APPLY OUR DECALS ON GUITAR HEADSTOCK

CREATE A CUSTOM DECALS & INSTALL IT ON GUITAR HEADSTOCK

Guitar headstock decals is something you might want to add in any guitar you build, either from our guitar kit or a blank wood. A decals is the final touch and the signature, logo of what you have created and is an important part of the design. The Guitar Fabric offers high quality decals which allow you to create easily a beautifull headstock decals. In the following we will explain how to create an custom decals using our products and how to installing it on your guitar headstock once received. Finally we will provide few example of nice customers who has accepted to share there customs decals with us. 

How to create your own customs decals using our decals for guitar products

You will find the products to create a custom decals for guitar headstock in the decals and stick category on our website. We provide several type of font and style of headstock decals which can be seen as a template headstock neck decals. Once selected one, you will need to fill the various information following the guidelines provided in the details section of each product. Indeed in order for our system and design expert to create your headstock decals we need to know few things such as color, title, subtitle, serial number as per each template requirements. Note that some information can be optional. Also we propose special feature, like receive a preview of your decals to make sure it fits your need or a 2nd decals with great discount.  Please check the provided images of each products, look to the font letters image, our example and try to imagine how will look your decals to make sure you select the best suitable template and provide appropriate information.

Once you have make your choice you will receive your decals in approximately 5 working days. It will be a high qualtiy decals made by a design expert using a semi automatic process. The decals will arrived cut and the only thinh which will remain to do is to apply it on your guitar neck headstock. 

Installing a headstock guitar decals, pre-requisites

In order to apply your waterslide decals on your headstock neck you need first to have your neck varnish and ready. So if you have build a guitar using our guitar kit or you have an existing neck on which you want to put a decals on it makes sure your neck and heastock neck is finished. From there in order to install your decals logo on the head of the guitar neck you will need: 

• Varnish
• Recipeint of Water
• P1000 to P1500 wet sanding paper

Preparing the decals

In order to install the decals on your headstock neck you need first to varnish the side of the decals where the print of your custom logo is. To do this we recommend to use the same varnish you have used to varnish your neck, in particular you are building a guitar from our guitar kit. So if you have use waterbase varnish for your neck you can use as well waterbase varnsh and so on.

To varnish your decals you can either use a spray or apply a varnish using a cloth or a brush. Spray will provide better results as it will be apply more homogeneously but it is not mandatory.

Regarding application you should apply a thin layer then wait 2-3hrs and apply a second layer of varnish on your headstock decals. Note that you can use a hair dryer as well to make the drying process of the varnish faster but a natural dry will provide better results. You should pass in total 3 to 4 layers of varnish on your decal. Once done wait 12hrs or more to make sure it is fully dry.

IMPORTANT: Varnished your decals will create a protective layer and is very important. If you don't do this the color will melt with the water in the next steps

Preparing the Headstock Neck

Once the top of your decals has been varnish you should prepare the neck headstock (which should be already varnished). We advise to sand slightly at P1500 and remove any dust on the headstock of your guitar. The surface of the headstock should be clean.

Water your decals

At this stage you have a clean varnished heastock neck and a varnish logo decals. Now you will put your decals on the headstock neck. To do that you need to put water at ambiant temperature (15 to 25degC is fine) in a recipient, like a bowl, big enough to be able to imerse completely your custom heastock decals. Let for 1 minute your decals in the water and then remove it delicately along with its support from the water. You will need now to apply it on your headstock neck.

IMPORTANT: move all the time the decal with precaution to make sure the logo itself do not break. Still if you have well varnish the decals in previous step it could be quite robust. It is also possible that the decals start to be slightly removed from its paper support but ieally you want to keep it on the waer support until the very end as this way it will be easier to install the decals on your guitar neck.

Applying the decals on your clean varnish headstock neck

The neck should be lay down. Then put your logo decal along with its support close to where you want your decal to place on your headstock. From there, with a finger move slowly the decals to its final position on the neck. If a fold appear you can later on use a clotch to remove any fold. Once happy about its position wait until the water has been removed. You can also wait 1hr and dry the remaing water with a cloth.

At this stage you should have your headstock decals well integrated on your neck. Still we propose 2 final steps to integrate fully the headstock decals: apply another layer of varnish and wet sanding.

Final Integration of the decals on the guitar headstock

Now that the logo decal is dry and well integrated in the neck you can improve its integration to make the border in particular less visible by 2 additional steps:

• You can varnish the neck headstock with the decals integrated on it. Here 2 to 3 layers of very thin varnish is enough. Remind to wait 4hrs between each layer and half a day to fully dry once you have apply your last varnish layer 
• Finally you can wet sand around with P1500 with a particular attention around the border of the decals to make the border of the decals fully integrate and invisible

Some example of decals created for our customers

Here few example of customer headstock decals created using our product tool.