silverpen and lacquer?

[Ry Charters]

I've been using pearl for my logos, but am starting to use decals now as production increases. Wanting to keep a "personal" touch, I thought I'd sign my short name in silverpen on the headstock. Could anyone save me some trial and error and tell me how compatible this is with nitro? Can I spray on top of the pen? Will the pen bleed too much on top of lacquer?
Thanks.

[Greg Mirken]

Well, I don't know what a 'silverpen' is, but if a couple people said "It'll be fine" would you try it on a headstock without testing?

If it does bleed in your test, try putting down a few dry, sandy coats of lacquer over it before a wet one; or sealing with shellac (unless alcohol smears it, too).

[Russell Vance]

Paul Reed Smith (the business) signs the back of some of their headstocks with a hand written serial number using a goldpen. I recall one of the active components in markers that reacts with nitro is Zylene so thats a good place to start avoiding. But, within reason you can spray nitro over just about anything providing you mist (dust, dry coat whatever) a couple of coats of high lacquer to thinner ratio (lots of lacquer, very little thinner) over the writing. Go easy and build it up and don't lay down a heavy coat immediately on top of the mistcoats. Test this before you do it to a guitar anyway. Rusty.

[Ry Charters]

A guitarmaker friend told me that's what they used at Galloup's school when he was there. It worked pretty well. I sanded the lacquer flat and then signed it. It will "erase" with mineral spirits. I sprayed a sealer coat on one too heavily and it did bleed a bit. Going to have to redo that one.....but the other came out fine.

[Jason Hilbourne]

FWIW, I use gold and silver paint pens to sign my headstocks. They work very on top of a nitro finish but I would be hesitant to top coat them. The paint pens don't really layout flat but instead leave a hefty ridge which would be hard to level with top coats.