syxxstring

The most important part if your painting is all the work before you paint. Especially level sanding the primer.

Hardt to tell from the thumbnail, but it looks kewl.

I would run it into the effects loop return if you have one. That way you are going direct into the power section of the amp without the preamp and such coloring your programs. My other thought would be to just use it into a power amp.

I don't think you'd get a metallic to lay very nice with a brush. If you don't have spray equipment I'd try an automotive rattlecan. I think Honda and Toyota both have blues that are close.

Don't think your gonna get them. Changes to enviormental laws mean that the paints would probably have been reformulated in the last 10 years or so, so the code probably won't be accurate anyways. I would go to your local paint jobber, especially if you have on that specializes in Custom paints. They will have books and swatches just pick the color that works for you. They also can do some color matching if you desire.

What I've tried are the flat pearls. Either I get smooth and shiny or flat with a rough dry spray feel. Usable but I won't be getting anymore.

The vsbl is just a metallic blue. You can get it with many paint systems just pick a style(rattle can, spray gun, pay someone) and stay with in a paint system from one manufacturer.

Also know that while the HOK primers are killer. It CAN NOT be painted directly over you need to spray a KO-Seal over it. House of Kolor has no solutions that allow you to paint directly over their primers. None, nada, zip. Ko-Seal is a great base and you can tint the metallic or white to be your first layer for artwork and such. Ko seal would be a great bass for a swirl I believe though especially their metallic, you can even tint it. And if your going to do it use all HOK products, color, clear and primer/sealer. People will tell you to mix brands but its just not a good idea, brands mix different solvents and levels, so while it may be okay you don't know what it will do in the long run. Spraying on a piece of scrap or test panel just tells you its not a bad idea for a day or so, you don't know what will happen in 5 years. Before you commit to HOK, read the tech manual its on their site. I would buy my HOK from Coast Airbrush(coastairbrush.com). They will match anyone's price and provide superior support and service. The other advantage of Coast is they don't premix thier HOK small quantities. What's the big deal: 1. Control, you don't know TCP Globals reduction rate. You want to control this, or at least know what it is. For a swirl I would way over reduce to get more time and a thinner film. 2. Price, reducer is way cheaper than paint or kandies. So while TCP seems competitive they are really pulling the wool over your eyes. 3. Shelf life. Reduced paints and especially the kandies have about a week of shelf life before they start to get grainy and funky when you spray. Subtract shipping time from this. As always your mileage may vary.

Base coats won't hold up with out a clear, they have no hardener in them. Sealers, some primers and single stage paints with a hardener will. The Kustom Shop stuff is a single stage paint with a flattener added to it.

I have 3 quarts of it. In the end its pretty crappy paint and hard to apply, imho. Why is it crappy? 1. Hard to apply, it just doesn't flow great. 2. It's not a kustom quality paint like HOK, its a relabeled production paint. I have heard its either Matrix or PPG's entry level. 3. The pearls come out either rough or shinny. 4. It's expensive compared to some of the other options out there. 5. The black every time I've tried to use it comes out glossy, I think they left out the flattening agent. Alternatives. HOK's black sealer. Something my friend Steve did with black sealer. HOK has a flat clear comming out. Almost every paint line has a flattening agent you can add to it, talk to your local jobber.

The Iwata Lph-80 will work okay with that gun. It has a very low cfm rating and sprays extremely well. I used it with a small harbor freight compressor before I traded it for my 5.5hp 30 gallon Devilbiss.

That would depend on what paints you are going to use for the swirl. I would stay in an entire paint system and use all their products.

RA16 I don't know what paint your buying but even using House of Kolor products the materials would be under a hundred dollars. Each coat should only be about an ounce of paint. Following the HOK system: Sand to sealer coat. Level sand and fill and low spots. Spray White Ko Seal 1 coat Mask of black areas, apply black base coat. Uc35 Clear, 3 sessions of single flowing coats. Granted if you didn't have it the Ko Seal or Clear you can only buy them by the quart but a quart of either will do many many guitars. Custom painting guitars the labor is much more expensive than the material. As far as what went wrong here, hard to tell exactly but the bottom line is the painter screwed up. I think he put on too much paint without enough flash time. Prep problems usually cause fish eyes not the cracks seen here, but its hard to tell with out knowing the products, application methods, and conditions. He needs to make it right, or if he's not capable of doing that give you the money back. Chances are your going to eat the cost on this one. Then next person to paint it has way more work now because they have to take all of his stuff off.

Latest news is deicant it out of date and there are new centrifugal filters that work better and much cheaper. I couldn't find them on their site but Dave the owner of Coast Airbrush was telling me about them. Try giving them a call. That being said I would run a regulator and filter. Don't use a cheater valve or air restricting valve. They control a percent of available air versus a regulator maintains constant presure, as long as your compressor can keep up.

Since it's cracking around the pinstripes, did he bury the pinstripes in clear? If so he may have used One Shot stripping paint, a standard for pinstripers and a good choice. Except, you can clear over it with out mixing in a catalyst. For clearing over stripes you can used House of Kolors Urethane stripping paints or as mentioned add the catalyst to One Shot. The other catch is if you use Hok and don't clear over it you need to add catalyst. For this reason many people choose to use Hok when they are going to bury in clear and One Shot when no clearing is involved. My other guess besides that would be the prep work as previously mentioned or application thickness. If the paint was put on in too thick of coats it won't cure correctly and cause issues, or if it's too much of it there. Either way sounds like time for cash back and a refinish. If you let him redo it talk about his process first. If you post up pics we may be able to give you a better idea what happened.

Get a tech sheet from the store or Planet Color's website. Their will be VERY specific mixing, handling, and applying information on it.

They are only open for brief periods of time, at odd intervals with little notice as far as I know.

Flake is fun. It isn't difficult until your try and bury it in clear and then level.

Did anyone mention that if you've already colored it green you cant lay transparent blue over it and get blue. With a Kandy paint you will either get black or darker green. The bass he pointed out was probably done solid blue and then bursted with yellow or a green in the middle. Remember yellow and blue make green?

Why not just put a transparent layer/color of finish over the sealer first. If it works it will be way easier. If it doesn't than you won't have much time or money waisted in trying.

You'd probably rather mic it anyways. Direct feeds from guitar amps usually don't sound that good, they miss the magic of the speaker, especially if your not playing clean.

Did some playing with HOK's Metalic Sealer Yesterday, no clear yet: Straight from the can: With some Pagan Gold and Cobalt Blue mixed in: Metajewels and Tangarine flame: For those of you who don't know. Ko Seal is what goes over HOK's primers before you paint. They do it in two steps because they make finishes with so much stronger solvents than production finishes. They have no recommendation to paint directly over thier primers. The kewl thing about them is Ko Seals have the same hardener as their klear, so you can use them as single stage paints. So if you want flat black or white just prime and ko seal. They have had it survive on rock crawlers and dragsters, so it should survive even Vai's antics. It also makes a great black or white base for other finishes. For your daughters guitar, you could just prime and apply a tinted metalic Ko Seal. Clear would then be optional.

Just follow the video. They demonstrated it for me at sema and did what the video shows. Yes it needs to be over a CLEARED and POLISHED black finish. Then you let it sit 3 days they told me and then clear it. Try to keep it as sealed as possible for the 3 days so you have very little dust to blow and tack off.

I'm not a chemist either, I only really know about paint chemistry a little from the flexner book and what I learned in the House of Kolor training class I took. What you describe are the properties of a catalyzed 2 part clear, most likely an automotive clear. They cure quickly, set up hard, can be baked and last forever if applied right. As to brands of clear thats like starting a best tube amp debate. Through some friends I've gotten to talk with some of the worlds best automotive painters and asked a circle of about 10 of them which clear to use on a guitar. The ensuing argument was funny. I'll mostly stick with HOK products because I know I can get support from the painters I know and the factory guys.

It's definitley a flake finish. I've looked at them in the store, they do a good job. You can probably get something to sparkle from a can but it wont have that bling factor. With flakes you want to work from little to big so the light can always bounce back. You never get 100% coverage, and if you did I would ruin the effect. Its interesting to look at what you think full coverage is until you see it under a magnifying glass. To recreate or beat their finish I would use a metalic pink base and then lay pink flakes over the top. The fun with flakes is burying them under clear, plan on a few extra clearing sessions to level things out. If you want specific product order it would go like this with House of Kolor products: Primer, for guitars HOK direct to metal primer works well as does their ordinary primer. (Craig Fraser who does Jackson custom finishes prefers DTM) Metalic sealer with Pink Kandy concentrate in it, or metalic sealer and then the pink metalic base coat. 2 layers of pink flake mixed in HOK intercoat clear, give a few minutes between coats to settle. HOK uc35 clear. If you don't already have HOK products the set up will cost you since the primer sealer and clears are only sold by the quart. AutoAir also makes a sparklescent base coat that is killer in pink, it's called Porn Star Pink but we don't have to tell your daughter. That would be killer under pink flakes. Might be a cheaper set up too. If you don't want to try and flake for yourself pm and we'll talk.