Help with finishing

[katatonia]

I see a lot of the guitars you guys have done, and the finishes are very very nice. Unfortunately, i know absolutely nothing about finishing guitars, so i would appreciate some advice. How is that prs stly texturey electricy finish achieved? does it involve coats of different colurs and some application process, or is it primarily the wood coming thought, that trademark prs blue colour is an example of what i mean.

[Brian]

Thats actually a transparent finish over a quilted maple wood top. What your seeing is the grain of the wood which has been given a deep 3D effect buy staing it more then once.

You can read how to do just that in this tutorial

[butnut]

I used a similar process in some wooden tool boxes I built. I would spray the whole box Japan Red. After it dries, I'd shoot black over the red, going a little heavier in the low heavy grains. After that dries, I'd block sand the black off until the red came through. Blast off the dust with air, tack rag and shoot the clear. This would probably work well with an Ash body if you like a 2 tone painted look much like the Gibson VooDoo black with red grain finish.

The PRS dye/stain method was explained very well in the tutorial. A nice thick clearcoat is mindblowing with those dyed quilts.