I am really thinking of giving my first guitar, a strat copy, a custom paintjob, and by that I mean something cool like flames, a dragon, Kenpachi etc, etc. Has anyone tried this and did it turn out well? I would like to see some pictures if thats possible! Any advice would be handy too, like what type of paint and laquer to use. It would be cool to make a project out of this!

I've actually done this!

I had a Epiphone les paul and I was tired of the fading red paint.

The first thing to actually consider is how much time you are willing to spend on it. It took me seriously 2 weeks just to get it to the point of painting. I wanted to change it from the red color to just a stained wood look.

You have to use a powersander...it would seriously take a year to sand off all the paint and clear coat by hand. This took the majority of the time. You also have to almost completely disassemble your guitar. Which I hated because I thought I was going to break it.

Once I got it completely sanded....i was a little disappointed because the wood wasn't very pretty. I stained it anyways and used a tribal stencil with black spraypaint to cover up 1 area that was extremely ugly. Then I got some brush on clear coat and put about 3 coats on it. It looks ok, but I'm probably going to do it all again and actually paint it a color. I'll upload a picture of it when i get the chance. I took the picture with my phone...so it's not that great, but here you go.

This post has been edited by Kyle Logue: Feb 11 2008, 06:27 PM

Are you planing to do it yourself or take it to a professional ?? I would recommend the second option

hahaha...I'll probably do it myself...the first time was a trial. Now I know what to expect. It was a cheap guitar anyways!

A cheap guitar.. You are talking about what? 300$? I don't exactly call that cheap, you can buy... I think 3 times my guitar with that!! And mine plays very well with a nice spray.. I like it when it's only a top coat, so you can still see the wood. Mine has red coating and still see the wood, so that's cool with me!

I bought it at a guitar shop for $150

That's pretty badass in a messed up fugly guitar kind of way.

Hm. That didn't come out right.

I'll put it a different way. It's different. And I like different.

I did this a couple of weeks ago
I just painted a picture on my guitar, 'cause I like the finish, but one colour is boring... (Well, I let a friend of mine paint it... I myself can't paint)
He used Enamel paint to do it. I think you could use some other type of paint too, but I'm not sure.

Here's a pic:


This post has been edited by Davidian: Feb 11 2008, 08:28 PM

haha...that made me laugh pretty good

Hey Kyle did you wanted to give your guitar that old vintage look. I've noticed that you didn't sand it equally everywhere?

Yea I did...it actually looked best before the wood stain. The stain is what made the sanding look uneven. The wood used in epiphones isn't crafted as well as say gibson.

This looks awesome !!

i painted my guitar, but it's far from a professional finish, i was very naive when i did it. but changing it now is more effort than it's worth. it looks ok, has character!
i spray painted the neck, but the paint went all funny on the body and soaked into the grain, so i sanded it down as well as i could, and then painted it with a brush.
for some reason i used metal paint? but it worked.

sorry for the bad quality, i took the photos on my phone.
the thing on the neck is a home made dampener , which i slid down so you could see all the flames.

Nice paint but....what's that thing on the neck??

I've discovered that I did the worst job yet!....sweet!

Hey man, nice work at lights end! with what did you paint you neck. Does it stays there. Lot of paints just pilles off due to playing.

Just to add some value after my previous comment (I still like the guitar)...

There's a musician in Canada that did a bunch of blog posts on what he went through to repaint his Epi SG.

http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/...ainting-part-1/

i tried to say in the post. it's a home made dampener thing for when i attempt to do any complex tapping.



i used normal spray paint and then varnished over the whole thing to give it a protective layer.

That looks really cool on the neck! Must try something similar!




Now wheres the fun in that! I'm looking forward to the fun, I dont expect the end product to be very good with my skills!



I have to agree, I think it looks sweet!

Yeah, you did a great work !!! I love it... mmm I'm thinking in something similar for my JEM