How hard would this finish be?

[Maher]

I am going to buy the saga PRS kit, any opinions on this? who does it play? any thing i should re place?

also i want the finish to look like this:

how much would the stuff i need to do that finish cost and how hard is it to do?

[Drak]

Well, it starts out with the quality of the flame to begin with, you can only enhance what is there to begin with. If you get a topper of rather average AA or AAA flame, you'll only wind up with an average look.

You have to get the premium AAAA or AAAAA flame tops to get 'that' finish, that's the required starting point. After that, you're looking at practicing on scrap for awhile until you get your chops up, using black and blue dyes.There is a tutorial somewhere here that shows the process to achieve that look.

I call it the 'stain black then sand back' routine, I do that to all my Maple toppers.

You wouldn't want to attack a AAAAA topper with no experience at all, so do practice on scrap until you can pull that finish off and save a few heartaches. The guitar itself is no place to 'learn' unless you are willing to accept the risk of ruining it too.

[Maher]

so its a hard tequnique to master? how much does the dies cost?

[Drak]

Well, finishing a guitar to look like that picture, yes, it's rather difficult and expensive if you're starting out from square one, have never applied a finish dye or finish itself.

But it's fun as hell, I'm not telling you not to do it, just do all your operations on scrap pieces until you have achieved repeatable results, then proceed on to the guitar.

All the information you need to do it is right here on the website, either on the tutorial pages or here on the forum.

I've never seen anyone I know of do a finish that looks as good as that for their very first try. That would be like expecting to play Stairway To Heaven the first day after buying your first guitar, never having played one before...dig?

But with practice comes results. You're gonna practice in your bedroom before you play in front of someone, right? So you wouldn't use the guitar itself for your first practice runs on finishing until you had given it some trial runs and could repeat your results on some scrap first.

[Maher]

Ok thank you

[asm]

heres the link to how they are probably getting the black underneath the blue on that prs:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...715&hl=boneyard

prs body=

[Drak]

asm, I had to dump those pics as I was running out of available space on my hoster.

But there is a tutorial somewhere showing how to do it, probably on the front page.

[Maher]

Not one with pictures!!!!

[asm]

hehe sorry, worked when i posted them. they just put on a black dye first, then sand it down till barely any is left, then a top color is shot over, so you get that effect. didnt explain it right but thats how its done, summed up.

ill probably get flamed for my 'explination'

[teknohippy]

Lee, sanding a SAGA HT-10 too much will get you into trouble, the maple top is reportedly just a thin veneer, as you would expect at the price, and too much sanding will strip through to the basswood quite quickly.

Blimey I delurked, Hi to everyone.

Iain

[Librero]

sanding a SAGA HT-10 too much will get you into trouble, the maple top is reportedly just a thin veneer, as you would expect at the price, and too much sanding will strip through to the basswood quite quickly.

I'll attest to this one. And the sealer on the body might give you problems too.

[teknohippy]

I'll attest to this one. And the sealer on the body might give you problems too.

Problems as in many stains won't actually sink in?

[Librero]

yes. it kind of gets in the way between the dye and the veneer.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Actually the veneer is plenty thick.

[Sethmetal]

Plenty thick for what???

Plenty thick for headaches and nightmares. I'm still avoiding working on that guitar. I have it sanded through the sealer in a couple of spots and am very timid of finishing the sanding(It takes forever).

I don't want to sand through the veneer, but I lack the patience right now to sand for 4 hours.

THAT SEALER SUCKS

[KitDean]

Yeah, the transparent blue tutorial on Stew Mac's site covers this particular finish photographically and step-by-step. It is invaluable.

Definitely practice on scrap for a bit.

My first refinish was a blue transparent figured strat and I was surprised at how easy it was, but it fell into place only after some dedicated practice.

As far as the HT-10 kit is concerned, proceed very slowly and sand with caution and you will be okay. Make sure that you sand slowly under direct light (e.g., a shop or study lamp) and you will minimize the possibility of sand throughs.

Patience will reward you.

Best,

Chris D.

[Guest AlexVDL]

Sorry to hijack your thread, but how the heck did you get to use a 80x80 pixels avatar LeeM??

[Maher]

umm i dunno