Sunburst Finish

[winston]

Has Peter got enough band width for this?

Here goes! This question has been lurking in my mind for quite some time now.

Paul,

I have always been fascinated with the so called sunburst finish. Can you help me understand how that finish is accomplished and what steps and materials are required and: can it be attained by a klutz like me who has a compressor, an air brush and the desire to learn?

[jingle_jangle]

OK, Brian, here we go. I'll do a "quick" overview, but this is really a pretty lengthy topic, both in history and in actual execution of burst variations. So I'll stop after awhile and we can ask questions or throw in our own two cents' worth.

Good thing computers don't run out of ink like the fountain pens of yore...

Sunburst finishes are really a sort of "cartoon". They are a highly-stylized attempt to copy the beautifully patinaed appearance of centuries-old stringed instruments like violins and cellos, in a time-abbreviated way, using contemporary materials. The sunburst is about a century old, and was probably first seen on inexpensive laminated "parlor"-type guitars which were sold by catalog merchandisers like Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery, Ward & Co.

The paint of a sunburst was a quicky way to disguise a plywood guitar's humble construction methods and an attempt to give this type of instrument a false patina to enhance its visual appeal.

The 'burst finish has evolved to have a distinctive "look" of its own. Perhaps I should say "looks", because there is huge variety in bursts today, and many manufacturers have their own ways of achieving this appealing style of paint.

In the interest of brevity in this reply (although we can certainly return to it later) I'll leave out the "history of preparation" portion and move right to the "variations in topcoating technique", so we can see several different ways of achieving this most popular look.

For our discussion, we can categorize burst finishes according to the number of colors involved in order to get a burst effect.

We have three, two, and one color burst finishes, in general. There are tricks involved in duplicating each manufacturer's look if you wish to do your own 'burst finish, but let's look in general at each one of these three:

Gibson and Gretsch largely use a two-color 'burst, and have for over half a century. Fender used a two-color 'burst from the Strat's introduction in 1954, until 1958, when a third red color was added to the transition area between the two colors. Gibson and Gretsch continue to popularize the two-color version.

Our own treasured Rickenbackers use a one color burst, at least by my own way of counting colors. I'll get to this in a min'

Most other manufacturers use a stain on their body wood to provide the base tone over which the sunburst is applied. That's the first color, by general agreement. In this case, the stain is generally a warm honey tone which can vary from the nearly acid yellow of a Gibson cherryburst through a rich amber like a Gretsch 'burst Anniversary model, to a darker, almost walnut, like-- well, like a dark brown sunburst that you see occasionally.

The second color is a shading color and is traditionally a dark, semi-transparent brown applied by spray over the base color.

The third color is the transitional color used by Fender to this day in their three-color bursts. Many Fenders also seem to have a fourth color--a pure black shaded around the outermost edge of the guitar. I say "seem" because like a dope I believe their "three-color" hype and have never actually witnessed the mysterious act of applying this fourth color, although my eyes tell me it's there.

Now, back to our beloved Rickenbackers. Hmmm. One-color sunbursts. Yep, it's a fact...

[winston]

Paul Bang on. My only Fender Stratocaster sunburst guitar seems to be a 4 color burst.

That would be amber base coat/red semi transparent transition/brown semi transparent/black

The edges are not brown to my eyes they are black. That was to be one of my more in depth questions but you have already arrived at that point.

So! before the base coat is applied, is the body sealed in some manner?

[jingle_jangle]

Rickenbacker instruments in finishes like FG, former COY MB, and the currently-featured BBR, I cal a one-color 'burst.

You see, Rickenbackers all start out the finishing process the same way--with a transparent sealer coat that could then be (at least theoretically) covered with a finish in any Rick color. There are two determinants of whether a guitar gets a MG finish, or another, more complex or colorful finish: the beauty of the figuring in the wood, and the realities of colors ordered by dealers on behalf of their own stocklists or customers' wishes. Guitars with fine "flame" or "birdseyes" or other grain variations are most likely to be left natural and just finished with transparent varnish, although in the past in very rare cases a nicely-figured body has come to light when an opaque finish like JG has been removed from a guitar for refinishing.

The guitars with nice straight, even grain, are most likely to get a Rick 'burst like FG or the current BBR. Guitars with mineral discolorations in the wood, like streaks or spalting, will usually end up with a solid color like turquoise or JG or white, red, Azureglo, Blue Boy, etc.

There will be exceptions, depending on the maple stock available weighed against orders at any time, but it's my belief that the odd exceptions to these general rules are becoming rarer as time goes on, owing to efficiencies in RIC's production and selection methods.

On to the second part of your question, Brian...

Rickenbacker sunbursts like FG and especially MB, are often mistaken for three-color 'bursts. So, just how does Rick do it--make one color over natural maple appear to actually have three tones?

Answer: they don't. But aging, and your eye, do. Lemme esplain, Lucy...

I'll talk about "brown" bursts, like the old '60s and '70s Autumnglo and more recent Montezuma Brown. These are my favorite colors in which our eyes are tricked.

As I have mentioned before, Rickenbacker 'burst finishes begin with natural maple. Over this, a semi-transparent dark brown color is applied in several coats in varying numbers. There are fewer coats toward the center of the 'burst, and many more toward the edges and darker areas of the 'burst. As the coats of this second color are built up, they conceal more and more of the grain of the maple. Strictly speaking, these are not dyes. Dyes are completely transparent, adding only a tint to the surface beneath, although this tint can be quite deep.

This second color is a translucent (as opposed to transparent) liquid, because as coats are built up one on top of another, a certain coludiness or opacity appears to occlude (hide) the grain.

And that's the mechanism that causes our eye to perceive a second and even third color in a burst using only a single color of shading paint. The natural maple is the first, unaffected color. The transparent area with only a few coats of shading color, where the grain still glows through, and a separate tone often appears, which is a product of the combined grain and tint. The third color is the outer band of opaque color, which is usually less warm than the "phantom" transitional color.

Then you can add the ambering effect of UV in sunlight to make the transitional band stand out even more on older Rick 'bursts...

Now a tip on applying your own, should you decide to accept this mission, Mr. Phelps...

[jingle_jangle]

OK, Brian, I've not finished answering the application at home part of your question, so I'll talk about sealers in another post, probably later.

[jingle_jangle]

Application at home should not be done with an airbrush.

How's that for brief?

More later. Time for dinner...

[winston]

No rush Paul,

I expected an answer over a time frame of 2 - 4 weeks. Not a few days.

Take your time I am sure you have many other things on the go.

This is a very interesting subject. I am learning something new every time you post more information. Thank you for taking the time to impart your knowledge.

[jingle_jangle]

Thanks for understanding, Brian. This really is a book-length topic to explore in all its facets, but with everyone's patience, we will discuss it at length over the next few weeks or more.

Speaking of more, more tomorrow...

[britye]

I am groovin on this new section of the forum. Paul Thanks for the teaching, insight and for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us.

[jingle_jangle]

Thanks, Brian.

I'm teaching late tonight, but first chance tomorrow I'll write the second part--principles of spraying sunbursts DIY.

[morrow]

The wood colour in many older fireglow finishes seems to almost turn a pumpkin colour. Is this from the topcoat turning yellow or does the wood darken over time?

[jingle_jangle]

Both. When I've stripped MG finishes for refins, The varnish has a definite amber color, but the wood underneath yellows substantially with exposure to UV. And I believe that UV light is not the only "yellowing agent" to act on the maple. Atmospheric factors like ozone and tobacco smoke are involved, too.

Under pickguards can be seen the virgin finish. The difference is often striking.

[jingle_jangle]

OK, we're back here at the sunburst topic. A classic finish with several possible "looks", as I've mentioned, but there is only one way to paint one.

Brian tosses out a question about possibly painting such a finish at home, using a compressor and airbrush, and I give him back a smarta** answer about don't use an airbrush. Now some qualifications and details.

Theoretically, I guess, an airbrush could be used to shade a guitar. It sprays paint and does a nice job shading stuff like art (look at David Kimble's old stuff before he discovered Photoshop and Painter!) and craft items and model kits.

The key here is in scale. The items mentioned above are all usually rather small and are painted with pigments designed specifically for airbrush work. There are custom-car painters who use airbrushes to do scenics and lettering on full-sized cars, but they also use paints formulated specifically for just such uses.

Airbrushes are, in fact, miniature spray guns. They use very small volumes of air (measured in CFM, or cubic feet per minute) and miniscule quantities of paint, too--a typical artist's brush will have a color cup which might hold a quarter or 1/2 an ounce at a time.

These tiny spray devices also have a small opening through which the pigments travel on their way to the surface which is being painted. And because they are actually relatively low volume, high pressure atomization devices that work by siphoning the paint from the cup, they move a fairly large volume of air with the pigment, which requires a fairly slow-drying colorant, generally a water-based paint or dye. Real pro illustrators use airbrush gouache (pronounced "gwash", as in, Herbert, g'wash yer hands"), which is opaque, or Dr. Martin's Water Colors, which are brilliant concentrated transparent--see through--pigments dissolved in a water/alcohol solution.

But combine an aerosol device like an airbrush, which puts out lots of air per amount of paint, with a fast-drying lacquer or enamel paint, and you get the paint drying in the passages of the brush before it can get to the surface being painted. The brush clogs, spits, sputters, and starts to put out unevenly-sized clumps and clots--not a desirable outcome, so to speak...

So, to do a sunburst on a guitar, it's better to use a decent-quality spray gun to apply the paint. In the old days, before the tool market was taken over by Taiwanese and Chinese products (prior to about 1982 or '83), spray guns of good quality cost an arm and a leg. There were cheapie units, but these were of the so-called "bleeder" type, which would constantly hiss air and only control the flow of paint (rather than the non-bleeder's air + paint control), which was heck on any kind of finer finish. Hiss, hiss...

Now we can get Taiwanese or Chinese guns of reasonable quality for substantially less than $100.00.

The advent in the late '80s of the HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure" gun made spraying easier to learn, guns easier to use, and cut down on wasted paint in the bargain. These guns are most commonly gravity-feed (the paint cup is above the gun body), although they can also be hose-fed, or have the gun cup below the gun body like spray guns have been configured since their invention by a Milwaukee dentist named DeVilbiss back around 1910 or so...

[ozover50]

Was his name Arnold, Paul? Or was that the result of a merger at some stage?

[jingle_jangle]

...and DeVilbiss remains one of the grand old American names in spray equipment to this day. Their main competition for the so-called high end market in spray equipment, in American-made stuff, is Binks. My own favorite is a German brand called SATA, which I've used since 1975.

A quality gun, properly setup and maintained, and carefully adjusted, can be set to put out a stream of paint as fine and tiny as an artist's airbrush, or opened up (painters say, "WFO", which means what you might think it does) to paint the broad side of a bus.

Guitars were once finished like fine furniture or stringed instruments like violins, with layers of varnish or shellac brushed on or carefully rubbed into the wood with a pad of cheesecloth (so-called "French polishing").

With the advent of mass-production techniques and the invention of the spray gun and Duco Lacquer, things began to come together and mass-produced guitars began to use automotive and industrial technology to provide their coatings.

Sunburst-at-home requires that you have your colors separated and mixed so that you can use them in turn. The most common types of two, three, or four-color sunburst, require a transparent base coat over the wood, transparent or translucent shading color or colors, and in the case of a four-color burst, an opaque edge color like a dark, dark solid or black.

Note that it is possible to substitute any color in a burst, and that a burst like Fender's awful "Antigua" like the picture of the Jaguar I posted last week, uses two opaque colors, a buff beige and a warm gray, with no transparent or translucent colors, to achieve its ghoulish effect.

Bursts are most commonly sprayed light-to-dark, meaning that the light base coat is sprayed first, followed by the shading color. In the case of a three color burst, as Fender used from '58 on, a transitional color is sprayed on over the base color, and then the shading color. For a four-color burst, the edges are sprayed with the darkest color or black.

Note that reverse bursts are also possible, with the lightest color on the edges, although they are not very appealing to my eye. Think old Gretsch "Traveling Wlburys" promotional guitars...

In the case of a Rickenbacker (one-color) burst, the base color is actually the sealed maple of the guitar body itself. The shading color is a translucent color formulated so that if put on in enough coats, it largely obscures the grain around the edges of the guitar, being nearly opaque. This gives a single color burst three distinct tones.

The lightest tone is, of course, the maple of the guitar body. The transitional tone is the area of few coats of shading color, where the shading color is still transparent, allowing the wood grain to reflect back through the shading color, adding warmth. The outer edges of this type of burst have so many coats that the reflection through of the iridescence of the wood itself is impeded, lending a semi-opaque tone for a third tone.

This is often seen in flash photos of Rickenbacker guitars with burst finishes, where the flash--a hot, warm light--reflects from the transitional area but shows the edges as opaque, making it look as though the transitional area is quite a bit warmer than in life. In FGs, later AGs, and Montezuma Brown, this area comes up as having an orange tint that is very striking!

Pearls, metallics, and other exotics can also be used in a burst. The sky's the limit, as they say, but that doesn't mean that what you create will be beautiful or even mildly appealing. For this reason, I always cut sample swatches of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood, about 4" X 6" in size, and prep them with my usual sanding sealer, befored testing a new burst.

More later, including general directions.