Burst tips

[Mark_Shingleton]

Hi guys.
Any tips on how to do a burst with stains?
I have been practising on the headstock before I go to the body and I cant seem to get it right.
I don't want to mess up on the body.
Any tips from more experienced stainers?

Thanks.

[McCreed]

Check out this guy: Big D Guitars on YouTube

He has quite a few videos on doing dye bursts. I don't agree 100% with everything he says, but he does get good results.

[RocknRolf]

Hi Mark, won't say I am an expert with only one guitar under my belt but here's my take.

I practised a couple of time to see what dilutions gave what results. I wrote everything down and ended up making several 'blends'. Starting with the light colours on the in side, working my way darker to the outside. Getting good and even transitions was a matter of using a more diluted colour on the rag and whipping/ diluting the darker edge away.

I have watched plenty of videos on the process, but still had to go through plenty of practice runs to get the result I was after.

Attached pic of my guitar for reference.

[Rabbit]

I have watched plenty of videos on the process, but still had to go through plenty of practice runs to get the result I was after.

There's no substitute for experience. Until you play around with the stains and techniques, you won't have a feel for what they are going to do.

[Mark_Shingleton]

Check out this guy: Big D Guitars on YouTube

Thanks, I will check him out.

I have watched quite a few videos on staining, the back of the guitar went well but it all went wrong on the front... when I tried to blend the colours... also I think I may have sanded too much. I think I have gone through the maple top around the edges.
This is the best I have managed...

NOt really happy with it... I have been playing around trying to fix it but I don't really know what else to do.
It might look ok with a high gloss coat but it's not exactly what I had in mind.
I am toying with the idea of just painting it all cherry red. I will lose the maple grain but I will buy another eventually and hopefully won't make the same mistake with that one... and use a different colour. This is not what I imagined it like.

There's no substitute for experience. Until you play around with the stains and techniques, you won't have a feel for what they are going to do.

Hopefully, my next attempt will be more successful.

Attached pic of my guitar for reference.

Thats a nice looking guitar.

[RocknRolf]

Hi Mark,

I can't see the result too clearly in the picture, but if you are using water-based stains, you could try to soften the light to dark colour transition using a damp clean rag, by rubbing that part of the burst with the contour line.

What is the look you are after?

I hope you'll be able to fix it, but cherry red could be cool!?

Ps. I also went through the maple on my guitar as well but was able to camouflage it in the darker colour of the burst.

Hope this helps.

[Mark_Shingleton]

Hi Mark,

I can't see the result too clearly in the picture, but if you are using water-based stains, you could try to soften the light to dark colour transition using a damp clean rag, by rubbing that part of the burst with the contour line.

What is the look you are after?

I hope you'll be able to fix it, but cherry red could be cool!?

Ps. I also went through the maple on my guitar as well but was able to camouflage it in the darker colour of the burst.

Hope this helps.

Hi,
Yeah, I am using water-based stains.
I was going for a smokehouse burst as you see on the Gibson studio.


I decided to carry on with the stain and see what I get, I can always paint over it if it doesn't come outright.
This is how it looks at the moment, a better pic than the one above.


Thanks.

[RocknRolf]

Yes that Gibson looks stunning!
I hope you'll be able to water down the center and apply the orange tint of that studio to 'pop'. Could turn out really cool around the bridge area!

Good luck!

[Groovyman32]

I too have only one stain so I’m not sure I’m qualified to give any advice.

But I found if you blend from dark to light it tends to get muddy quite quickly. So for me I put the light areas down first followed by the darker edges. Then with a clean rag blend from light to dark, changing the area of the rag I was using once it had picked up too much colour. Really keep a way from the light areas.

Here’s what I did on my ash tele:




Could you use a synthetic wire wool to lift out the colour where you’re not happy?