Butterscotch Blonde Question.

[willholt92]

I am currently building a friend a parts caster Tele.
I am just about ready to start painting, my question is should I apply a light white primer coat first or am I best just shooting Butterscotch directly over sanding sealer?

If anyone has any photos of one method or the other that would be a great help.

 

[Wyatt]

No primer. Primer is for opaques. The sanding seal will do the same prep job as primer for transparent and semi-trasnparent finishes. Just build up the blonde to the opacity you want for show/obscure the wood grain.

1. Prep
2. Pore fill (ash and other open pore woods)
3. Sealer
4. Level sand
5. Repeat 3 and 4 until flat
6. Color coats
7. Clear coats
8. Wetsand/polish

 

[Wyatt]

1. Prep ...

2. Pore fill... (walnut is the color I used, neutral/natural is what Fender used)

3. Sealer ...

4. Level sand (since the sanding block does the top surface, low spots will remain shiny)
5. Repeat 3 and 4 until flat (not shiny spots)
6. Color coats ...

7. Clear coats ...

8. Wetsand/polish ...

Mine as a White or Mary Kaye Blonde. If I had wanted Buttersctoch, I could have sprayed yellow-tinted clear coats to make it Butterscotch. Butterscotch Blonde and TV Yellow weren't originally factory colors, they shipped white and yellowed with age. But these days, you can buy and spray either as a pigment-mixed color coat.

Semi-transparent finishes are hard, I made several mistakes and even had to sand back and respray the back at one time ...

And there are still issues here...sand through on the cutaway, chips and dents. But it's mine.

 

[willholt92]

1. Prep ...

2. Pore fill... (walnut is the color I used, neutral/natural is what Fender used)

3. Sealer ...

4. Level sand (since the sanding block does the top surface, low spots will remain shiny)
5. Repeat 3 and 4 until flat (not shiny spots)
6. Color coats ...

7. Clear coats ...

8. Wetsand/polish ...

Mine as a White or Mary Kaye Blonde. If I had wanted Buttersctoch, I could have sprayed yellow-tinted clear coats to make it Butterscotch. Butterscotch Blonde and TV Yellow weren't originally factory colors, they shipped white and yellowed with age. But these days, you can buy and spray either as a pigment-mixed color coat.

Semi-transparent finishes are hard, I made several mistake and even had to sand back and respray the back...

And there are still issues here...sand through on the cutaway, ships and dents. But it's mine.

That's awesome, thank you for the in depth explanation and photos, much appreciated.
Your tele is stunning, beautiful work.

 

[Wyatt]

That's awesome, thank you for the in depth explanation and photos, much appreciated.
Your tele is stunning, beautiful work.

Not sure how "beautiful" the work is on a professional scale, but it was the best I could do on a first try (and probably on the tenth).

 

[bullfrogblues]

@willholt92 be sure and practice on scraps!

 

[willholt92]

@willholt92 be sure and practice on scraps!

I'll see how I get on, I only have 1 can of buttersctoch. This is the 5th guitar I've painted/refin'd.

I've actually already refin'd my own Tele in Butterscotch, but mine was white before so I didn't take it all the way back to bare wood, instead I just sanded the white to key it and shot directly over the top. That was the main reason for my question as I see a lot of BSB tele's that have been relic'd they seem to show some white underneath the BSB and I didn't know if there was a mist coat of white primer to make the blonde pop a bit more.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll try and get some test pieces done.

 

[Wyatt]

That was the main reason for my question as I see a lot of BSB tele's that have been relic'd they seem to show some white underneath the BSB and I didn't know if there was a mist coat of white primer to make the blonde pop a bit more.

That's because, in the real deal, the butterscotch color is actually from the yellowed clear coat. To simulate this affect, many will spray a translucent (white) blonde finish, then they spray yellow/amber-tinted clear to get the desired butterscotch hue. When it wears, the edges where the yellowed clear coat is worn off looks more white. I suspect the reason old '50-'53 Tele's are so transparent under the yellow is because the pigment in whatever blonde/whitewash color coat they used was not colorfast and faded into non-existance.

When Fender RI'd thet '52 Tele in the '80s, they created BSB as a color coat. Since you have a BSB colored lacquer, just spray that and then clear.

 

[tomasz]

That's a great tutorial @Wyatt , it should be pinned!

 

[willholt92]

That's because, in the real deal, the butterscotch color is actually from the yellowed clear coat. To simulate this affect, many will spray a translucent (white) blonde finish, then they spray yellow/amber-tinted clear to get the desired butterscotch hue. When it wears, the edges where the yellowed clear coat is worn off looks more white. I suspect the reason old '50-'53 Tele's are so transparent under the yellow is because the pigment in whatever blonde/whitewash color coat they used was not colorfast and faded into non-existance.

When Fender RI'd thet '52 Tele in the '80s, they created BSB as a color coat. Since you have a BSB colored lacquer, just spray that and then clear.

I'd never thought of it that way but it completely makes sense thinking about it.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I'll try and make a small thread with some photos once I've got mine built.

 

[Iwasthewalrus9]

I am trying to get a butterscotch color on a Tele that I am building. I mixed 7 parts of GF water based yellow dye stain with 1 part GF water based amber dye stain and would like to tone down the yellow just a touch. What can I add to my mix to achieve this. Thanks

 

[Crafty Fox]

I think that I mostly followed the advice found in the Stewart MacDonald's book; Guitar Finishing, Step-by-Step, when I built my Telecision Bass some years ago.
I recall spraying a very thin white so I can still see the woodgrain and then a couple of clear nitro, then some amber tinted nitro then several clear coats.