Creating A Custom Guitar Body : Sunburst Designs

     The Sunburst design is a traditional guitar finish that has been used for years and years. If you're picking up your own guitar body that is unfinished, this is a finish you can apply with minimal effort. It just takes a bit of time and patience!


Materials

• Nitrocellulose Lacquer - Limited colors can be found in a home improvement store. You'll need a base color, as well as a darker color for your outer layer, and clear coat.
• Masking Tape
• An Unfinished Guitar Body

• Time - Lacquer can take a good while to dry, so you'll need quite a bit of time.

Process

1. Prepare your work surface. You're going to be using aerosol lacquers, and you'll want a well ventilated area for this.
2. Clean your guitar body. Use a tack cloth and a small amount of oil to clean your wood surface. Let dry.
3. Lay down your base color on the back first. You want a nice solid 2-4 coats, applied as thin as possible.
4. Lay down your base coat on the front. You want to use many very thin layers, as dried nitrocellulose is almost irreversible. Take your time, and be sure to mask the sides of your guitar. You want no drips, and as little 'orange peel' as possible. Letting this dry overnight would be optimal.
5. Take your darker color being used for the burst, and freehand apply the darker outside. This is very easy to do. Simply spray from the center out at a steep angle, allowing your hand to smoothly move around the body. Your burst may seem a little 'sharp', but the clear coat should soften everything and help it all to blend.
6. After applying a few clear coats, leave it to harden for a few days before buffing it to a high gloss.

Closing Comments
This is a simple design using a minimum amount of masking. If you aren't comfortable spraying freehand, you may want to look into 'softer' masking solutions, and mask everything out. Nitrocellulose is one of the most gorgeous finishes you can create, and when polished to a proper shine, is jaw-dropping.  

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