Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey Folks

I hope the new year is a blessing to you all!!

I have a question?

Bruce Cockburn plays a Manzer acoustic with a blue top, yet the bindings were natural and the rosette is natural, without the blue tint. Does anyone know how to achieve this.

I am having trouble uploading a pic for you.

Masking tape would be one way to do that. Scraping the binding is another.

As Barry says, tint the lacquer and then scrape the tinted layer off the binding.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Scraping works great on plastic bindings and purflings. For wood bindings and purflings that can permanently absorb the pigment I like to spray a couple clear sealer coats of lacquer or shellac, followed by masking the body using fine line tape available from Stewmac. Apply the tape in one piece all the way around the body or rosette as the color will leak under the tape where the ends overlap. Get your tinted color where you want it using 2-4 light coats, demask and finish up with clear. Allow to cure and buff. No scraping necessary.

https://www.stewmac.com/search/?q=fine+ ... sking+tape

As has been said before, mask areas where you don't want the tint, then scrape carefully to remove the last of the overspray. Then spray you top coats. Here's my Manzer/Cockburn inspired guitar. Not a wedge, and green instead of the slightly bluer Manzer tint for Bruce, but I love it!

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

I wrote Linda Manzer and she kindly wrote back.

Hi Fred,
I spray the top and bindings and rosette with a coat of lacquer and let it dry for several hours then I mask off the rosette and binding with the green painters tape. And just to be safe I cover the side stack with old newspapers so there’s no overspray.
Then I spray on alcohol-based blue dye mixed with lots of thinners in a little bit of lacquer with several light coats of whatever colour so you can build up the density slowly and carefully so it’s not blotchy.
Then I removed all the green tape and use a razor blade or X-Acto knife to scrape the binding and make sure none of the colour has bled into the Rosette. Scrape very lightly so you don’t gouge a trough. Then just put on your normal coats of lacquer.
Hope this helps good luck, Linda