Is there a terminology for types of sunbursts?

[Mark Hammer]

Title says it all pretty much. I see so many different kinds of sunburst stains on various guitars. I know there are 2-colour and 3-colour, but I was wondering if there is any other formal terminology to refer to variations of sunburst stains that might be common amongst luthiers.

[David Schwab]

None that I know of, except bad 'busts which are called "clownbursts". Those are the ones that have a sudden black edge.

[jrfrond]

LOL! Yeah Dave, I call 'em "Cartoon Bursts". For me, what defines it is when there is barely any blend area between colors. There's also the crappy burst I call "Teardrop Burst", whereas instead of following the body contours, the outer ring is sprayed in an exaggerated egg-shaped form, yielding a big, yellow "teardrop" in the center. This is rampant on many imported guitars and ruins the look of some otherwise decent instruments, and is often combined with "Cartoon Burst".

When a burst is properly-shot on an instrument, a spray gun with a fan-pattern tip is used and the burst ring is shot with the center of the spray pattern, where the paint is most concentrated, aimed just at or just off the edge, to take advantage of the shading of the fan spray pattern. On these "Faux Bursts", it looks like the shoot them dead-on with a standard round-pattern tip, and it's butt-ugly.

[David Schwab]

I HATE "Teardrop Bursts"! Just damn fugly.

[jrfrond]

Here's an example of a "teardrop burst" that ruins an otherwise very fine guitar, particularly for the money.

Ibanez.com | Hollow Body Guitars | AF75

... and another: http://www.ibanez.com/HollowBodyGuitars/model-AS103

[David Schwab]

Here's some more bad ones:

Martin 000-18:



Epiphone: