My First Attempt In Recreating Semie's Black Diamond Finish

[oipunkguy]

hey guys,

as many of you all know Semie did some interesting finishes in the 80's particularly on the M88 and V88 models. He did several finishes that was called a diamond finish. Which kinda looks like a solid color and a metallic/sparkle finish combined. My favorite of these were his black diamond finish. Correct me if I'm wrong on the official name of the paint. Anyway here's some pics of a strat body I'm working on with this finish.
I'd love to hear from anyone from this forum that owes on of these guitars and see how close I came to the original. still clear coating the instrument, so I'm not quite done yet. Thanks!

[dorkrockrecords]

The term was diamondized: Diamondized Ebony Black, Diamondized Ruby Red, Diamondized Money Green, etc.

[Sarah93003]

Soooooo, where are the pics?

[oipunkguy]

thanks dorkrock, and here's the pics. keep in mind I'm still not done, and right now there a lot of shop dust on the guitar. I last sprayed it 4 days ago, and the dust didnt show up on the camera when i took the pics. right now there's only about 4 thin coats of clear, I got about 16 more to go

anyway, hope you guys like it, and if you guys think it looks like crap, please let me know it won't hurt my feelings, lol. i'm looking for honest opinions. since I've never seen a diamondized finish in person, I can only go by what I've seen in pictures.

[Veenture]

That ground-up diamond dust you used shows up well in the pics, ...good job Aaron!

[GattonFan]

Very good! That's gonna look nice when all the clears are on, and it's been wet-sanded, and buffed out ... looks like a nice even sparkle underneath ...

Dennis

[sleeperNY]

Years ago Ditzler ( PPG ) had a finish out called Sungleam. It was a custom finish offered in a limited number of colors. It had a very large metallic chip in it that wouldn't go through a strainer. It had to be sanded smooth after 5 or 6 coats of clear were put on and then you started to spray the finish coats of lacquer. It was a great finish and I did several on cars back in the 70's. These finishes may have been from that system.

Jim

[Sarah93003]

Very, very nice! I can't wait to see the finished project.

[101Volts]

Looking good! It'll be good to see the finished guitar. I have to look up more pictures of finishing guitars, I want to get a better idea of what to do.

[oipunkguy]

thanks for the complements guys. believe or not the diamonized finish was a last minute idea. it's an alder body, so no grain filler was used, just about 6 thin coats of sanding sealer, then I sprayed the color coat black using reranch's fender black.
while I was at the auto parts supply store to pick up some light bulbs for my license plate, I went and checked out the paint. they had a metallic black paint by diplicolor so figured why not. the metallic black paint I just sprayed lightly to get the flake effect, then began clear coating. I hope it comes out great, it's gonna have a amber maple neck and a tortoise shell pickguard.