Official Luthiers Forum!

Just curious how y'all go about doing professional looking labels for your instruments?

Have a pic of yours Dan? I’m curious to see them all.

Mine are printed from a small word document, signed and stuck with spray adhesive. I’ve been thinking on how to change them to look more professional too.

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

The inside the box label? Mine are parchment, printed on a printer and then signed / dated. I put a dab of titebond on each corner and square it up / center it using the back marriage strip and the closest back brace.

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I print mine on a good quality paper and printer. I simply found a border design I liked years ago and filled it in with date, build number and model, and name and signature. Some time in the early 90's a guitar came into my shop for repair and the edges of the label looked burnt so I like to burn the edges. I spray nitro over it and glue in with Titebond or Fish or HHG or what ever is lying around.

Not sure how *Pro* it is - glued in with a bit of TB *before* the back goes on.

I actually skipped doing a label entirely on my first 2. I'm getting ready to close the box on my 3rd and I decided I wanted to come up with a decent label to give it some character. All I did for mine so far was stamp the neck block with a serial number and name/model. I'll still do that even with a label since those can disappear over time.

I'm lucky... one of my daughters is an artist and she designed and makes ours from antique paper and a custom rubber stamp we had made from her drawing. spray adhesive as well.

I've done mine a couple of different ways. The North Carolina label in the guitar was done in Open Office, laser printed, sealed with shellac and then glued in with Titebond. The earlier Tennessee label was a woodcut/block print that I did. I usually printed these on heavy brown card stock, but I can't seem to find one of those right now.

Dave

This is not a very clear picture. But the label was created in MS Word on the compute and printed on my home computer. After cutting out on the border lines I sprayed it with some coats of lacquer. Then I glued it in with Titebond. I've also used spray adhesive instead of glue to install them. I try to make mine with useful information for future repair luthiers as well as the owner.

I built a Nick Lucas copy for my blues playing daughter and a friend who knew Photoshop better than I did put this together

Ed M

Thanks for all the ideas. My wife got really excited and drew this one up for me the other day. I'll have to figure out a way to get it to print onto some parchment paper but I think it'll do nicely. The Grand Western is what I call the one I'm currently building. Churchland is the name I'm building under. Thoughts?

I went onto the Vistaprint website for mine. You can design what you want and I had mine printed out onto peel and stick sheets. This is one of the first ones I had printed. It has since been revised to include spaces for other info I just handprinted on this design.

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Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

I'll look into that. Is the material strong enough to have shellac or some other sealer put on it?

Mine are printed on a high quality linen (resume) paper, have held up fine for 10+ years, I’d that option works for you.

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

I don't know about professionalism but this is what I use. I print on goldenrod colored paper.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I like the bill of material that some are doing. I used to do that but stopped and might have to reconsider it.

Another alternative is to use laser-etched labels. I first saw them years ago here when Brock Poling was using them, and had some made for me. Lasers are somewhatprolific now, and I’m sure a quick search will turn something up. These are etched in cedar. I have some in mahogany as well, but consistently prefer the cedar.




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I LIKE it! Tell your wife it is marvelous.
You might consider a boarder; or not.....

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Snagged a border from internet, used photo editor (snag it) to add the text. Laser print on cream paper.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I've been using orange paper in an oval, Gibson shape using acid and lignin free paper from my wife who does scrapbooking. Label might out last the guitar!

Do you make these yourself or pay some one to? It's a brilliant idea!


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Those are very cool. Thanks for sharing that!

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I'll let her know. I did add a border and printed on some medium weight grey parchment paper. I'm pretty happy with the result. I'll definitely use it again on other guitars in the future. I decided not to sign it since it's already signed on the top, figured that might be overkill.

I made this simple label in Visio, cause I already had the software from my work. Ink jet print on parchment resume paper. Glued on with Titebond then I paint the face with thinned Titebond. I have labels that are 20 years old and still look great.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have access to a laser now, so I actually can make them, but an old member named Dave Fifield made these for me back in 2011!


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First, I love the name! Second, it just looks so clean and natural. You have definitely inspired me. Now to see if I know someone with a laser... [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]


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