Who can do this finish for me...

Drew816

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Joined
Apr 5, 2018
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I have a '93 CE24 that I would like to refinish. It's top finish has received some battle scars in it's 25 years of life and I'm going to do a refresh. It's essentially an "11" Top, amazing flames and it deserves to be seen in all it's glory.

So who can do this finish for me? The 10th Anniversary or Yellow Tiger which is a little more "orange" and less amber/yellow vintage which I love. I want the 3D depth in the finish...

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Gorgeous guitar! I second the PTC. You’ll have the latest PRS paint formulation, the correct PRS color stains, and the factory craftspeople.

Plus, they’ll set it up to your specs after they refinish it. Doesn’t get better than that.
 
PTC is going to cost you big time, but I don't think I'd be quick to trust anyone else with it. The luthier has to take great care to not alter the top carve.

It also depends on what color the top is stained now. You're not going to be able to go with a yellow if the original stain is a much darker one.
 
I need to see this CE.


Cubed!

PTC is going to cost you big time, but I don't think I'd be quick to trust anyone else with it. The luthier has to take great care to not alter the top carve.

It also depends on what color the top is stained now. You're not going to be able to go with a yellow if the original stain is a much darker one.

The PTC would be the way to go. As Garrett said, it won't be cheap. It will be worth it though. They do amazing work.

The other thing Garrett makes a good point of is the original finish. You have to stay in the same color family since they won't be able to get all of the original stain off. They won't take any additional wood off during the process, so there will remain some of the original in areas. So, if your CE is blue now, you would risk the chance of green spots based on the colors you posted above.
 
So "11 Top" might be a bit of an exaggeration, so sue me! ;)

Ah the days when I had a good camera and at least access to decent lighting, nowadays it's a Point and Shoot camera and flametops are hard to shoot to begin with. The guitar in question is the one on the right, I don't have a single picture that shows the depth and true figuring of this guitar because 1) the aforementioned crappy camera and lighting and 2) I think red hides flames big time.

The guitar looks pretty cool as is, but there's little flametop glory to be seen as the Scarlet overpowers the flames. These pics below are kinda show the depth of figuring, but as you can see by the lower Hamer shot how much is lost in translation. And you can't see the kicks, dings and wear in the top here either which is horrible BUT it's just not "right" either. :D

So it's in the pic we have the Scar 93, a '91 Hamer Sunburst and a 2001 CE24, and the one that's in the best shape is oddly enough the oldest. The Hamer is a tank, old school build, feels like it weighs 2 lbs more than the CE's when in reality it's only 0.5 lbs but man is it beautiful and does it sound fantastic, even with the Floyd on there! The 01 is the guitar I just put on pickup covers (which was covered in another thread), scored and aged them, installed, huge improvement in looks IMHO.

The CE's just work for me, they have the right "tone," they fit my 11 year old girl sized hands, look great and we all know the build quality! Honestly I think the CE's are the best buy in the used guitar market out there, bang for your buck.

So back to the refin question; the guitar is now Scarlet Red and I want to go essentially Yellow/Orange; doable? I know we might get a little bled but if red is bleeding to yellow and I want orange-ish coloration to begin with...

Thanks for any input and have a great day!

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Zoomed in:

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When I had a real camera!

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Something in the orange range should be doable, considering orange = yellow + red. PTC will tell you for sure.

I can tell that's a great top. A double stain would really make those flames pop.
 
Hmm. The problem with taking red to yellow, and being OK with a bit of orange is that it will be uneven bleeding, so some spots will be more orange than others.

Still, send a pic to the PTC, ask them what they think they can do.

Just don't expect a price in the "few hundred dollars" range. It will be significantly more...
 
Thanks! I didn't want the back color to override the finish on the front on the horn so it was a balancing act; I gave Pat a general idea what I was looking for and let him choose and he nailed it. A slightly toned down Home Depot orange.

I knew there was an awesome top under that red and it sure popped out. I have temp pickups in it now but it will have Wolfetone Dr Vintage A2 Low Winds here soon probably with push/push pots just because (phase and series/parallel).

Brewing up another project for Pat to do now, humm...
 
PTC can, but they're very costly.

Personally, I've had one of my older PRSi restored (finish-wise) by Marty Bell in Vista, California. His rates were quite reasonable, in my experience. Guitar finishes are his specialty, and he does a very, very good job in that category.

The guitar I sent in is this one, in lieu of getting a decent photo of it due to being out of town, for now: https://www.facebook.com/johnucol.319/videos/vb.1320893285/10215358268732875/

edit: I just realized that this is a rather old thread, and you've had the job done elsewhere. Herp derp.
Still, I'll leave my reply and recommendation above up, for future reference.
 
I'm sure the PTC would have done a fantastic job, however I had Pat Wilkins do the work. Here are the results:


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3D Flamey Top shots that you can see more easily while I was reassembling...

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You must be very pleased and righty so! It was stunning before and now it’s knocking it out of the park!!
 
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