Repainting: Do you have to strip the guitar?

[IcoHolic]

Hey all

You've all been helpful in the past.

I was wondering when repainting a guitar body, do you have to completely strip off the paint, or can you just rough it up and paint over it?

The body in question has no serious scratches or chips, so it's nearly 100% smooth.

Thanks

[RAI6]

If your're going for a solid color, there's no reason to sand all the way to bare wood.

Rough up the existing paint, prime, and paint.

Unless, of course, you want to use the guitar to practice full-on guitar finishing...

Then you can take it all the way down to wood, and start from scratch.

Have fun!

[IcoHolic]

That's what I figured, thanks very much for the answer.