I need to paint a guitar body, but do not know how to do it or where to start. Lets say that I have a blank body and want to paint it - what do I do? My friend told me I need some specialized paint, paint the guitar with that and then put some laquer on it. Is this correct?

Anybody got any good links or pointers? I have time to do this and some money to spend. The body will probably be Alder wood http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/bodie...m?fuseaction=v2

Also does anyone know elsewhere where I can buy a body just like that and the paint/laquer, tools I will need?

Thanks. (Don't grill me with questions as to why I want to do this )

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http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial5.htm

There have been a few threads on refinishing guitars recently too.

I swear there have been like 4 in the last couple of weeks

I wanna paint my ibanez, but i may get it painted, because i'd rather not risk fucking it up.

I'd rather buy a piece of shit to practise on at least first

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My eyes literally popped when I saw that site. That is a SHITLOAD of reading material.

I think I found what I needed though.
http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets...e_guitar04.html

Thanks, I'll ask if I got more questions.

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OK I'm back.

So I will be buying the body soon from Warmoth. I got a neck sorted out already.

I'm going to be buying ONE passive EMG for as cheap as I can. Maybe even an EMG select. The reason being this is only a project, and the guitar simply needs to work as it should. I'm not going for a Laiho sound w/ the single passive.

I need help on what to get so that the electricals work.

First question: If I buy a passive EMG new from the store, will it come with everything I need for it to work? (Knobs, jack, switch, wires etc)?

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I wouldn't go with those emg selects if I were you. I've heard both the guitar and bass versions of these and they suck multitudes of ass. If you're buying a custom body, spend a little more and get yourself a used Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio. You'll be alot happier in the end.

The only p-ups that I've ever seen that came with pots, wires, etc.. were the signature active sets from EMG (kk set, kh set, and zw set). So you'll need to get yourself all the pots, wires, jack, shielding, etc.

To paint a guitar from a blank body would be to fill any imperfections either by adding modified chips of wood then priming or just priming. You prime and sand repeat as much as necessary. Painting is the same way. Multitudes of paints out there. I used acryllic enamel... shoot, dry, sand. I done 3 or so coats then shot the clear on. I also redone all the electrical. If your building from scratch, you'll prob have to buy everything seperately (pots, switch, wires, pickups, etc). If your electronic savvy, I recommend doing it yourself. I found it to be pretty simple. Schematics are available all over the web for practically every configuration possible. Lemme know what becomes.

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dude there is this e-book you can get that will tell you how to do it right with spray paint

www.paintyourownguitar.com

it looks pretty rockin. i would like to try it out some time

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Almost 3 months on...

I got an RG body off Ebay. It was already sanded down except for inside the horns. I did those myself by hand. The body is made of basswood. I read a lot of the tutorials posted above and I just decided to go ahead and stain the body. Got a nice black stain. You can still see the wood grain through it. I didn't get a neck/pickups/bridge or anything else. This is just for a school project which from the looks if it I'm gonna ace. I finished staining it and I put many layers of lacquer on the thing... building up a real thick coat. Only thing left to do now is to find out how to properly polish the thing. Here are the pics:

Plain body:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1581/DSCN5202.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2245/DSCN5203.jpg

Stain on the top side:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/4648/DSCN5204.jpg

Stain on the back:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3613/DSCN5206.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5558/DSCN5208.jpg

Hanging to air dry:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8897/DSCN5210.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1033/DSCN5212.jpg

Wood soaked in much of initial coat of lacquer:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1066/DSCN5213.jpg

More layers of lacquer. Shine building up:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1742/DSCN5217.jpg

How it looks right now:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1217/DSCN5215.jpg

A good buffering and it'll be sweet. I think it came out well seeing as it's my first time doing this.

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I dont think that the jack and tone/volume pots come with passive EMGs. Only with the actives. I think you're supposed to buy 250k volume pots and a mono jack.

Dont you have to put on some primer before you paint?

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Not when you stain.

is stain when you want the wood to show through the paint?

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If you get installing a humbucker into your guitar get 500k pots...Steward Mac has a whole thing on its site taht covers installing electronics. The hardest thing to do is solder the wires and make it look all pretty. Total cost for electronics will probably be like 20 bucks.

What about if you want to paint a guitar in a Satin finish and not glossy? no clear coat?

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Yes. I didn't want to paint it because that would be really bland IMO. I stained it just so it's a little more interesting.

I'm not putting any humbuckers on it as yet because if I do that, I'll have to get a neck, bridge and the other bits and pieces. Don't have money for all that. Staining the body is sufficient for my project.


I used a polyurethane spray lacquer that said right on the can 'Gloss'. So you could just buy the Satin spray and do the same thing I guess.

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I painted my guitar with a yellow crayon.Im going to laquer it with hairspray,a few layers.Can anyone suggest some quality hairspray?Preferably guitar-finishing ones?

did you sand that after each coat of finish? it looks rather rough and bumpy. sand inbetween coats.

and get 2 500k CTS audio taper pots. they're nice. you can go for a linear instead of audio taper for the tone control if ya want.

did you get an edge bridge to pop in there? and a wizard neck?

edit: projectguitar is an awesome site that i was looking at a few years ago to prepare for a project. it has basically everything you need to know to go from blocks of wood to a complete guitar

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It looks bumpy because the lacquer wasn't completely dry when I took the pic and yes I did sand with 400 grit between coats. Also I didn't polish it yet.

No bridge, no neck.

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ahh cool. well finish it up and take some more pics! you could even submit them to guitarproject.com when you're done

i've been wanting to get a body, stick a flamed maple veneer on it, and refinish it. i'm thinkin an old jem or japanese RG would look hot with a nice stained maple flame! this thread has brought new life to that idea.

good luck on the finishing touches.

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removing the paint, it seems a whole lot easier to just remove it with chemicals. Benifits to sanding?

Chemicals can damage wood, while sanding removes paint and keeps the wood smooth. but you can also damage wood by sanding, just dont use a large grit paper. take your time and do it slowly with a finer grit paper.

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if you are sanding...start off with 120 then use 220 to finish it up...if you start to see wood switch to 220...I did that on my current project and it was fucking smooth as a woman's ass. oh and here is an update to my project... http://www.hamfriedchicken.com/imag.../yell_strip.jpg and http://www.hamfriedchicken.com/imag...yell_strip2.jpg

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I'm repainting my guitar in to black with a green spiderweb on it. gonna post pictures when I'm done

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Is there a chemical that's not bad or as bad? Sanding sounds like it would suck balls. What about priming? Do you have to do it, how bad does that suck?

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primering is just like painting...the point of primer (i think) is to create a nice smooth surface for the paint. It also helps to cover up some of the imperfections of the wood. The last thing it does is it gives the paint a nice surface to be soaked into. When I was primering my guitar it took a good 16+ coats of primer before I had it thick enough and pure enough in color. It was spray paint...but still wood doesn't take paint (or primer...) the best and if you are putting it on in nice thin coats it takes a while until enough primer is built up that the next layer of primer (or paint) sticks nicely.

Best thing to do is to between every 3 layers of primer or so is to remove any of the fuzzies that might be on the body from the spray paint (this is of course if you are using spray paint). After you've decided that you have enough sand the primer with about 1000 grit sandpaper and you'll be good to go for paint.

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it's pretty boring and repetitive but yeah, sanding between layers is the key to a good finish.

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i hardly touched up sanding with mine...i just removed those little flaks...and moved on to another layer. Just need to make sure you use reallllly nice sandpaper (1500-2000grit) and it will be fine. Sanding block is nice to have too...

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I was thinking of painting one of my Ibanez a flat dark camo color.I
was wondering if anyone knew the best way to get a good smooth coat
without the colors bleeding.I want to paint the back of the neck and
headstock too.

painter's tape...it is that blue masking tape you see in paint sections...put it on like a countertop and cut out the design you want for each part of the camo. Go from light to dark in design and remember to cover up the parts you don't want colored with brown paper (like the brown paper bags stuff). It might bleed through a bit but yeah...whatever...

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Yeah that's pretty much the way I figured. I was just afraid it might
blend the colors a little when I sand it to make it smooth. I thought
maybe someone knew a better way. I saw an ESP that had the paint job
I'm talking about.

you could always test it on some wood laying around and see how your idea works. If it looks to shitty then try something else.

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