Color Fading With Paint

[hendrix2430]

Hi,

I'm finishing a body made out of spruce, and I would like some kind of "burst" like finish, only with one color, being very dark on the edge to light in the center. I bought some blue automotive paint, but I'm not sure if that would work...

Would paint work for that, or would dye be better? Since it's spruce my goal isn't to display the grain, although the spruce I got is very nice.

[Southpa]

There is some info in the tutorial section for guitar finishing. I tried the "poor man's burst" and got good results. The technique is important to get the right transition from one shade to the next.

For a headstart I can say you can't have a burst with only one color unless you only want to contrast with the wood . You will have to experiment with some mixing to get a few good shades of your blue, that is, if you are using conventional spray equipment. If you can find 3 shades of the same blue base in rattle cans then all the power to ya! I would keep what you have as a middle shade and then darken one way and lighten the other. Another option (what I did) is to color the whole guitar with the blue and then get some black and do a good edge burst.

You could dye as well but be aware that spruce is fairly soft and porous. Dyes will penetrate fairly deep and you might have softer areas absorbing more dye than harder areas resulting in a blotchy look. And the nasty part is trying to sand it out if it doesn't work.