rebinding an archtop: dye the binding instead?

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

If the binding is in excellent condition, could you make white binding black by using dye, stain, paint, etc? I'm afraid standard binding wouldn't absorb, and any finish over it wouldn't stick. But what if you sanded it first?
Is rebinding f-holes any harder than regular rebinding?

 

[cjd-player]

If it is white plastic, I doubt that you could change the color significantly.
I don't think it would absorb the dye very much.

I'm thinking it would probably turn out a dirty white or at best light gray if you tried to stain it black.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

That's what I'm afeared of. I know some plastics get painted, lacquered, etc., but I've never heard of it done on guitar binding.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Wrong, Hatted Frau. There are several places on the net that mention binding being painted.

So if you wanted to do a total refin a guitar in sunburst, could you avoid masking the binding for both sanding and spraying? More specifically, could you
1) leave the whole thing unmasked,
2) then sand it,
3) then spray it,
4) then paint the binding,
5) then finish the whole thing with a clearcoat?

To do #4, you'd put paint over lacquer, and then #5 lacquer over paint. Is that possible? If not, then between #3 and #4 would you have to sand down the binding?

 

[AlohaJoe]

On the Sadowsky Jim Hall model, they spray the (light) caramel sunburst with the binding on and then just leave it. I read that they normally go back and scrape the binding clean, but Jim saw the guitar before they had done it and liked the look so much they left it alone. Sadowsky now makes it either way. I've seen a few of these and it's a very cool look.

Check out the binding closeup here:
http://www.themusicemporium.com/product-detail/product/sadowsky-jim-hall-violin-burst.html

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Thanks Joe. Jim also put Guild pups in a couple of his Gibsons.

For most guitars, isn't the binding normally masked off during the color spraying, and then the masking is removed for the final clear coat?

 

[AlohaJoe]

I'm not really sure. That seems like a sensible way to do it too. I wouldn't be too surprised if there was more than one way.

 

[southernGuild]

New avatar is looking GREAT Joe, and congrats on getting that beautiful guitar. Great story! :wink:
Interesting thread here too DH.

 

[AlohaJoe]

Thanks SG! The hard part was getting the leopard to sit still!

 

[southernGuild]

The hard part was getting the leopard to sit still![/quote] :lol: :lol: :wink:

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I wouldn't be too surprised if there was more than one way.

That's what I'm finding out in all of the links I find about luthiery. There is often a variety of techniques and materials for the big jobs.