If you dont want to bother taking the frets out i suggest #0000 steel wool with the stripper i think you should be able to get the paint off. It would help if you knew what kind of paint is on it. Heres a list of strippers for different paint & finishes. http://www.generalchem.com/paint_strippers...WID=23840821022
I've been thru that before & i used tiny pieces of sand paper, scribes, pins, nitro lacquer thinner, & lets see what else?...