Sunburst Finish

[jingle_jangle]

...and made in Taiwan can be purchased now online for as little as $25, and compressors are also cheap and much more common. Note that this is not an HVLP gun, but air consumption is still relatively low.

You can also rent a compressor for a day to do the job. So it behooves you to learn how to use a small spray gun, which takes about as long as learning to use a spray can and gives you control over amount of paint and pattern of spray, something a spray can won't do. It takes a great deal more expertise to do a suitable sunburst with a can than it does with a gun. As a matter of fact, once you've learned how to use a gun, a sunburst will be the first thing you'll want to try out!

Reranch sells spray paint. Their products are great quality and many amateurs get very nice results with them. But would you rather be proud of your expertise with a spray can (grafitti artist) or your finesse with a spray gun (pro painter)?

I have banned the use of spray cans in my university program for almost all painting purposes. My teachers all teach students how to use an HVLP gun during their first semester at design school, and my online classes all demonstrate the use of the spray gun, and drill it into my online students.

The banning was for two reasons:

1. There is little craft in using spray cans (although the really excellent grafitti artists would argue with me on this point, and I would concede that on HUGE CANVASES like a wall, there is an element of craft). A sunburst with a spray can is a hassle, and making a good job of it is a tough proposition, due to the lack of control present in a spray can. A sunburst with a small spray gun is fun and easy once basic spray painting skills have been acquired.

2. Spray cans create an immense volume of waste material and a disposal problem, too. Each can of spray paint represents an explosive device which also contains toxic materials. Industrial users must pay to have them removed and disposed of by approved disposal firms like Safety-Kleen, while the majority of users of spray cans are home hobbyists who simply pop them into the trash, ignoring the environmental issues.

ReRanch and other vendors of spray paint, thus become facilitators in this disposal problem.

When you use a gun, you are putting out less overspray and the propellant is air, not freon. There is still a disposal problem, but it is less of a problem than with spray cans.

Since this column deals with the craft of building and finishing guitars, use of a spray can is something I won't term preferable, but will certainly discuss and trouble shoot with Forum members.

Painting a guitar with spray cans (or something like a PreVal sprayer) cannot put a thick enough or durable enough coating paint onto the instrument. The biggest problem area is in the clearcoat. The best type of clearcoat to use is a two-component, chemically-catalyzing system like the ones offered for commercial refinishing by suppliers to Rickenbacker and other guitar manufacturers like Fuller-O'Brien or Sherwin Williams, or a product offered to auto refinishers, and formulated to meet stringent air quality standards like those of the SCAQMD in So Cal.

These, unfortunately for the spray can afficionado, cannot be packed into spray cans, lest they catalyze before use. So it's spray guns in this case, mix, spray, and let set up, or catalyze, on the guitar's surface.

The spray can clears sold by ReRanch are nitro, and as such air-dry, and do not catalyze. They produce a very thin finish, and if put on in multiple coats to achieve the same thickness as a catalyzing urethane, will take weeks to harden and will eventually check or split. Regardless, nitro is very soft when dry.

You can get a nice finish with spray cans, with lots of work, but the disposal problem and lack of real durability, argue against using them on a Rick if you expect to achieve acceptable results.