Bass Graphics, Deviations

[aviansuicide]

Hey All:

I've spent a great deal of time over the last few months looking for an even remotely useful resource on visually customizing guitars (well, basses, but you get the idea), and appear to have finally found it . Having read through a number of threads here, and a great deal of the tutorials, I've both learned a lot...and come up with a few questions that I feel could benefit from a "seasoned" customizer's opinion.

I currently have a 5-string bass (black, ESP) that I'm hoping to have my two best female friends do what could be classified as a "split design" upon. Both of them are traditional paper artists, however one has deviated into painting (including airbrushing), and the other has deviated into digital art. I'm hoping that someone with a bit more experience can give me some opinions on my "research" regarding these concepts.

I'd like to maintain the current black finish, and simply have the custom graphics added on top. How would this change the usual procedure for preparing the instrument?Would I simply be able to, if necessary, "roughen up" the bass, have her paint on it, and follow the clearcoat/sanding procedures?

Also, regarding the "digital artist", would it be suitable to have her do something digital, have it printed out on an adhesive transparency, and clearcoat over it?Or, is there a better way to apply "digital art" to an instrument on a larger scale than a headstock mod?The key point in this case is not only appearance, but longevity -- in spite of the "digital art" nature of the graphics, I'd like to be able to idealistically maintain the longevity on par with the "painted" portion.

Any thoughts regarding this would be greatly appreciated ^^; -- I have absolutely no problem shelling out for what would allow for an "amazing" job on this project, but I should also point out that I'm attempting to minimize my exposure to respiratory aggressors =)

[biliousfrog]

I've used inkjet decal paper to add graphics to guitars, print it out & clear over it. The problem is that they're designed to go over white just like printing onto paper. You could get the traditional artist to paint onto paper & then scan it into the computer & print them both out.