Painting your guitar.

Background: When I assemble a guitar I buy the body finished. I purchase the bodies from Warmoth www.warmoth.com

because they have the best selection of woods, finishes and configurations. To paint or finish a guitar requires time, equipment, patience and a lot of work. Warmoth provides a finished body or neck with a high quality finish, accurate predrilled holes in any color or finish imaginable. However sometimes you may want to paint your guitar yourself.

Mikey D. had two guitar bodies he wanted painted. One body was from a kit that the body was sealed i.e. ready for paint. The other body was on he had removed the paint from with a sander (X-note- the sealer coat was still intact allowing me to paint). He went the logical route of getting the paint from an auto body shop. They wanted a hundred or so dollars to paint them both again painting is labor intensive. Finally he came to me and I said I'd do it reluctantly.

Setup: Mikey D. supplied me with brown flake color and tan color also gloss clear coat epoxy. I've never painted with the color then clear coat low pressure methods of today. I painted back when the color was basically it, maybe some clear using a Binks 98 gun. ALWAYS WEAR A VAPOR MASK, BEG BORROW OR STEAL ONE.

So, I went to Stewart Macdonald (http://www.stewmac.com/) I purchased 4 aerosol canisters, two glass vessels for the color, some sanding pads and lacquer from Home Depot. I decided I'll use the color and use lacquer as clear coat. I was ready to paint, but where? You need a paint booth I don't have a paint booth. Painting in the basement is out of the question lacquer is horrendous smelling and slow drying. I ended up spraying in the tool shed, well ventilated and if it stunk for hours on end who cares.

Mikey D. wanted one body solid beige the other brown flake sunburst.

Sunburst is difficult because it's got to be an even fade. Internet surfing I came up with a neat way to make it even.

I sprayed 2 coats of lacquer prior to the color just in case I ahad to remove the color coat.

1)You trace the body onto poster board.

2) Measure in from the trace line how big you want the sunburst to be and draw a line. Then cut to that line.

3) Using poster pins (the pins with the little caps) to keep a uniform distance from the body.

4) Spray the color, using the poster board and pins as a mask to the body.

Once you've shot the color you can wet sand using 1000 or 1500 emery paper to even the color coat.

Allow this to dry over nite.

Now comes the lacquer, apply thin coats. You can wet sand but allow to dry for 12 hours before. The more lacquer coats the deeper the finish. When your done you can wax and buff using a carnuba wax or a good wood finish wax.

This vid goes into detail, I doubt most of us will go into to.




This vid is a shout out to my homies Yo. Oh sorry, Ovation (purchased by Fender 12/07) is located in New Hartford Ct. right up the road. Ovation began building a solid body electric, the VXT. This video shows what goes into building a guitar.