Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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PorkyPrimeCut
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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Apr 07, 2021 8:04 am

That last shot looks pretty fucking good! Well done!

Can you post another close up so I can see how fine the spray particles are?
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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by powerdroid » Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:25 am

Thanks, and sure. Here's a few, and I like the black being Not fully black, kind of very very dark chocolate shade. Hard to get a pic of that on my phone..
I heated the cans prior to spraying to get more flow out of them, seemed to make a difference in having less visible particles as well, if I remember right. There are some 'spits' on the second photo.

Image

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Last edited by powerdroid on Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by powerdroid » Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:45 am

And here's one more of the whole guitar, for spending less than 10€ on the colors(under 5€ per can) I would recommend trying them out. Most likely available at your nearest graffiti paint store! I did try to make a burst with regular solid color cans prior to these, and that turned out like crap. The transparent line comes with a variety of colors, kinda want to try some of the brown shades they have....
Image

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Apr 07, 2021 12:44 pm

I'll be using nitrocellulose paint as I want to get as close to period correct as I can. That'll be upping the cost of the project. I'm not sure if there's much of a difference between bottled prices & canned prices but your example has definitely made me re-think, again.
It'll be a thin-skin finish too, probably dumped into a deep freeze for 24 hours after it's cured to speed up the ageing process. The last think I want is a brand new looking body as the neck is very, very worn in.

The guy who did the refin I'm wanting re-do had the same idea as you regarding the black. It was a very dark off-black. I forget if he added more dark brown or if he was shooting for a very dark grey. It's not visible until you sit it next to something that's true black & then it becomes clearer.

Also, the red section is actually quite spitty here & there. As I've never seen an original '59 Jazzmaster up close (at least, not to inspect the finish) I assumed that's what they were all like. Maybe not. I've read about warming the cans & I'll be taking all these little tips on board if & when this happens.
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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by powerdroid » Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:52 pm

Oh you're finishing a vintage Jazzmaster, I certainly would go with nitro too. I am actually going to try the Rothko & Frost cans for my next project, it will be a Gibson-style two tone burst. Have never used the brand, but the price, and the fact that they ship to my country make them an appealing option.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by ohm-men » Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:07 am

powerdroid wrote:
Wed Apr 07, 2021 6:21 am
Here's my 1st attempt at 3-tone burst with spray paint. I'd been wanting to repaint my oldest and dearest partsmaster from 2009 for a while, just could not decide on a color. So when I found the Molotow Transparent sprays I thought I'd give it a go, and worst case scenario would be to then paint over it with a solid custom color. Was going for a 70's style with a very thin black band, I think it worked out better on the back... I managed to somehow melt the red and black in the front, but after already sanding it off a couple a times I gave up...

Stained the body with an amber tint I had, light clear coat, red and then black. It would need more clear and a proper buffing but I didn't have the patience for it.

Could probably do a better job, but for a 1st I was pretty happy with it. Now of course I'm feeling like doing it again :derp:

Image
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Having all that leftover paint I then made a JM body to have a holiday project, this time I wanted to go for a 59-style burst. 1st pic is before sanding and polishing. Again, not perfect, but I was more pleased with how this one turned out.

Image
Image
That looks incredebly good sir! Wow, I could not imagine this type of finish could be achieved with spray cans!
I really like how you captured the late 50's 3TSB, looks quiet good.
I've been looking at these late 50's finishes for a while and I noticed they all are very individual.
Some have wide uneven bands, while others have much smaller bands. And your dark brown band looks very authentic.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by epizootics » Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:39 am

powerdroid wrote:
Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:52 pm
Oh you're finishing a vintage Jazzmaster, I certainly would go with nitro too. I am actually going to try the Rothko & Frost cans for my next project, it will be a Gibson-style two tone burst. Have never used the brand, but the price, and the fact that they ship to my country make them an appealing option.
One word of caution about those Dartfords cans sold by R&F...I have only every used their 'Dakota Red' and it was atrocious. Like, really really bad. First off the color was wrong - more of a Dakota Pink than anything. The paint felt too thick to come of an aerosol (the original cap was spluttery as hell, I tried another few that made the flow better but still not great) in spite of my warming the can and shaking the hell out of it for 3+ minutes. And it took forever to dry - I actually stripped that body before it ever hardened (a few days in the scorching heat of the French summer !)

I am ready to believe I simply got a bad can, but it was bad enough for me to stop me from considering using their stuff ever again. The comparison with those Molotow cans (which, technically, contain nitrocellulose and behave like nitro paint is supposed to behave) was especially hard on the Dartfords.

On a side note, I am really glad you posted those pictures - a couple of weeks ago, I got a few cans of Molotow Transparent to see if they could be used successfully for bursts. Which colors did you use?

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:13 am

epizootics wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:39 am
powerdroid wrote:
Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:52 pm
Oh you're finishing a vintage Jazzmaster, I certainly would go with nitro too. I am actually going to try the Rothko & Frost cans for my next project, it will be a Gibson-style two tone burst. Have never used the brand, but the price, and the fact that they ship to my country make them an appealing option.
One word of caution about those Dartfords cans sold by R&F...I have only every used their 'Dakota Red' and it was atrocious. Like, really really bad. First off the color was wrong - more of a Dakota Pink than anything. The paint felt too thick to come of an aerosol (the original cap was spluttery as hell, I tried another few that made the flow better but still not great) in spite of my warming the can and shaking the hell out of it for 3+ minutes. And it took forever to dry - I actually stripped that body before it ever hardened (a few days in the scorching heat of the French summer !)

I am ready to believe I simply got a bad can, but it was bad enough for me to stop me from considering using their stuff ever again. The comparison with those Molotow cans (which, technically, contain nitrocellulose and behave like nitro paint is supposed to behave) was especially hard on the Dartfords.
OK, this is quite a coincidence.

A few years back I paid a local guy, experienced in nitro finishes, to paint a guitar body in Charcoal Frost Metallic. I did my research, weighed up my options and went with Rothko & Frost (who make excellent decals, by the way). I also asked him to use a tinted clear coat that would yellow to create that fantastic "greened out" CFM look.

The paint was ordered & he got to work, sending photo updates as he went along. It became increasingly clear that the paint job looked odd. Not odd enough for me to call it off though, I actually liked it, but it was more like a very, very dark grey. Kind of the off-black I've been describing in this thread.

He finally sent me the finished job &, yep, it was black. No metallic flecks, no blueish hue, just a very flat black.

In the end I didn't give the guy a hard time. He'd been upfront, honest & a pleasure to work with from start to finish. I even realised that black worked better on the body than what would've been a slightly flashier metallic colour.

Still, to this day I've always wondered what went wrong. He surely couldn't have ordered black by mistake & I don't think for a second that he was lying about anything. Maybe it was a duff batch after all?
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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by bubba899 » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:43 am

I've used a Dartfords a couple of times now and while I've been happy overall with the results I've gotten, I can definitely attest to their inconsistency colour wise. I think they changed their nozzles to give a finer spray, so I've not had so much of an issue with that, it's just more if you're looking for a specific vintage correct colour, you're not going to get it. I've done Surf Green which was pretty much spot on, the Firemist gold I got recently was great, but when compared to other examples its more of a copper colour and before that I ordered a metallic wine red, and there was no metal flake at all.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by epizootics » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:09 am

Interesting stuff. I can understand a degree of variation in whatever shade of color is announced, but the absence of metal flakes in metallic paint is, uh, quite big a big mistake to make at the factory.

Here's the 'dakota red':

Image

And a close up of the striped candy aspect of the guitar after scraping it (which was actually not a bad look!) :

Image

At 20€ a can, I still consider the risk being too big. I have no beef with Rothko & Frost, they do not manufacture that paint, but there definitely seems to be a problem with the Dartfords stuff.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by powerdroid » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:36 am

Many thanks for that info on the Dartford paints, I'll have to see about other options then. Anyone know of a good alternative in Europe? Manchester Guitar Tech says they are not able to ship to the EU at the moment.

And yes the Molotow stuff is consistently high quality, easy to work with. I used "SWET traffic red transparent" and "TOAST signal black transparent". It seems they are the only options in those colors, that I could find? The red is a bit too bright though for my taste.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:51 am

bubba899 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:43 am
...before that I ordered a metallic wine red, and there was no metal flake at all.
So, I'm not the only one to have this problem.
powerdroid wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:36 am
Many thanks for that info on the Dartford paints, I'll have to see about other options then. Anyone know of a good alternative in Europe? Manchester Guitar Tech says they are not able to ship to the EU at the moment.

And yes the Molotow stuff is consistently high quality, easy to work with. I used "SWET traffic red transparent" and "TOAST signal black transparent". It seems they are the only options in those colors, that I could find? The red is a bit too bright though for my taste.
Where in Europe are you based?

I'm in Germany & the authorities are particularly cranky about ordering & transporting hazardous materials.
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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by powerdroid » Thu Apr 08, 2021 3:29 am

Where in Europe are you based?

I'm in Germany & the authorities are particularly cranky about ordering & transporting hazardous materials.
I'm in Finland. I've been considering https://gitarrdelar.se/farg-sprayfarg-c ... 0_349.html in Sweden, and https://www.guitarsupplies.nl/en/nitrocellulose-lacquer. It seems both would ship paints.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by epizootics » Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:25 am

powerdroid wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:36 am
Many thanks for that info on the Dartford paints, I'll have to see about other options then. Anyone know of a good alternative in Europe? Manchester Guitar Tech says they are not able to ship to the EU at the moment.

And yes the Molotow stuff is consistently high quality, easy to work with. I used "SWET traffic red transparent" and "TOAST signal black transparent". It seems they are the only options in those colors, that I could find? The red is a bit too bright though for my taste.
Cool beans. I have those two and a few others - they expanded the range a bit in the last few years:
https://shop.molotow.com/en/premium-transparent.html

Traffic Red is still the only red option, though.

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Re: Share your experiences doing DIY bursts with aerosols...

Post by bodhi » Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:48 pm

powerdroid wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 3:29 am
Where in Europe are you based?

I'm in Germany & the authorities are particularly cranky about ordering & transporting hazardous materials.
I'm in Finland. I've been considering https://gitarrdelar.se/farg-sprayfarg-c ... 0_349.html in Sweden, and https://www.guitarsupplies.nl/en/nitrocellulose-lacquer. It seems both would ship paints.
Maybe try the Geezers shop in Konepaja HKI? Don't have any experience, but they seem to have a fairly affordable "Flame Orange" branded spray can with a lot of different colors in stock, and it's a graffiti shop so would assume the base quality should be good. They also stock Molotow, but there doesn't seem to be that many available colors at the moment.
Jazzmaster project (got a body, placeholder neck, some pickups and ideas)
Tokai Telecaster Thinline with Creamery Pickups Filtertron and Tapped Tele
Blake Mills-inspired Strat project w/ Gold Foil and slide pickup

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