Waterslide without coating

[rookosu]

Anybody put a waterslide decal on the headstock, and *didn't* coat over the top?

I don't really care about protection of the logo because I can always do another if needed, but I really don't want to put in the time and effort to 'sink' the logo into clear coat, and it's not terribly important to me to have it look 'floating.'

Just curious if anyone has any pictures or experience with that.

Also, my headstock already has a thin clear gloss coat on top.  Not sure if that changes anything.  Or if that means you have to go 'sticker' vs. 'waterslide' etc.

 

[stratamania]

It probably won't be very durable if using a waterslide. You could possibly apply it with a little PVA glue in addition to the waterslide.

 

[BigSteve22]

Like stratamania said, water slides are pretty delicate, and best buried. On a finished headstock, where I wasn't going to bury it, I'd probably go with one of those die cut stickers.

 

[JaySwear2]

I don't have a photo handy, but I put a waterslide decal on my Telecaster Deluxe and top coated it with some shellac. Fast drying, pretty harmless, did a few coats over maybe an hour, letting the dry in between, and never gave it a second thought again! It's held up great, but I haven't put the Tele through anything too traumatic.

 

[Fat Pete]

A lot of people, myself included, recommend Rothko & Frost's waterslides, but not if you're not going to apply a finish over the top, as they are definitely too fragile - even just a slightly wayward fingernail while stringing up is enough to damage them. You might be better off printing your own as the stuff you get on ebay et al is more substantial.

You wouldn't normally apply a decal on unfinished wood, but exactly what the existing gloss is might affect your options. (R & F's are not compatible with oil finishes - or possibly just Tru-oil.)

 

[jay4321]

The decals I use wouldn't survive a week without protection & I always lacquer down my decals/headstock. Even if the rest of the neck has a completely different (or no) finish.

If you're in a rush and/or lazy about it, or need to get the guitar in operation soon, there are fast-drying solutions like wipe-on poly or shellac. I'd invest the time and the small amount of to finish it if you're going to bother with a decal at all. I'm a decal guy, the blank look just never works for me. For my next "real" projects (as in, aftermarket necks costing more than $40) I'll probably start putting a vertically inverted Fender logo on just for fun.

Right this very minute I'm using my preferred $9 Minwax nitro spray can to do this job on a pair of China eBay specials. This part of it is almost zero labor and the wet sanding can happen in about 2 weeks, and at that point I can get both finished through polish in about an hour.

 

[jay4321]

Before anybody asks or raises some sort of issue about it, there's a zero percent chance either of these would be mistaken for a Fender neck - even if they weren't marked on the heels, missing serial numbers, and so on.

These however are excellent to practice on if you want to try your hand and things like refretting, darkening fretboards, leveling fretboards and frets, finishing, rolling edges, handling fitment issues - these necks have all kinds of shortcomings...some examples:

Jazz neck - the skunk stripe is painted on, the inlays were proud of the fretboard, the hole for the truss is sloppy, the fretboard rosewood-type wood was pretty pale (like an ashy pao ferro). There's a depression in the middle of the neck on the back I noticed by feel and confirmed easily with a straight edge. Binding job actually respectable until I got a little dye on part of it. 

strat neck pictured - the row of tuner holes isn't straight - the high e side is much closer to the edge. The frets were trash, ebony board scratched up in a couple places

all maple strat neck not shown - board out of level, frets terrible, some kind of bad sealer job on whole thing.

Of course the nuts are cheap, only the bass might be usable, but that's to be expected

 

[Verne Bunsen]

For my next "real" projects (as in, aftermarket necks costing more than $40) I'll probably start putting a vertically inverted Fender logo on just for fun.

I had this decal made for a Mustang I built for a friend.
:headbang1:

 

[jay4321]

Thanks for posting that. I'm just going upside down and will shift the F and smaller letters around a bit for fitment, I think, but same idea - still toying with some drafts and need to think it through a bit more

 

[BigSteve22]

I had this decal made for a Mustang I built for a friend.

...I'm just going upside down and will shift the F and smaller letters around a bit for fitment, I think, but same idea - still toying with some drafts and need to think it through a bit more...

I'm definitely a decal guy too, I feel my guitars are incomplete without one. Like your idea, kind stands Fender on it's head....  :toothy12:

 

[JaySwear2]

Here's my Telecaster Deluxe. Like I said, a few coats of Shellac and it's been fine! I could have sanded the Shellac to a smoother finish to match the satin neck, but it was barely noticeable

 

[jay4321]

Looks good & it reminds me of my first Warmoth, also a Tele Deluxe