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When we have to touch Guitar Finishes up, first we have to identify whether a Pigment has been used or a Stain has been used.

Attached is a Link showing examples of each

Your car is a solid colour, so a Pigment was used in the lacquer

Most Guitars you can see the wood grain, hence a stain has been used in the Lacquer.

In this repair we are going to match the stain used by the manufacturer.

To Touch up the paint on the back of this guitar takes around 45 minutes.
"How To" Colour Match
This guitar came in for some back repairs, we had to remove the back of the guitar, do the repairs and then refit it.
When refitting a back, you have to sand the joined edges smooth again, in doing so we remove some of the manufacturers colouring "Stain".
If you decide to do this for a living, it is a really good idea to store all your stains in a simple container.

I get my stains from Wood suppliers, Bunnings, Luthier Suppliers, the list is endless..
I have different pieces of wood, with my stains sprayed on the opposite side for comparison checking.

We want the base wood to be the same colour as our raw exposed guitar wood.

This one is not a good comparison.
This wood choice is a far better match.
On the opposite side of my test piece, I spray each stain in different concentrations.
So using the coloured section of this guitar, I now place my test piece underneath until I find a visual match.
In this situation, I found Brown Mahogany from Feast Watson - Bunnings was the best match.
Using a syringe I draw some water based acrylic lacquer up for mixing.
Every one of my stain bottles is fitted with a glass eyedropper

In goes my Brown Mahogany.
Our MIx
Cleaned surface.

In the prepration process, normally I would have sealed with some shellac, however this guitar has an exposed rough grain to it, so we are not pore filling it at all.





An airbrush is so fine, you do not need to remove the input jack.
As we are touching up, I just use a small air brush
Two passess with the Airbrush and we have a blended finish. Follow up with a single coat of clear.