Painting an Electric Guitar?

Tyler Walstrom

January 20, 20090 found this helpful

I am about to begin a guitar kit from grizzly. I know quite a bit about guitars but still I'm flying by the seat of my pants.

One thing I have heard from a lot of sources that top guitar builders (Fender, Gibson) use nitro cellulose lacquer to paint the instrument. Supposedly that's a good way trick to improve sound.

I just ordered some from www.stew-mac.com. The part I am unsure about is what to do if you want a solid color finish because if you were to use car paint which is enamel the lacquer clear coat would eat it.

I do know when doing guitars they say to on put enough color on to just cover the wood. Then clear coat for 5-10 coats. The last ones are the thinnest. Stew-mac has a lot of good references, check it out.

samaree

February 24, 20060 found this helpful

Perhaps you could buff the worn areas with fine sandpaper and gently touch up with model paint or auto touch up paint.

My observation has been this. REAL guitar players treasure their old, scratched, dinged, scraped guitars just as they are.......and their music is sweet and full and real! Then there are POSERS with the newest, slickest, shiniest, prettiest guitars.

oh you make me wanna cry....don't paint it.

can some one help me ive got an old framus electric guitar i took it to my local music store and they basicly laffed me out of the store but its worth more than any money it self you see it was bought for me wen i was 14 im 40 now and its bin wit me for some tough times in my life it s now time to hand it too my daughter shes 14 and well on her way musically but it needs new pick ups and she wants it painted how hard is this to do and is there any tips on in proving the sound and keeping the fret baord from being hard on her fingers thanks .oh by the way i be came a drummer some 10 years later so this guitar has sat in my rec room un stringed does this matter

i have a guitar with a graphic on it, just bought it, i'm gonna paint it. i'm a good guitarist who doesn't like the graphic.

i have been playing for a few years and my guitar is pretty tore up. so i found a great website that gives advice on how to paint it.

Mark

September 26, 20070 found this helpful

Hi, do you guys think you can help me with this?
I bought a cheap $100 EPOCH Gibson Les Paul that looks like a Black Beauty at a Target store and it just looks plain and boring!!!! Im 15, and I looking forward to painting my guitar. I would like to draw a custom graphic on the back of my guitar since it has more space. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience on drawing a graphic on a guitar? Do I need any supplies to use in painting or drawing a custom graphic on a guitar? Do I have to remove anything from the guitar? I at least need to know how to paint the guitar and probably some supplies and equipment I should use in drawing and painting the guitar. At least show me a link to website. NEED HELP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Hey Steve, if you want to improve the sound on the guitar, and since you say it is an old guitar; if it has lost its tonal qualities do get a new set of pick-ups and maybe change the frets (the metal pieces) as they can be worn down by the strings pushing on them. When it comes to your daughter playing, and wanting it to be softer on her fingers, I would suggest using a set of gauge 9-42 strings. They should have less tension and bending will be easier. Dont change the fret board or anything else :)
Oh and no it shouldn't matter if the guitar was left un-stringed.

I making an electric guitar with my cousin (a professional guitar/mandolin maker) but since all he has ever made as been acoustic, we don't know what paint will work. We also think that we are going to use guitar lacquer over the paint, so we need something compatible.

I recently bought a Ibanez RG321 MH from a pawn shop. I totally agree that you should treasure your old beat up guitars but now I have several guitars and the latest being a once loved RG321. I'm gonna refinish it all white with red blood splatter and a bloody hand print. I hope it works out as well as I am hoping it will.

This is the first time I've ever painted a guitar, when I sand down my guitar, and that's all ready to go. What type of paint do I want to use? I want to make the guitar a shiny black with sweet locking star at the end of it. Do I have to use a different type of paint for a design? Then once that dries, do I just put tape over it, and paint the rest of the guitar black?