Melody Maker build

[flatfive]

Thanks for the revival of this old thread! This guitar is sitting on my shop bench right now. In January I hope to finally spray the sunburst. This is the plan:

• spray a light coat of white, letting grain show through
• spray yellow, maybe mixed with a tiny bit of amber
• spray transparent tinted with amber to recreate the aged look
• spray the red and black burst
• clear coats

I tried yellow once before over the mahogany and it was way too dark, hence the white.

Looking back, I see that Crazy Dave recommended a light white coat way back in 2012!

Melody Maker build

 

[crazydave911]

Thanks for the revival of this old thread! This guitar is sitting on my shop bench right now. In January I hope to finally spray the sunburst. This is the plan:

• spray a light coat of white, letting grain show through
• spray yellow, maybe mixed with a tiny bit of amber
• spray transparent tinted with amber to recreate the aged look
• spray the red and black burst
• clear coats

I tried yellow once before over the mahogany and it was way too dark, hence the white.

Looking back, I see that Crazy Dave recommended a light white coat way back in 2012!

Melody Maker build

.


My dearly departed dad used to BUILD mahogany furniture. Just because I rarely use it doesn't mean much

Dave

 

[kwerk]

Looks fabulous, Glenn!

^what the kid said.

 

[axmaker]

http://guitarhq.com/gibson5.html#melody

Yeah they jump from 63 to 66.

 

[crazydave911]

Yeah they jump from 63 to 66.

My least favorite version, an SG is NOT a Junior or Melody Maker, it's a bloody SG

 

[flatfive]

My theory on how to duplicate the color of my Gibson has been
to put a semi-transparent white over the mahogany, then spray yellow,
then spray the rest of the sunburst.

Anyway, just today I saw a Rick Beato video where he's playing an old yellow
Gibson (I think a Les Paul Special) with a yellow finish and some grain
showing through. The finish is worn through in spots, and it's clear that
there's some white underneath the yellow.

Here's a link to the YouTube

So, I feel confident now that this is the way to go.

 

[crazydave911]

Yeah, kinda knew that . Did you see my MM clone Tweety? P90s just like I said

Dave

 

[flatfive]

Not done yet!

My plan was to:
- spray light white coat, letting grain show through
- spray yellow
- add the darker burst coats

I tried some white primer over a piece of test mahogany, then mixed some yellow pigment with a couple of drops of honey amber dye, and sprayed over the white. The color will probably work but the the white is too opaque to let grain through. I'll have to experiment more with the white.

Looking at picture of my old guitar, I realize the finish is more subtle than I thought. I see that the side, back, and horns are a translucent dark brown, so the white can't be sprayed over the entire front of the guitar. Also, the edge of the sunburst appears to be a nearly opaque dark brown that blends into a transparent dark brown.

If you look really carefully at the edge of the sunburst on top you can see the transition from nearly opaque dark brown to transparent dark brown.

So my tentative process is:
- dark toner over back front and back of body, and back of neck
- nearly-opaque white in teardrop shape on the front
- white on top of the teardrop
- mahogany red on edge of the teardrop
- dark brown on edge of the teardrop

 

[crazydave911]

Yeah my burst looks like crap, do over!