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Just wanted to share how I'm putting my logo on headstocks now. I'm building a guitar for the TDPRI challenge and wanted to put my logo on it, so I started doing some research. I know I'm not the only one that does it this way, but I've not seen any small or hobby builders do this. Everyone at TDPRI used waterslide decals, but I couldn't source any locally, so I started down this road...

We have a screen print shop where I work, and the manager helped to get me set up with my own screen print rig. She burned a screen and put it on a frame small enough to fit on the headstock of my telecaster build. She then hooked me up with a squeegee and some ink as well. At first we tried using acrylic paint, but it wouldn't wash out of the screen, so she gave me some of the vinyl ink that they use. It worked perfectly.

I first put on a couple of coats of lacquer (I used Deft satin finish spray lacquer from Lowe's) and then did the screen print. I finished it with about 4 or 5 more coats.




And here's how it looked after all the lacquer was applied


You only need a tiny bit of ink. I put on about a dime sized dollop, and it was way too much. My screen print shop manager said that she'd get me set up if I want to do any multi-color logos as well.

I've often wondered if that would work..... well done!

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

Thanks, Chris. It really did work perfectly. Granted, it's not as classy as inlay, but that's a skill that I'm a long ways from tackling at this point. I'm still trying to get my build skills up to par. We can't all be Virgil you know

That's fantastic! Make me one .....but not with your logo. That would be silly.

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PMoMC

Nice logo, perfect for a tele, I think inlay would be too much for strats/tele's

Thanks for sharing this, I always was curious how this was done as well. I also love the logo for Tele.

Rick

Thanks guys.

Chris, I got all of my materials free since we have a screen print shop where I work. Most places will charge around $30 for a screen, but they keep the screen, so you'd just need to go by your local place and see what kind of deal they'd work for you. You can do as I did here and take in a small picture frame and see if they'd attach and burn the screen for you on your frame. I'm not sure how much the ink costs because I've not priced it since the print shop manager just gave me some. I don't think it's much more than paint, and as I said you only need a very small amount for each screen.

For the squeegee, one of these rubber decal applicators works great too

Looks great Roger ... the screen job & the headstock/fretboard/tuner shape/colours... very nice:)

where's the rest of it?

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

Here's the mockup I did yesterday...




I'm building this for the TDPRI challenge. It's concrete with perlite as the aggregate, so it's quite a bit lighter.

lol, well, .... okay!

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

Roger, I like the logo. The guitar's looking good, too. I try to follow your thread(and others) on the TDPRI, but my system is old, and sometimes the pics will load and sometimes not. Was wondering how far you'd gotten. Really cool idea and execution.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Will it rock hard?

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