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 Post subject: Making Headstock Logos
PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:31 am 
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Mahogany
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Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:50 am
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Location: Oregon/Hawaii
First name: Hal
I've created a logo for my guitar, and to use on the next ones to follow. I've done a bunch of searching but haven't really come up with a good answer on how to do this. I don't want to make a sticker as I think that would be kinda hokey. How do the big guys make their decals, (do they even use decals?) and how is the best way to apply it and sink it into the finish? Lots of brands use a metallic color in their logos, and you can't print that on your ink-jet, do they use trick stencils and paint or what? Just would like to do it the right way right from the start.....


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:31 am 
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Koa
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First name: Mark
Last Name: Sorrentino
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A simple way to do it, and there's youtube videos of this, is to print your logo out on transparency paper, cut it out and glue it to your headstock prior to applying finish. It shouldn't take too many layers to blend it nice and flat with sanding. Metallic paints may have to be done with stencil or screen printing perhaps. I'm personally going to get a proffesional branding iron made. They range anywhere from $75 to $300 and you can even get one with a date attachment. They can make them pretty small too since there's not a whole lot of room to play with typically. Just send them your logo and you can have it flame heated or electric. Electrics are more expensive.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:04 am 
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Cocobolo
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Location: switzerland
First name: Patrick
Last Name: Hufschmid
City: Montreux
Country: Swizterland
Focus: Build
Status: Professional
I find decals to be stupid (talking about the very very thin Fender style decals here)

A thick professional sticker like the ones they use in the car industry will last forever, I usually have mine cut out from matt material so that the lacquer grips better for the first coat...

I dont have any pics but here is a guitar which has this logo...



I also had my signature scanned at one point and made into a sticker... [:Y:]

Image

I've recently changed my design, I am now using a solid aluminium logo, the "H" is cut to reflect the logo on the pickups...

Aluminium is very cool, it does not oxidize and you can also use various corrosion techniques to make it become matt like on the second picture...

When I will have more money I will have a bunch made out from a fancy wood, that would look really nice :)

Image
Image

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:37 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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In order to look like the Fender style, it needs to be a water slide decal, with opaque metallic ink for the gold or silver.
I just get mine off ebay for my strat copies.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190481757401?ss ... 483wt_1205
They use the highest quality paper and inks.
It's best if you apply the decal after a coat or two of laquer, and then finish over it lightly until enough has been applied to sand it smooth.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:03 pm 
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Koa
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First name: Virgil
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I was told by my paint guy that the waterslide decals can crumble off sometimes when a finish is put on and I found that out unfortunately after I bought one from a guy on E-bay - he said that it will cost quite a bit to get the rub-on type, but Fender and some of the other larger manufacturer's use them. I didn't want to risk the Dueling Dragons on a "less than suitable" decal, so I went with the company he suggested called Scary Creative ( http://www.scarycreative.com/home.php?cat= ) - yeah, it cost around $150 for the gold decals on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, but I fit about 35 decals on the one sheet AND serial numbers.

The poor man always pays twice.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:47 pm 
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Koa
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Virgil,

Was that price just for the decals? Or did that include their layup time?

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:36 pm 
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Koa
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First name: Virgil
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Jim_H wrote:
Virgil,

Was that price just for the decals? Or did that include their layup time?


I had provided the artwork in an .eps format and they did charge a 1-time set-up fee and I am pretty certain that it came to right around $150 all together (minus shipping)

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:11 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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The waterslides don't crumble unless some guy is just printing them on his ink-jet, which is why you have to be careful on eBay. I've never had a problem with the Dec-Art company, and I like the waterslides on the strat copies. 35 decals for $150 is a good price though, and those films are probably a cleaner look under the finish.

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 Post subject: Making Headstock Logos
PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:30 am 
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Walnut
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:00 am
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Location: Calgary AB
First name: Nick
Last Name: Burman
Country: Canada
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
I got great results with an iron on transfer printed on an inkjet. And it doesn't look 'stupid'. I used the t-shirt transfer type.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:49 pm 
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Mahogany
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Location: Oregon/Hawaii
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Wow, a whole page of great ideas! Still not sure yet which way I'm going to go. I might just do gold leaf myself, pinstripe it and sink it in clear, done that before on cars as a lettering technique, only this is muuuch smaller. :)

Virgil's decal guy seems closest to what I am looking for, but really? $150 for a sheet of decals? When I have my own artwork? I never mind paying the price for the best, but really? $146 for Copy, Paste, Print? and $4 for a sheet of amazing decal paper..... really? OK, I know more goes into it than that but....wow.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:33 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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My guy's in Britain, the whole thing costs about $20 per decal shipped, but I don't have a metallic ink multi-layer printer to print decals with. That's the cheapest I've found for a customizeable one-off with unique wording, with the letter style I like, in the highest quality waterslide decal possible. They also do other styles of decals, and will print your unique art work for about the same price.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:07 pm 
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Koa
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First name: Virgil
Last Name: Mandanici
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Scary Creative comes out to around $4.28 per decal - it only makes sense if you need a bunch - like I said, I fit around 35 on an 8x11 sheet. Good luck!

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See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:34 pm 
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Mahogany
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Location: Oregon/Hawaii
First name: Hal
Virgil, I know you are right. $5 a pop sounds like a deal and they are really nice. It's the (actually) $200 for foil that I just go "wow" to. By the time I use up my first sheet though they'd probably be throwing dirt over me...... :)


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 11:01 pm 
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Koa
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First name: Virgil
Last Name: Mandanici
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Here's a pretty good shot of my rub-on transfer - it's kind of cool - it rubs on real nice but leaves a slight glue residue around the image, then as soon as you apply a finish, it all disappears (except the image of course!) - these guys have a pretty descent turn-around time and are very helpful too - you will see why the major guitar companies use them [:Y:] :


Image

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 11:05 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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From the Scary Creative site:
"Rub on transfers are easy to use. Once you receive your order and are ready to apply, make sure the surface area is clean before placing the transfer. Use a plastic burnisher tool for applying rub on transfers. We recommend a clear coat to permanently seal the transfer and protect from wear and tear. Do not use nitro lacquer on reflective foil transfers."

The downside is that if you want to finish your guitar with laquer, you can't use metallic ink, eliminating gold or silver color choices, unless "foil transfers" means something else. Darn, I was wanting to get my "S" headstock decoration in gold, without the halo that waterslides usually have. I guess I should e-mail them, since it seems I can't use them on my strat necks, since I finish them myself in laquer, but they would still most likely work with the polyesters that Moe uses. So I guess for my strat copies I should still use the waterslides. My other concern would be using a tool to rub the transfers onto a wood that has weak crushing resistance, like some of the softer mahoganies, koas, or acacias, which are easily marked. Super hard woods like Maple or Cocobolo wouldn't be a problem, but softer woods might be.

I've e-mailed them to find out if the metallic inks are compatible with nitro.

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Last edited by theguitarwhisperer on Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:12 am, edited 6 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 11:09 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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http://www.virginrecords.com/

Hey Virgil, your logo looks a lot like the Virgin Records logo, I just realized that. Cool!

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:20 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Scary responded and said the metallic inks have no problem with laquer, just the foils. I might give them a go

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:14 pm 
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Contributing Member
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Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:44 am
Posts: 1005
Location: SE Michigan
First name: Kenneth
Last Name: Casper
City: Northville
State: MI
Country: U.S.A
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I inlay a pearl logo in my acoustic headstocks, but I did a tele recently where I used an inkjet waterslide that I printed myself. Printed the decal on clear inkjet decal paper, shot it with a couple of coats of non water based lacquer, then applied it to my headstock. I topped with about 9 or so thin coats of EM6000. No cracking, running, or curling, and the clear decal is invisible under the lacquer. Prior to applying the logo to the headstock, I had shot and leveled several coats of EM6000 on the headstock. No metallic ink, but still looks good.

Ken

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:47 pm 
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Koa
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Location: Bothell, WA USA
First name: Jim
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Wow, Ken, that's really classy!

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:43 pm 
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Contributing Member
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Location: SE Michigan
First name: Kenneth
Last Name: Casper
City: Northville
State: MI
Country: U.S.A
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Jim_H wrote:
Wow, Ken, that's really classy!


Thanks Jim! I built a '72 tele and wanted the Fender look but with my logo. The water slide decal worked prefectly, and for the right project, I wouldn't hesitate using a water slide decal again.

Ken

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 1:49 am 
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Koa
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Location: Bothell, WA USA
First name: Jim
Last Name: Hansen
Country: USA
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Status: Amateur
I've built a few Strat and Tele clones and used a similar custom decal I purchased from an Ebay seller (I think I found the link on TDPRI).

Mine don't look as good as yours (and it's not because of the decal :p )

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:28 pm 
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Mahogany
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OK, I backed off just a bit on my requirements. I bought a box of Avery clear sticker stock for Ink Jets and came up with this. I shot a coat of clear (I'm using automotive catalyzed acrylic urethane clear for my finish), layed the sheet in the wet clear and squeegeed it out flush, and shot another layer over the top. I only have one coat of clear over it now, and am almost done with the finish on the body so more pics to come in my other thread tomorrow. I did have to wipe the sticky off the back of the stock before I put it down, using the clear to adhere it. It cost me $3 for 3 sheets and I think it will be fine for my first one? BTW, it's the pic that is slightly fuzzy not the logo. I just couldn't get my camera to shoot great in macro.
Image


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