Creating a logo/Printable water slide decals on headstocks?

[Alan Garrett]

I want to create my own logo for the headstock of each guitar I build.  Has anyone had success with those printable water slide decals?  Any other ideas to put your logo on the headstock?

[The Capo Kid]

 Contact  Slowpaw Steve T  he puts them on his builds

[Slowpaw Steve T]

Yes he does!   you can buy A4 printable waterslide paper off ebay very reasonably, after working out the size of the decal print your image, for good measure do a few and fill up the whole sheet. 

The finished print will need to be fixed with fixative spray used for pastel paintings, again on ebay. When dry a couple of coats of spray lacquer, the kind you use on your guitar , to strengthen the decal membrane.

when completely dry, after a few hours, cut out your decal keeping away from the printed ink area which is sandwiched between the membrane and your laquered surface.

On your guitar the wooden surface you are attatching the decal to needs to be absolutely smooth, spray it a couple of times with lacquer gently sanding between coats, leave til completely dry.

Put the transfer decal into tepid water for a couple of minutes and it will start to peel, gently peel off and place onto the wood surface, you'll be able to mess around getting it straight for a little while, then leave to dry for several hours, spray again with laquer a couple of times gently sanding betwewen coats..and there you have it! (-:

 

willl post up an image later today..

 

[Alan Garrett]

Thanks!  love your logo!

[Dan Sleep]

I use water slide decals on all my headstocks.

[brdfrd]

Yes--they're great. I used them to add the halftone images on this uke body:

 

Aside from what's already been covered, you may want to apply several finish coats and wet sand in between--to get rid of the visible edges of the decal. When looking at the decal, you'll be able to see a step, the thickness of the decal--it'll be more obvious with a glossier the finish. I would suggest 2 or 3 coats before the first pass wet sanding, just to avoid cutting into the decal.

 

Brad 

[Alan Garrett]

Very cool!

[Jo Jacobsen]

What a beautiful and unusual design! Is that flat piece on the edge of the top of the guitar made of metal?

[The Capo Kid]

 So are we talking just a normal inkjet printer or a laser jet printer ?

[brdfrd]

Laser printer--they might have the paper for inkjets, but I'm not certain. Just google water slide decal paper--you'll get a bunch of results.

[Alan Garrett]

Laser printer

[Slowpaw Steve T]

normal inkjet printer, I recommend the Canon Pixma range of printers with 5 easy to change ink cartridges,  good quality images and very reliable (-:

[Dan Sleep]

http://www.papilio.com/inkjet%20waterslide%20decal%20transfer%20pap...