Official Luthiers Forum!

I've got a sheet of Tortoise and a customer who wants it darkened. I was thinking of spraying black nitro on the back side of it, the side that gets stuck to the guitar.

Has anyone done this before or have any thoughts on how to do it. Would nitro on the stick side be a bad idea?

Tell him tough. Or he can order another.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I've sprayed clear (Mohawk) on top of tortoise celluloid binding & it hasn't delaminated yet after 5 years.

So in all seriousness, and wanting to cover my arse, I'd say it might be ok.

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I would be inclined to use a dye stain in a little bit of lacquer (as a binder ) and use it as a toner on the "stick" side of the pickguard. You might want to spray several light coats (letting it dry in between) so the solvents don't distort the plastic. I would be afraid a black lacquer might make it too dark.

Well he gave me a big sheet of the stuff and said just go ahead and experiment. So it doesn't come out of my bottom line.

I guess I'll have to play around with a few of these ideas.

Another possibility might be to mask off the area around the pickguard and darken the top wood under it. If you have some scraps you could experiment with different paints and colorants and then lay the pickguard material over it to gauge the effect.