paint a guitar.. with what?

[Milo]

hi, ive got a crappy Jim Harley that i would like to paint.. but do you know which kind of paint should i use?

[RandyEllefson]

Wish I did, but stay away from spray paint. I tried that that at age 15 to do mine and it doesn't look so good. Wish I knew what to redo it with, and if someone could do a cool job, especially by adding my new logo to it, but....

[johnnyhollywood]

all know is that you will need do remove all the paint that is in your guitar before painting... I presume you would use the same paint that u use in chairs...

[oRg]

You actually have to use a kind of paint called laquer. What you do is strip your guitar of it's old paint by sanding it down being very careful not to sand away too much wood. Then what I do is put a primer on it usually a black or a medium gray primer. Then I paint it with the laquer. I would recommend putting on alot of coats of laquer. The more coats you have the less susceptable it is to chipping. I've seen people do some crazy things though. I know this one guy who does some guitar modding. What he does to add a REAL nice smooth finish with any of the wood grain showing is put a fiberglass coat once he strips the guitar. He uses something called "Tiger-hair". For thos eof you who are familiar with autobody will know this is a fiberglass epoxy kind of thing. It's kinda like a replacement for wood filler. It also changes the sound of the guitar rather drastically but I wouldn't recommend doing it becuz tiger hair is very sticky and it dries kinda quick so I wouldn't recommend using it unless your experienced with it.

[CaptainCarma]

Hey milo,

I´m not sure, but if I remember correctly you´re from Germany too.
Anyways, if you´re interested in some real cool, high quality paintings, contact my buddy Rüdiger ( www.airbrush-artworks-bonn.de ).
he has done a lot of great guitarpaintings, including the amazing finish of my newest guitar.

Pics can be seen in the "guitar picture" thread here in the ibreathe forums.


Marc

[RG2550]

tip-ex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! \m/ \m/

[Bluesfan]

As far aas I know the two most common forms of paint for finishing guitars is nitrocellulose (spelling) laqeur and satin polyurethane (also used for high gloss neck finishes).

Nitrocellulose was used progressively in the 60's and can be found on alot of vintage strats etc. It is a sticky feeling paint that fades with age to give a vintage look. This is a fairly expensive finish.

Satin polyurethane is the most popular finish to date. It is smooth and reflective and is fairly resilliant, it does fade slightly but not as much as nitrocellulose. This is not as expensive as nitrocellulose and it is the recommended paint.

Hope that helped, as for getting hold of these paints I have no ide, just look around I guess.