Waterslide Decals

[gavinturner]

hi Andrew,

My recommendation is to speak with Andy (forum's AndyPort) @ City Signs and Print. He'll be able to print a white vinyl decal for you. email: citysigns AT internode.on.net

Many of our builds are now sporting white headstock decals by Andy.

cheers,
Gav.

[corsair]

Now, this is interesting. I've had a bit to do with waterslides over the years with mixed success.

The guitar I'm re-visiting presently is being re-visited because I was never happy with the headstock decals, which I printed up and applied with no dramas but as soon as I applied the clear, the bastard things crazed up and at that stage I left it as it was, knowing that one day I'd re-do it!

So the headstock has been sanded back and carted off to a genius airbrush artist to have the graphics blown on!

Anyway, I still need a decal done in metallic gold and am having no luck getting anyone local, or indeed Qld, interested and even Rothco and Frost have not answered my queries, so dies anyone have a suggestion? My painter guru reckons he cannot do it justice as it does look pretty complex - it's the Rising Sun emblem of the AIF in WW2....

[wazkelly]

Take a photograph of the emblem against either a white or black background and then print in colour on decal transfer paper. White background should come out clear whilst black will come out, well, black of course, just in case you wanted a black faced head stock and then trim the edges and tuning peg holes. Saves all the mucking about with a smaller decal that always stands out under no matter how many top coats.

[stan]

Awesome idea waz, full faced decal, dont have to smother it in clear....

[Dedman]

Screen printing is the best sticker you will ever get, however it is expensive on single or small runs. you are looking at a set up and screen cost for each colour.

[DrNomis_44]

The urls that Adam posted in this thread are going to be very useful to me, once I get round to getting the headstock design for my Gold Strat finalized, I'm going to have to order some Waterslide Decal paper soon, which reminds me, I'll also need a couple of new ink cartridges for my printer too.

[kel1985]

I swear I saw this question answered before, but for the life of me I can't find it, so I thought I'd ask the experts...
Can you use tru oil over a waterslide decal?
If so, are there any pitfalls I need to be aware of.

Thanks in advance.

[wazkelly]

Hi Kel, Tru Oil goes over most things once they have been left to dry for a while.

Pitfalls.....if you trim the decal you may see edge lines at certain angles and would recommend cutting out the transfer just a little bit bigger than the headstock face and trim that back once it has dried. The end result should be much smoother and uniform looking. Easy to trim the tuner holes too by using a drill bit by hand or with a box cutter knife.

Cheers, Waz

[kel1985]

Thanks Waz!!!

[JohnH]

Screen printing is the best sticker you will ever get, however it is expensive on single or small runs. you are looking at a set up and screen cost for each colour.

+1 for screenprinted decals. You can't go past a screenprint, but the cost racks up if you're paying someone else. We charge something like $60 - $80 per screen just for the set-up, then $85 per hour for printing. I've been thinking for awhile I should make a little PDF how-to instruction booklet, because it's not hard (or expensive) to set up at home - just requires some trial and error (but so does building guitars, so we're clearly all ok with that)

EDIT: Also, printing very detailed text and images in a completely opaque white is pretty easy with a screen