Do it. Let me know if you need help. Mine was done with professional spray equipment and non poly lacquer so your milage may vary. Expect more orange peel if youre doing spray cans. Light coats, dont worry about coverage the first few. Avoid blobbing, the wood likes to soak, let it and go onto the next coat. Eventually it will be black opaque.
The top “lip” is after the paint is dried you “scrape” it with a razor blade (the strong trapezoid shaped ones) to expose the wood. Then you clear over it all. Go slow and dont cut in.
I was thinking of doing an inlay but the time to route and do all that channeling is not worth it.
I also had my metal plates powder coated which is way overkill imho.
Masking it will be incredibly more tedious and time consuming than the method soul driver outlined above with the razorblade. It shouldn’t be to difficult the key is to not put too much pressure and just do light passes, you don’t have to scrape all the paint in one pass also do it sooner rather than later after painting it as it will be tougher to scrape it if you let it fully cure
You could do masking tape but youll need to get a thin pinstripe tape or have to cut it down slim. Youll need to make sure the adhesive comes off clean too. A trick was to stick it against your shirt one or twice then putting it on your project. The tape may leave a little lip which may or may not bother you and/or be smoothed out with the clear.
Honestly i would either spray a scrap piece or try it on an earlier coat. Youre not using the razors edge to cut in but rather youre pulling it backwards. Youre not doing it flat but more like you were beveling the edge. Let the razor do the work.
As for coats itll be different as mine was nitrocellulose lacquer meaning its oil based, and it needed sealer, and it tends to be absorbed into the wood more. You may or may not need filler. They make nitro lacquer spray cans but theyre around $20 each and are more prone to bloom if not done right.
Prep is key! Sand flat and even! Get a straight edge block, put the sanding paper on it and apply even pressure end to end. Clean it well.
Also dont fret, my sprayer is this guy, he is a dear friend as is well known for his work and his resto work was in the MET: Collections – Mirabella Guitars
He has almost 40 years on you.
@MacDLaw if you need some really good low tack masking tape i recommend this stuff
I use this for plastic model painting and it is by far the lowest tack tape with the crispest lines I’ve ever used. they also carry it in 3mm if you need even thinner
Thanks for all the helpful advice, thanks to towa as well.
This is the first time I have to do a wood finish so im just going to skip the advanced skimming and just see what can I accomplish, a small coat a time.
Going for the black with lacquer finish seems too far away for me (skill wise) but Ill se what they have at the store and if its not excessively expensive.
Actually a very good idea, probably going for this color. Gonna think overnight. Im also considering chocolate instead of black, we’ll see
Going to bounce some ideas to see what everyone thinks looks wise. I am going to grab a gold metallic paint pen and add symbols to the top plate and possibly to the front. I did some very quick and dirty mock ups, let me know what you think looks best. Any name will be dependent on what stencils are available. I do not want to freehand the script.
Bottom left with no text or very small letters would look nice also centered centered would look dope. Also if u do text different font and small text would look better imo
I personally like 2 the most there, think it’s best fitting if you wanted to add text (and also like how it’s spaced/lines up the with the tubes the most)
it’s such a gorgeous execution yours, just keep it simple. The badge centered IMO. Anything else detracts from the clean simplicity of the color scheme.
