Prairie Custom Guitars

OK

Before I start,I want to say,this is the way I do a burst.

It is probably not the correct way or the way others do it.

This way just works for me and I like the results I get

OK,with that said,lets go!

Lets do a burst on this mice figured maple tele

This is a good candidate for a burst because there were a couple bad 

spots on the edges I had to fill.The dark outer ring of the burst will cover them

Once the body is ready,I usually sand it to 320 before I put on sealer

Take note that if you are doing a ash body,it would be best to have the grain filling

done at this point,unless you want a sunken finish

After a couple coats of sealer I sand it to 600 grit to have a nice smooth surface

 Then comes the amber tinted lacquer.Remember,this is my way

Others use dye to do the amber.I just find that using tinted lacquer for

all the colors helps them blend better

Keep spraying light coats until you have the color you want

After you have your color,let it cure for an hour or so

Next comes the initial outer dark ring

For this it is black.You can use a cutout to protect the top from overspray when doing this step.

I try not to.If you are careful,you can keep the overspray off the amber.Just shoot the lacquer down,never

pointing it towards the center of the body.You may have to turn the body over and do it from both sides to

get good coverage.I just find with a cutout,you get hard lines that are sometimes tough to cover

Hmmm,seems I forgot to take a picture of this.Here it is on a different body

Now I mix up the tinted lacquer for the middle ring.After the black has cured for 15 or so minutes

we can shoot the middle ring.This one it to be more of a browner color

Now with the gun pointing towards the outer edge,do your middle ring.

Don't have a lot of lacquer coming.It's much better to have to make lots of passes

than to get too much.I also have very little fan in my spray pattern when I do this.

Once you have it the way you like it,let it cure and go back to the black

Now you shoot the same way,using the black,to finish off the burst

Now here is the nice part about using lacquer for the entire burst.If you find after

you have sprayed you black,you inner colors are not dark enough,you can reload that

color and shoot some more,no problem