How DO they dooo that?

[Skreddy]

is that simulated binding? thats niiiice!

It's bad to the bone is what that is.

[nelson]

I think I have figured this out.


Paint the box in a black/white undercoat after sanding. Dip the top of the box in a black/white mix of paint that is patterned as desired. Allow to dry/oven bake whatever. Airbrush whole box with a mix of interference and metallic flakes in colour of choice.


I think I am atleast close.

[jonathan perez]

build a pedal, throw it in a drawer, water it every other day, and within a month, you should have something close to it, if not this:

[jmusser]

Man, that stuff is spectacular! Wonderful work Jack. I hate anything to do with painting. I guess that's why my pedals have that nice bare metal and masking tape label look!

[disto]

hmmm does anyone get the feeling AMZ isn't going to tell us the secret either (i couldn't spot it unless i missed something in this topic), I'm not surprised its VERY effective!

[newbie builder]

Over at the buildyourownclone.com forums people have talked about how to do it.

[stumper1]

This was my first attempt.  Tried to match my guitar.  It's close but not great.  Learned alot - next one should be better.

[Donner]

Hi,  Ive  never  had  a  reason  to  register  here as  I  dont really  know  enough about circuits  to be  of  any  help .....   but  I  have enjoyed  some  of the  articles and  have  learned some things  that  have  helped me......   and  you  seem  to  be  big  on giving proper  credit (thanks  Jack/Skreddy) so I will  give  what  little  I know.

The  main  reason  I  havent  revealed  what  I  do  is  the  basic  tecnique  was  suggested  to  me  by Bjorn  Juhl (BJFE pedals) as  its  what  he  uses on  his  pedals and  he  was the  first  to use  it. Basically  it wasnt mine to give 

I  used  to  paint  guitars.    And  when  I  started  designing the  outside  of  pedalboxes  for  people and  was  looking  for  something  different,  I  started painting the  boxes  as  if they  were  guitars and  using those  tecniques Id  learned from  places  like  Reranch  ~~~~ 

Then  to  make them  look  even more  realistic I  experimented  with  faking   different  woodgrains  to  go  under  Butterscotch  and TV  Yellows  etc....  and  I  nailed  them  all ~ mahogany,ash, alder  ------  but the  real  challenge   eluded  me -  flame  maple !

I  had  tried about  everything  including  real laminates  and  even  almost  tracked  down  the  supplier  for  Fenders  PhotoFlame  guitars ,   but  I  wasnt  really  happy  with  any   of  my  attempts.....

Bjorn  suggested  shining  the box  itself and  thats  all  it  took !   It  took  some  experimentation  and this  became  my  new  paintbrush -  in  trying  to  figure  out  how  to  doit I  made many  mistakes  that  led  to  new  tricks  and  tecniques  and  Im still  finding  nuances  that  are  fun  to  work  and  pushing  it  as  far  as  I  can.......   and  combining  it  with other  tecniques  as  I  go....

Yes  I  use  a  good  ole  Dremel   with some  various  heads for  different effects  for the  shining  part and  translucent  paints  -  I  started  with  using  real  nitro  from  Reranch,  but  there  are  many  others....

The  Flametop lespaul look  is  a  multistep  pain in  the  butt        but basically  you  flame  the  top,  then  mask it  off  and  primer  the  sides - put  binding width tape around  and then  fake the  wood  grain  on the sides,    spray  the  sides  in  red ,   untape  the top, spray  the  yellow and on  the  last  spray  of  yellow pull  the binding tape  and it  gets  a  touch  of 'vintagey yellowing'.......thats  a  start  anyway....

Nitro on  bare  metal  is not the most  durable thing in  world      It  will  chip  easy.....

The  pictures  of  pedals  finished  this  way  can  be misleading  as  they  bend  and  throw  light  like  flame  maple  and  as  pretty  as  the  pics  are,  if  youve  ever  looked  at  a  real  flametop and  moved  around  it and  watched  the  light  play  on  the  different  angles  you  know  how  different  the  pic  and the  thing  are........   

anyway my  website  is  www.donnerbox.com   if  you  want  to  look  at  what  else  Im  working on these  days........  thanks /enjoy

[alderbody]

i like the les-paul style pedal, but i find the whole project of painting the boxes like that a bit "too much"...

i prefer the pure DIY look... 

[Donner]

i like the les-paul style pedal, but i find the whole project of painting the boxes like that a bit "too much"...

i prefer the pure DIY look... 

'too  much'  like   building  your  own  pedals?  just  buy  Ibanez  and be  done  with  it 




its  just  another  option....

[birt]

and then take that ibanez out of it's enclosure, paint it in flame maple and put the circuit back in

[alderbody]

'too  much'  like   building  your  own  pedals?  just  buy  Ibanez  and be  done  with  it

...i DON'T buy ibanez...   

see for yourself: http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/alderbody/Pedals/

[Phorhas]

Beautiful stuff Donner. May I ask what type of colors do you use for the glittery and "swirl" effects?
Also - do you use any clear coat on top, if so - what's best to use?

[alderbody]

btw, i mostly care about what's inside the boxes i build.

I understand that it's your business to paint enclosures, and as far as i can see you do a very special job, but i don't quite dig...

be prepared to face rejection along with admiration about your work!

...art has it... 


no offence man, just me...

[$uperpuma]

thanks so much for sharing that with us! Another challenge to add to the enclosure designing list....

[Donner]

Beautiful stuff Donner. May I ask what type of colors do you use for the glittery and "swirl" effects?
Also - do you use any clear coat on top, if so - what's best to use?

Thanks  for the Thanks !

Well  theres  the  old  'marbling' tecnique  where you  float  oil  paint in  water  and dip  it  thru  thats  been  used  successfully  by  many  people....

I  dont  use  that  way  tho......

My  swirls are  handpainted on the box  with thickened paint to  get the  'deep'  look -      the  glitter  I actually  mix  into  the  paints myself ,  this  is  another  thing  that  doesnt  really  sho  in  pics - by  suspending  the  glitter  in  a  see thru  paint  it  lays  at  different  angles  and  really  throws the  light  around,   looks  much  different  than  flat glitter.

Top coats -  yes!  the  more the  better -  the  deeper the coats ,  the  more the  light  is  bent and  its literally  more  3 Dimensional .... I  use  enamel  or  acrylic  depending  on the  paint........

For the DonnerboX  ones  Im  doing  now  for sale,  I struck  a  deal  with  a  local  auto  painter  and they  have  hard/pro  top coats....

its  fun  and  addicting,  just  like  building  circuits.....   its    my  version  of    DIY

[Peter Snowberg]

Hi Donner,

Thanks for saying hello and sharing your knowledge. 

You do beautiful work!

[tiges_ tendres]

I like the wood look. I tried to pull that off myself, but as you can see, I fell a little flat.

[Donner]

Ha  Dutch  Elm  disease,  I like  it.....

If  you  do  that  again ,  try the dark grain lines UNDER   a lighter  coat  of  paint that  will  let  them  show  thru,  and  put some  smaller  grain  dots  between  to  extend  the  illusion...  in  fact  if  you  want  to  gut  that  one  you  could  still  do  that....

[Processaurus]

Thanks for sharing your unique expertise, Donner, its always great when professional type pedal folks drop some hints.