how to do a honeyburst

[kyles2017]

hi all. I have been trying to figure out how to achieve a perfect honeyburst, either using spray paints from

www.guitaraust.com.au

dingotone, or whatever option is possible. though ultimately I would love to have this effect. If someone can give me some in depth advice or know the colours needed it would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.keymusic.com/item/gibson...t-honey-burst/

[wazkelly]

Not sure where you live but if in Oz you could try Dingo Tone Coolangatta Gold for the middle and reckon Nullabor Ochre for the outer edges, sides and rear.

[Simon Barden]

I doubt that you'd get a good result in DT. You just can't get the feathering between colours right. Spraying is the only way that I'd go.

The StewMac method would be to do a very light sand on the top with P400 paper, then spray the top with a yellow lacquer (lacquer is transparent, paint is opaque). Then two coats of clear lacquer over that. After this comes the sunburst colour and then 6 to 8 coats of clear lacquer.

Honeyburst is really a representation of old cherry finishes that have faded over time through exposure to UV, so the burst colour is not an exact colour. It's not that easy to say what would be the best colours to use from the R&F colour chart as it does depend on the colour of the wood they are sprayed on http://dartfords.com/wp-content/uplo...se-lacquer.pdf

However CC024 and CC025 (on the second page of the chart) look about right to me for the honeyburst. It doesn't look like GuitarAust stocks those, so it might be worthwhile enquiring if they could obtain them for you or suggest an alternate supplier of lacquers that would do those colours. The colours in the Behlen colour chart on the site look all washed out, so I wouldn't make any choices based on those - I'd try and find a better one on-line.

If you do go nitro, then stick with nitro all over, don't try and mix paint types. But you will need to use a vapour mask when spraying.

The 2017 Gibson in the photo appears to have a dark brown finish, though older Gibsons would have had a couple of layers of cherry red over the mahogany before the clear coats.

There are lots of youtube videos on spraying a sunburst. The important thing is to start spraying from the inside of the guitar outwards, and start with the spray not actually touching the guitar at all, and then just bring it in a bit so that you only spray the edge of the guitar with the edge of the spray cone (never the centre or you'll get more of a solid line, not a burst). It's certainly worth getting some cheap aerosol paint cans and practice spraying sunburst edges on bits of wood or cardboard first.

Definitely shake the cans for a long time before use, and unless its a very warm day, warming the cans up in a bowl of warm (hand hot) water will let help the cans to spray well.

At most you should need two spray runs to do the sunburst, one a bit further into the guitar than the other. The edges of the guitar should be just a bit darker than the main block of the darker colour. You'll find that the darker colours darken as they dry, so don't be tempted to give it another go if it looks too light at first - wait a couple of days and then decide if you want to spray again.

I'd mask the binding on the sides (though on the top of a LP, the thin binding is easy to scrape clean) and the 3M 3mm fine line masking tape is great for doing this (though use multiple lengths of tape on concave sections of binding as it shrinks a bit and pulls off if you do curves all in one go). Obviously mask off the top when doing the back/sides/neck and mask off the back/sides/neck when doing the top - though the final 6+ coats of clear can be applied at the same time to the whole guitar.