Glitter over grain idea

[mrbell321]

So, I have an SX jazz bass that was in need of a refinish. I've never done this before, but I like to tinker. This weekend, I tore the instrument apart I started to strip it.
First, the PO had glued the tuner ferrules into the headstock(Who does that?). The E and A came out w/ little drama, but while trying to remove D, I was tapping what I thought was lightly w/ a deadblow mallet and some sockets(one to push on the ferrule, 1 to support the headstock) the headstock cracked between all of the holes. It didn't fall apart, but currently the edges don't sit level
First question: How should I realign, fix and hide this? Should I use the same stain/finish on the headstock as the body(detailed at the end)?
Second, after 4 hours, citrustrip did NOTHING AT ALL to remove the orange-glo finish on the neck. I'll scuff it up more and try again sometime this week. Any other ideas here?
Next, I couldn't find my heat gun, so I went w/ an orbital sander and the finish came off surprisingly easy. I also could find my sanding drum attachment for my drill, so the horns still have paint. Next question, tho not really that important, any ideas on removing the paint from the cavities, or should I just not bother? The only one I vaguely care about is the bridge pickup because getting that pickup out took longer than any other part of the process. It was jam/wedged in there. If I add shielding, it will only get worse, but I don't want to overdo it and end up w/ a terribly loose fitting rout. I do not trust my routing abilities to clean it up.
Finally, and my real question: What do you think about a bright color stain with a light glitter/sparkle over it?
I was surprised when I removed the paint that the grain is actually fairly nice. It is 3 pieces of wood, and there's a knot in it, but I think the knot is kind of nice and w/ a good dark colored stain, I think the 3 different pieces wouldn't be AS noticeable.
I'm leaning towards purple stain with small silver specks to hide some of the flaws and give that little bit of extra oomph. I've got all black hardware(bridge, tuners, control plate, knobs).

Has anyone done glitter over grain and do you have photos you'd like to share?

Thanks!

 

[Hopkins]

So, I have an SX jazz bass that was in need of a refinish. I've never done this before, but I like to tinker. This weekend, I tore the instrument apart I started to strip it.
First, the PO had glued the tuner ferrules into the headstock(Who does that?). The E and A came out w/ little drama, but while trying to remove D, I was tapping what I thought was lightly w/ a deadblow mallet and some sockets(one to push on the ferrule, 1 to support the headstock) the headstock cracked between all of the holes. It didn't fall apart, but currently the edges don't sit level
First question: How should I realign, fix and hide this? Should I use the same stain/finish on the headstock as the body(detailed at the end)?
Second, after 4 hours, citrustrip did NOTHING AT ALL to remove the orange-glo finish on the neck. I'll scuff it up more and try again sometime this week. Any other ideas here?
Next, I couldn't find my heat gun, so I went w/ an orbital sander and the finish came off surprisingly easy. I also could find my sanding drum attachment for my drill, so the horns still have paint. Next question, tho not really that important, any ideas on removing the paint from the cavities, or should I just not bother? The only one I vaguely care about is the bridge pickup because getting that pickup out took longer than any other part of the process. It was jam/wedged in there. If I add shielding, it will only get worse, but I don't want to overdo it and end up w/ a terribly loose fitting rout. I do not trust my routing abilities to clean it up.
Finally, and my real question: What do you think about a bright color stain with a light glitter/sparkle over it?
I was surprised when I removed the paint that the grain is actually fairly nice. It is 3 pieces of wood, and there's a knot in it, but I think the knot is kind of nice and w/ a good dark colored stain, I think the 3 different pieces wouldn't be AS noticeable.
I'm leaning towards purple stain with small silver specks to hide some of the flaws and give that little bit of extra oomph. I've got all black hardware(bridge, tuners, control plate, knobs).

Has anyone done glitter over grain and do you have photos you'd like to share?

Thanks!

As someone who has done a few flake (sparkle) finishes, I can tell you that the base coat color can ruin the look of the flake on top of it. Silver over purple may look OK, but I wouldn't know how it would look over a purple stained wood grain. The only color that will look good as a base coat with pretty much all flake is black. Some colors will work better with a different color base coat than black, but black will never really look bad.

Also, spraying a flake finish is not what I would consider easy. You need a gun with at least a .020 tip size for a rather small flake, if not it will clog your gun. If you get a run in the flake or sand through the clear into the flake there is no touching it up. You have to get it perfect in one shot pretty much.

 

[mrbell321]

Hmm... well that's not really what I wanted to hear. But thanks for your input.
Also, I wanted to clarify, that I intend the sparkle to be really light. I definitely was thinking the grain would be primary, and then after looking at it, you'd say "oh, it sparkles too!". That's different from my original idea which was "all glitter all the time!"

 

[Smilodon]

Personally I think having both grain showing and different colored glitter will look very busy.

What you could do is finding colored glitter in a transparent black base. That way the glitter will provide a subtle color, while the grain will show through.

Duplicolor made a product that would be perfect for this. I think ot was called diamond-something. I bought some cans of it a couple years agoon a whim because a local store was emptying their last stock.

I'll try to see if I can find one of the cans to see what it was really called.

Edit:
Found it: Invalid Link Removed

It looks very odd in the pictures, though. Keep in mind that what I'm suggesting isn't the intended use. Normally you should add layers until the glitter covers everything. That's what you see in the pictures, but because the lacquer have a black tint to give it depth it should be sort of dual purpose.

Also keep in mind that this will require many layers of clear to "bury" the flakes in the paint, but that goes for all kinds of flake paints.

 

[mrbell321]

Yeah, I was not planning on black. I have a black guitar already and wanted something w/ more color.