Bass Guitar Painting

ok, im asking for some help, ive read the thread on guitar painting with blusey helping the kid with the guitar. im having some problems understanding terms and such. i have my bass sanded, im actually still sanding some of my dremel nicks, i used an 80 grit dremel bit to sand the edges and some of the body, mostly becuase i didnt know we had a mouse sander, but their is a clear coating of, im guessing acrylic, still on the body, do i need to get that off before i paint? and if i do how? i dont want to stain the wood or give it a natural finish. i want to paint it something nicely colored for a bass. and i know now to use automotive paint, their is chameleon paint at all stores, but im not going to use it, might scare away potential buyers, so i think? i plan on making a "ghetto" paint booth out in the field next to my garage, im going to borrow a paint gun and buy a respiator. now for any questins you might have for me, i have a slammer by hammer bass guitar, might have that backwards, and it has two pickups, a volume, a tone, an input, and it grounds itself on the bridge, by a wire run through the body and touched to the metal bridge, not soldered. i also have a pearl white pick guard, not solid whit, it has that fancy shiny whit junk. i plan on painting this and selling, and repeating through a local pawn shop who i have become freinds with the owners wife, through work. i despratley need help. my father does this junk all the time, but he is in kansas and we dont talk much, im in alabama. i cant get a hold of him. and if their is anything i can do wiring wise to enchance the price, at almost no cost to me. im on a tight budget, car died, got a new one. and i will makeshift anything, cept for quilty needed things. any help would be cool. ill get pics asafp for better help.

 

well, pics would be good if you can post them. If you don't know waht type of clear finish is on the bass currently its best to sand it off. If you were to apply another paint or chemical on top and they don't bond right, it will look horrible. Make sure you were a mask when you do this.

As for sanding the edges, I usually do this by hand starting with 100 or 120 and work up to 400. Basically get them smooth and even, its kinda tricky to do with and electric sander. You can get the sides done that way, but the edges are easy to screw up with a hand held sander.

If you have any more questions, just post them. I will do my best to help you along the way. I have to commute to work very soon, so you may not get a reply for about 2 hrs or so.

 

The kid??? Thanks!!!!! http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

I used paint stripper and it got off the acrylic finish on mine so you could give that a try. Also, as bluesy said, make sure you wear a mask cos spray paint is reaaaaaaally strong. Damn, there's people coming to look at our house tonight as they're interested in buying and I've just been spraying in the garage!!!

 

haha, sorry about the kid thing. but im going to go to home depot or something very soon, and ill get some paint stripper and try that, sanding is fun, but sanding down to the wood is very hard. the coating is very thick. now, once i get this off, do i have to reapply a new clear coating of something else? or do i go straight to primer and then my colour of choice and a finishing clear coat? ill get my camera working soon and post some pics. oh, well i didnt go to home depot, my mom had a can of stripper, looks nasty. gonna go try that soon, like in about 5 mins. now if this works, and i have all clear coat off, im talking down to the wood, what should i do next? and another question, their is a build up of clearcoat on the neck, near the end of the fret board with the tuners, it doesnt look good, im going all pro on this, i want this to look awesome for the buyer, i want it gone, do i sand it off with high grit? or what? man i write alot.

 

if you dont' have highly figured wood for the body then just do primer, then color then clear coats. I put on clear first on figured bodies to make the figure "pop" and look 3d.

If the headstock has the same clear coat I would assume you do the same process stripping it as the body of the bass.

 

Primer - colour - finisher, that's my order. Or rather it's gone primer - colour - colour - colour - primer - colour -colour so far hehe!

 

what is highly figured wood? and the headstock had a clear coat on it, but im afraid of sanding it. i used that stripper a little bit, it actually smoothed out some of the light nicks on it, or it just cleared the dust away for me, haha. and another question, bluesman this one is for you, how much can a primer coat cover up, and im talking about light nicks and such. just put on a thick primer coating, and then paint and as mc puts it, and paint and paint and paint some more. what brand of auto paint should i use? and any suggestions of colour of paint that would be attractive to buyers, and easy for my first project. im also planning on using toothpicks to guard the screw holes while i paint, and drawing some string through the ground line that runs through the body. and oh yeah, thanks very much for all your help guys, i plan on doing this as a side project for some car payment money, if their is anythign u guys ever need, just ask me, im a sad pile of useless info

 

sad useless info eh? I'm sure I could do with some of that at some times!!

I use standard acrylic car spray, the primer coat, matt paint and then the laquer to finish. Gotta go get some more paint today, it will HOPEFULLY be finished by tomorrow and then I'll be playing again!!!!

 

Its all about getting an even surface before you start painting my friend. Try wet sanding with some 800 or 1000 first. You can try building primer up over it, but it sounds like a lot of work and my not yield the result you are after. You can also try steal wooling(0000) the clear first as well to smooth it out. It will make the clear turn cloudy, but if you are gonna paint over it, it really doesnt matter.

All I can say is, if you want the paint job to come out great you gotta make the surface flat and smooth before hand. Otherwise every crease, ding, dent will show up in some form after you are done.

 

ahh, im not familiar with termanology,but yeah i know i have to get them all smooth and evened out before hand of spraying. the worst of the nicks were evened out from the stripper yesterday. and i plan on trying the steel wool idea, im guessing it roughs it all up and evens out everything? and what is wet sanding? never heard of it. 800 and 1000 grit are super light. and blues i read u make custom pickups, can i make new pickups using neo mags on my current pickups, maybe ill wait to ask that when i get this sucker painted haha

 

Lets get thru the painting process first, then I can help you with pickups.

 

k, we can do pickups later. i went to my g-mas house today, and got some copper mesh, very fine, and im thinking about putting it on the bass, any idea how i can do this? and i got all the sanding things down, im gonna spray over the acrylic stuff that is covering the wood, but i have all the original primer and paint off. am i correct? and think on that copper screen thing, it would be cool if i could put it on some how.

 

I have no idea on the copper mesh, sounds kinda neat though. Make sure is doesn't come into contact with any of the circuit when your done.

 

yeah, i already thought of that too, dont know how that will come into play yet, it might not on this one. but i did buy a mech power production spray gun today, all i need to do is go get some paint, which will be happening tomorrow after i get off work. any color ideas? i have a pro gun, now i need pro paint, and some more, "wanna-be" pro sanding, and im going to sell this puppy. any ideas or tips that will come in handy? and once again, any color ideas that would sell well?

 

I would just stick to traditional colors blue, red, olympic white, etc.

 

what about orange? a dark tint? any tips on gun spraying bluesy? and how to make a makeshift paint booth, i work in a grocery store and i can get big boxes.

 

Hey, stupid question I know, but i hear people mentioning a primer...Is that just a few coats of white/light paint before the base colour? I am lookin to start paintin my first guitar soon, just need to know what to do.


Bobby

MSN> xbonez@blueyonder.co.uk

 

Nope, its primer. Its a different consistency than paint and fills in all the blemishes on the surface to try and make it flat. Different color primers work better with certain color paints, etc.

 

Hey bluesy, think I need another laquer coat!
Was recording yesterday and whilst standing playing away, my guitar was sticking to the logo on my t-shirt!!

 

How long did you let it dry? I let that automotive stuff sit for the better part of a week before I begin to touch it.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply bluesy, I'm assuming I can get primer and clear laqcuer from the same place I can get my paint?

Bobby

 

Meh, about a day or so!

You can get the primer, paint and laquer from most shops, I got all mine from a small car shop. Remember to find out what colour primer the paint needs, eg. I painted mine purple and needed a grey primer coat.