Non-PBG RBX Style Bass Guitar Kit RBX-20 from DIY Guitars

[Alkay]

Airbrushing/spraying water based stain on is fine. You'll certainly get a more gradual sunburst finish than by hand-application. Just let the base stain dry off fully (say two days) before spraying the sunburst on so that the wood is dry enough again to absorb the water+stain well. The end-grain will still want to absorb more water and stain than the top/bottom and sides, so spraying does help to get a more even coating of stain here than by applying by hand in these areas.

Of course, if you are going for a black or very dark edge (like in the photo of the sunburst bass), then hand stain application should still work. But anything a bit lighter, and you may have trouble with with lighter and darker patches around the edges.

Just be patient and spray light coats each time. It shouldn't take long for an airbrushed stain to dry enough to see the true depth of colour. I'd give it 15 minutes between applications.

If you've got a choice of needle/nozzle sizes for your airbrush, then I'd fit the largest one you can. You want a wide area spray, so that at the edges of the spray cone, there's only a small amount of droplets. That's going to help you get a nicely graduated burst. Too narrow a spray pattern and you're going to get harder edges.

I don't think turps would mix with a water based stain/paint, though a slower-drying carrying agent than water would be useful as you want to get the stain soaking into the wood a bit, without the droplets drying in mid-air and the stain just hitting the wood and sitting on the top where it's likely to be brushed off easily. You want to spray a bit further away from the wood to get a wider, more dispersed spray pattern, but the further away you are, the more time the air has to absorb the water droplets.

I'd test it all out first on scrap wood. Afterwards, you could even see what effect simply spraying water on the sunburst area has, as it might encourage the colours to blend further if slightly patchy - or it might do nothing.

Hi Simon,

That's really good to hear. I will do some test runs on some scraps first with the airbrush. I know how to do the stencils(art background) so it should come up ok. The airbrush I have is really cheap but I haven't really tested it since I got it.

I'll give those water based airbrush paints a go.

Just a thought. Have you ever hear of anyone using food dye for colouring?

I think it might work as long as it's sealed with poly as soon as it's dryed but I might try a test run with that too.

Cheers,

Alkay.