tremendousOt Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Hello, I've got a friend who is a talented artist, and I was curious and asked her if she would like to paint my guitar. She's agreed to do it for me, but she has no experience (nor do I) of painting or finishing a guitar so I need some advice on the best route to go to work on this. I've got a strat body in a sorta ugly sparkly green-gold, stripped of neck and hardware. If the whole thing gets painted over is it necessary to strip the paint off before hand? or could it just be painted over the existing finish and then given a clear coat? Should I use a clear Nitrocellulose finish to seal the paint job? Can it be brushed on or just sprayed? Are oil paints or acrylics best? What if the paints were mixed in Nitrocellulose finish before being applied? would that be good or bad? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitefly SA Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 you should at least scuff the boddy before painting it, so thet the paint wil have something to cling to otherwise it could just get nocked off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Should I use a clear Nitrocellulose finish to seal the paint job?No need, if its a sparkly strat its more likely to be polyester based and the nc will not achieve anything - more likely to cause extra grief. As Nitefly said, just sand all over to give a mechanical key to the new paint, and off ya go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Paint it with acrylics - oil won't dry for literally years, whereas arcylics will be dry enough to finish over in literally hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremendousOt Posted June 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Cool, thanks alot for all your comments! So shouldn't I still use a clear coat after the painting is all done to keep it from getting scratched? What do you recommend i use for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 i painted this strat and just sprayed over it with a few coats of acrylic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibnaz5150 Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 keep in mind that sparkly factory finish you have on there is roughly 15+ coats . You add to this and your adding weight plus pending what you use can defintely dull your instruments tone. I would use some chemical stripper and strip her down. Use waterbase lacquer....stewmac.com makes a brushable mix if you don't own any spray equipment. They also have a quick reference finish schedule to give you an idea what your up against. I recommned the waterbase lacquer.easy to work with with less fumes to worry about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremendousOt Posted June 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 nice!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremendousOt Posted June 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 (edited) I was reading somewhere that if you try to use Laquer on a Poly finish that it will basically strip the finish because they don't like each other. Clear Acrylic sprays are Laquers, yes? Does that mean it's bad to use on my sparkly likely poly undercoat? or does that only apply to Nitrocellulose? Edited June 12, 2006 by tremendousOt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Actually a lacquer is ANY surface coating that is mostly clear and glossy, it does not mean anything chemically. The trouble is, so many different people use the same word to describe different things - this is why you have to be careful about different recommendations on the forums. Some people talk of nitrocellulose as a lacquer, some people mean water-based or solvent-based acrylic. Actually they both are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 (edited) acrylic can go over poly, poly can NOT go over acrylic EDIT: i put the wrong words in there! acrylic can go over poly and visa versa, but poly and cellulose do not get on Edited June 13, 2006 by hooglebug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted June 14, 2006 Report Share Posted June 14, 2006 nitrocellulose does not get on with any other type of coating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed12 Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 Sorry to sort of Hi-jack thsi thread, but it is along the same lines (plus i stupidly just put a post up without searching...otherwise would ahve found this straightaway...sorry!!). Im also thinking of getting a friend to hand paint a design onto my Tele that I will be building over the summer. I was thinking that using Plasti-kote Quick Dry enamel would be best as there are loads of colours and its pretty easy to use. Would this be a suitable paint to use on a swamp ash guitar? Also, Plasti-kote doa water based clear sealer...would this be OK over the enamel paint. Details can be found here - Enamel paint is second on the list and sealer is fourth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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