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Does a gold finish work on a bass guitar?

What makes a gold finish gold?

Gold for all intents and purposes is a “light mustard brown” or “burnt yellow.” How do you take that color and make it gold? Metallic flake is added in…

…and that’s where things get interesting.

There is no established standard that states how much metallic flake is required to get the gold sparkle. Some gold finishes have a small amount of flake, some a large amount for a “candy” gold, some use smaller flakes, some larger flakes, and so on.

The Gibson shown above is known as a “Bullion Gold,” which of course is decidedly different from Fender’s “Shoreline Gold” that not only has less yellow compared to the bullion, but also a different type of metallic flake.

What makes for a good gold finish?

One word can describe a good gold finish: Consistency.

Gold is a metallic paint. Metallic paint is typically more difficult to apply because you have to be watching for swirls that the flake can hide during the painting process.

A really good gold finish will have even, consistent flake wherever it is applied. Whether you’re looking at the front, back or any side of the body, consistency is what really sets apart one gold from another.

If finishing your bass in gold for the first time, expect to get mad

If you’ve never tried a gold finish before, you will get frustrated with it no matter how much you spent on the paint or painting equipment. At first, things will look good, the coats will be even, and everything will look proper.

But then as the finish is drying, you may notice a few things that will drive you nuts, mainly with trying to get that perfect consistent flake.

When using metallic paint, your best friend is patience.

“Vintage Gold” is usually a good choice

Something that can be annoying is actually finding a gold that doesn’t have too much yellow or too much red/orange in it.

Gold labeled as vintage usually has what is best described as a muted tone to it. In other words, it is not an in-your-face gold, but rather a finish that has a classy appearance, and complements gold-colored hardware nicely.

Another way of describing vintage gold is that you don’t see the flake from a distance, but rather only when close to the instrument (as in 3 feet or less away from it.)

If you want to go for the gold, do it

Gold is not a color for everyone, but some of you really like it. Pick your color carefully, watch the paint closely when applying, check/double-check/triple-check for flake consistency, get some good gold-color hardware to match your finish and you’ll get a great looker in the end.

We’ve got the gold hardware just for you

We’ve got your tuners, bridge and even the knobs in gold, ready to complement your gold finish.

2 thoughts on “Does a gold finish work on a bass guitar?”

  1. Its been – I think – more than 20 years since Gibson and Fender stopped doing true metallics. Gibson now uses a premixed paint by Valspar. The original metallic finishes were done with a product by Crescent Bronze, and you can still buy the exact flakes. We get a lot of restoration work on old Les Pauls because so few people still do it. Its incredibly messy, as well as the fact that you have to use dedicated guns – you can never use them for anything else after the metallics are used. And, you can’t patch it. If there is an anomaly, you have to reshoot the whole thing. Its literally a metal powder made of flakes of aluminum and bronze. But it is definitely worth it because a true metallic is SO 3 dimensional. True candy colors are spectacular under stage lights too, because they are done by shooting the metallic coat, then a clear colored stain on top of that. Onstage, when light hits it, rays of gold or silver will shoot out from under the color coats depending on the reflection angle. We do custom candy colors, many different shades of gold and silver. But when I forst started doing this, I got decent results using preval cans and micromesh to rub it out. If you’re a do it yourselfer, it can be done! To see a high res photo of how great they look, go to this link. https://www.facebook.com/memphisguitarspa/photos/ms.c.eJw9zMsNwDAIA9CNKgwk4P0Xq1qHHJ~;86dgVxgjL9uVPy2Ah6XbcVL5lmPp5~_9zRWMXJtcfZA7Jd5~_dmjfUX5w~_~_f2P~_3H77mj61v~;1Wv14asioN.bps.a.836730833048262.1073741917.169194396468579/836731149714897/?type=1&theater.

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