of any guitar ;) Kind of novelty item, but the knobs are great quality and a fun addition.
Regarding the burst process, I started by spritzing the top with water to raise the grain. When it dried, I sanded. I then repeated the process again. I did this as I would be using Transtint dyes diluted in water, and I didn't want the grain raising as I dyed the top. James Condino demonstrates how to do a burst by hand on
Fine Woodworking's website. I used a similar process to lay down a base coat of yellow, followed by red, then a deep wine mixed with red.
Once the hand tinting was done, I shot a couple of coats of Target's EM1000 sanding sealer. This is a fairly new product by Target Coatings. It is very clear and can be used as a color carrier. Because it is clear like water, mixing tints to tone is a bit more friendly as the mixture is easier to see. I first shot the two clear coats as I wanted something between my hand tinting and the sprayed color coats in case I screwed up with the spray gun and wanted to sand back. I mixed up some red with a touch of wine and black and shot the perimeter with the spray coming out so light it was practically dry when hitting the guitar. I then added more wine and black and shot even closer to the edge. Again I added more black and hit the very edge, being careful not to get these very dark colors too far in. I wanted the grain to be visible almost to the very edge. The colors went down great, and I didn't have to redo anything. Because these color coats were shot so light, the finish had a rough sandpapery type texture.
The colors were very bright. Looked cool, but I didn't want them that vibrant. My bindings were also white, which really seemed out of place. So I added some amber color to some EM6000 and shot two coats, tinting the whole guitar. This gave the bindings more of an aged look, so they better matched the cream pup rings and pickguard, and the amber also took the edge off the colors, giving them a warmer glow. I also like what the amber did to the red stained B&S. I think the red is a ringer for a 59 LP burst. Over the amber tinted EM6000, I shot another half dozen coats of clear before I leveled everything and started building up clear coats.
The end result is pretty close to what I was after. A couple of months ago I purchased Iwanade's Beauty of The Burst, which has photos of dozens of 1959 Les Paul guitars. I thumbed through that book almost nightly, looking at pictures and getting a reference of what I wanted to do. In the end, I decided I wanted to do a burst that may look like something that would have come out of the Gibson factory 50 years ago rather than approximate what a faded burst looks like today. I don't care much for the bursts that look like a tear drop template was laid over the guitar and the color sprayed around the perimeter. I wanted the color to follow the contours around the body.
Bob, the kit is from Bull Dog Bodies. I didn't buy it from them. I found it from a guy who had purchased it, did some work on it, then got bored with it and decided to sell. The price was right, so I purchased it just so I could do the burst. I have a '57R Goldtop and always wanted a sunburst. This gave me a chance to do one without investing a lot of time and money. I don't know how these kits come from the factory. This one was already bound and the fingerboard was inlaid and fretted. The maple top is a veneer, but is very nice. The back is three piece mahogany, which varied a lot in color, but I was able to even out with the stain. The neck was dead straight. I had a lot of clean up to do with the bindings, and I needed to fill a lot of pockets in the mahogany end grain and around the bindings. The neck tenon was too small for the mortise, so I had to build that out, and the headstock was sort of buggered up, so I had to recut the scallop about a 1/16" lower on the headstock. But it cleaned up nicely, and the end result is a really great playing and sounding guitar, all for about $450 and a little bit of time, actually much less than building an acoustic!
Ken
