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Had to do it....dang those Paul's....truly a beauty of the burst??

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-CyborgCNC
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I hope you used respiratory protection when spraying that finish.

I actually had to wear a mask, since these days, each time I open up PhotoShop to create a new texture, all of a sudden, my computer starts smelling like Nitro!

LOL!!

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-CyborgCNC
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Smell-o-vision is just around the bend, as always, now that we've got 3D it's the last frontier!

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

The real skill will be when you can make a three tone transparent burst happen on wood.....cuz for the life of me I can't figure out how to make that happen without some fancy spraying.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Start by not dyeing or staining the wood. Use only, toner coats.. Then Practice,Practice,Practice. A time consuming process at best. LOL!
MK

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

Actually,

I would start by Dying the wood dark.....let it dry, and then sand it back. This will bring out the curl like you would not believe....off course it all depends on the look you are after...

Then, start the toner spraying, like suggested...no other stains...

Surprisingly, this is the EXACT process I used in photoshop, to achieve the results above!

Using layers, and spraying on color coats with a brush tool....(with a certain transparency set off course....)

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-CyborgCNC
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You mean something like this? Done using Black dye and sand back. Then I used the green toner and black.

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

Could someone define "toner spraying" for me? I'm under the impression that's simply colored nitro at the moment.

Actually, I'd love a quick step by step tutorial on that green finish, Mike. Man....that's beautiful!

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Lot's of thread drift here but yes, tonor is color in some sort of medium.

I've attached a couple pics for reference.

First pic is the back after staining directly on the wood with dark brown and sanding back. With die directly on wood, the fibers with more runout absorb more die than the more parallel ones. When you sand back, you clear the surface of the die that's just sitting on top but those fibers which absorbed more die are still darker because the die penetrated more deeply. This really pops the grain as noted earlier. After that I seal the whole thing with a coat or two of shellac.

The shellac keeps the colors off the wood directly which can cause gigantic nightmares when different fibers absorb the die in different quantities (which was a good thing before).

Next step is to spray the whole thing with the base color (amber in my case) - No pic for that.

Next shot is the black over the amber.

Finally, it's all tied together with the transparent red.

All of these are Transtint translucent dies in Target USL. The one exception is that the black is a pigment rather than a die.

Because I'm a novice at this, I usually spray a pretty mild color mix and get darkness by shooting more coats. That works o.k. but your color coats are then thicker. As I do more of these, I'm gradually upping the concentration of die in the lacquer.

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Stuart, yes toner can be colored nitro, shellac, denatured alcohol, water, poly. It depends on what you are using and how. I mainly use, DA, shellac, and lacquer. That finish on the Tele happens to be water based Poly.

Basically, I mix Transtint (liquid dye, not the powder) with these to achieve my toners. It does not take alot to make a translucent tinting. I also use Transtint to make my paints. Yep, you read that correctly. I use the black added to my lacquer to make black lac. It is the truest of blacks I have ever found. Most have a blue hue to them. Not with the Transtint.

I idea for toners is to build layers of the translucent colors to add depth and definition of the color without losing the underlying features (grain) So with that green as an example. The first few coats are very pale. as they build they get darker. this also allows for better fade transition from dark to light as well.

When I mix up color I usually stat with about 4oz of clear and start adding color. (10 drops to start) make a test spray on white to evaluate the color. Then add in drops to get the translucency I am looking for with a single coat. Then I will spray the test area with multiple coats and each time leave a section that does not get the newer coat using an offset stepped pattern. This will allow you to evaluate the final color and it's translucent quality. If it's good then I go with it. If it's too dark or opaque I will add clear to mix and try again. Once you find what you like make your notes for future reference. I now have most of my mixes documented and the it's easy to tweak them as you go along. also remember to try the unorthodox methods of trying different toners colors over others. Yellow over orange looks one way Orange over yellow is different. This is also effected by the base color. Hard White maple looks different than Big leaf that is amber.


Hope that maybe helps?

Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.