Tiger Eye Finish

[Glenn Brown]

Help please...I've seen examples of this finish but am curious, what exactly IS it? Meaning, how would you describe the actual color itself? And is there a special process used to create it? Thanks.

[Serious_Poo]

The PRS Tiger Eye guitars I've seen have been really different from one to another. I've seen it range from a deep reddish brown to a mocha/coffee color.

[RandyO]

I think Tiger Eye, like many PS colors, is a double stain.

[King Cobra]

Smoking color. I love the more Yellowish examples. For a really figured Top I don't think anything shows it off better.

[tjensen]

I think Tiger Eye, like many PS colors, is a double stain.You are correct. IIRC, they wipe a translucent black or dark brown on the top, then wipe most of it off. That's followed with a coat of some form of amber, which together gives it the dark color.

[Jo]

Such a gorgeous colour, but it's so overused on PS now. I'd love to see them come out with some more colours.

[King Cobra]

Such a gorgeous colour, but it's so overused on PS now. I'd love to see them come out with some more colours.
!!!?? I think they have like 27 available. What else would you suggest? I'm sure shades of any of the 27 are also available for Xtra $$$$.

[Jo]

!!!?? I think they have like 27 available. What else would you suggest? I'm sure shades of any of the 27 are also available for Xtra $$$$.
OK... let me rephrase then.


Such a gorgeous colour, but it's so overused on PS now. I'd love to see the people that order them use their imaginations and order one of their 26 other colours available.


There, happy?

[Canadian PRSGUY]

OK... let me rephrase then.


Such a gorgeous colour, but it's so overused on PS now. I'd love to see the people that order them use their imaginations and order one of their 26 other colours available.


There, happy?Jo are you Canadian? That is the first time I have seen an American use a U in colour

[King Cobra]

OK... let me rephrase then.


Such a gorgeous colour, but it's so overused on PS now. I'd love to see the people that order them use their imaginations and order one of their 26 other colours available.


There, happy?
Quite. I like Blue Jean blue myself. http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif

[badfinger]

Having a Tiger Eye PRS Private Stock is like having a Strat, yea, they are everywhere but you gotta have one!

http://www.rics-blues.com/PS%20HB%2016.jpg

[IntenseJim]

Ew...that sucks.




NOT!

[Bill McDowell]

Joe Knaggs created it off of the tiger eye colored gem stone. Its a brown base with dark brown and golden highlights.

[GC Ron]

I have seen some with a greeish hue. If you order one you better send Tina and Joe a photo of the exact color you want.

[Jo]

Jo are you Canadian? That is the first time I have seen an American use a U in colourNot Canadian... but British! I can't/won't get out of the habit of dropping the U from colour. :D

[JMintzer]

I like Tiger Eye... :o

http://pic14.picturetrail.com:80/VOL504/702387/1177068/13684518.jpg

http://pic14.picturetrail.com:80/VOL504/702387/1177068/13684560.jpg

http://pic14.picturetrail.com:80/VOL504/702387/1177068/13684588.jpg


Jamie

[Jo]

This is my fav example of Tiger Eye (Archtop Artist)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/MyGuitars/PRS%20Misc/gt_ar3.jpg


It would be interesting to find out what percentage of the 1000+ private stocks are Tiger Eye.

[Jon Silberman]

I'm with Jo. Why don't we ever see jaguar eye, lion eye, or housecat eye?

:D

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/682310/9321850/131172095.jpg

[gtr109]

For those interseted, here's some quotes from the Private Stock Team I saved from the old PRS Forum that give some insight as to how this finish is produced. Notice where Dave Hazel mentions it is a 4 colour process.

Tiger Eye Finish:
Greg Pope (PRS Private Stock Team)
I might be able to shed some light on this. Yes, it really is that much more time consuming. Tiger's Eye goes on with several layers of colors, each which must be sanded out slightly before the next color is applied. Besides taking a few days for this process to be completed, it must be a very skilled hand to sand between the stain coats so as not to turn the Tiger's Eye into an opaque maple top. Our standard production stains are a lot less complicated and go on in a few short steps. The logistics of adding a color like Tiger's Eye into everyday production and keeping guitars flowing are mind bogling at best and something you are not likely to see.

dhazel (Dave Hazel - PRS Private Stock Team)
Hi
My few cents...

a] Though a Tiger Eye stain job doesn't normally take multiple days to complete it DOES take substantially longer than any other stain option. And it could TOTALLY throw a wrench into the current production line. Just as a rough estimate lets say it takes 10 minutes to stain your average one color guitar. [This does not count tape jobs, grainfilling or other spray prep work which are basically the same regardless of color] it can sometimes take as long as 5 hours [or more] to do a Tiger Eye stain job. Using those numbers that works out to 30 normal stain jobs vs one Tiger Eye. Even being a bit more conservative that still works out to about a 20 - 1 ratio. Not good numbers for a production situation. [And in defense of Gregs comment.. it could actually take several days if you started late in the day or got distracted by some other pressing issue or had a little "accident"... all of which he has probably been witness to at some point.] Another factor, besides time, that's very important is the wood quality. On your basic CE grade wood, a Tiger Eye is not going to look anything like the Private Stocks you've seen. it takes heavy duty figure in a top to produce good contrast. even some Private Stock tops just aren't suited for Tiger Eye. So it makes sense to limit the option to Private Stock guitars [and the very occasional Archtop Artists] where you can select the particular piece of wood ahead of time and babysit it through the process.

b] The Tiger Eye process could be applied to other color combinations. Of course these other stain jobs would then also take longer, require more care to successfully pull off and be riskier in terms of recovery from an accident or mistake. Thus they would be [and are] available only on Private Stock type guitars. A few examples I've done or seen...

Green-Yellow
Purple-Red
Red-Orange
Blue-Green
Brown-Yellow

And of course two tone / dark and light combos of the same color like the Malachite color Greg mentioned. These doublestains are actually a bit simpler than a Tiger Eye just because they only have 2 - 3 colors whereas a Tiger Eye uses 4 seperate color applications. But the general idea and technique is the same. Combinations of colors and washes, stain, sand, lather, rinse, repeat...

c] Mike- although I'm not positive exactly what process was used on PS#13 [because I think it was a Joe Knaggs stain job done while he was still refining the process ] I think the antique part is really all about the burst. An antique Tiger Eye done today wouldn't look any different from it's "normal" Tiger Eye brethren until it gets the burst in the sprayroom. The figure of the wood will however make a substantial difference in the final appearance.

d] We have used and are currently using combinations of water, alcohol and oil based dyes.

e] The exact process is something I'd rather not go into in any more detail but the basic idea has been discussed here several times and there are others doing similar things so it's not exactly a trade secret either.

Cheers
DH

[JMintzer]

Great info! To the archive it goes!


Jamie