Painted headstock w/ decal

[rjohnstone]

oh. one other thing. if you want a satin finish, (if you're just putting the logo on the headstock without wanting to paint it) get yourself a few cans of krylon's satin clear #1313. someone who will remain nameless shared with me that that's what jackson used on satin finish touchups (usually on warranty work or the imports). it's REALLY effin easy; a few medium coats on the face of the headstock, apply the logo, then shoot 4 or so medium coats over it. i've used it on my natural logoed headstocks and it's a freekin' breeze; no sanding, no buffing, just shoot it even and you're allllll good.

sully

Good info.

[Bengal65]

I even go one step further being somewhat anal I like to "bury" the decal so that you can't see any raised area when looking across the headstock from the edge. I shoot on several coats over the decal, let dry and wet sand it flat to 1800 grit. Then once it's flat shoot 3-4 more coats, then wet sand and buff out. This way the decal is buried and flat with the final surface. Even many manufacturer's didn't bother with it! Some do and I do it, although you can sand through to the decal if you don't know how much clear was on top of the decal (been there done it). To be safe, I actually clear over the decal, 4 coats, sand until it is somewhat flat, then put on another 3-4 coats then sand again until it's level then buff it out. Of course these coats are based on Nitro lacquer. With urethane clear, I reduce the number of coats to 2-3.
If you want to really try something difficult try doing a double logo overlay with two different colored logos! I figured that one out by trial and error

One key trick. If you sand the clearcoat level before you put the decal on, make sure to take it all the way to the buff out stage. Why? Because, the sanding scratches underneath the decal will show through the decal after it dries. (This applies to waterslide decals only) It's not a problem with transfers.

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