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Edited to add a few new pics of me and the guitar together:
This started off as a body from a MIJ Charvel Standard made around 2002 as seen here in the original blue color.
I wanted to stip off the paint and stain it a medium brown color. Since it already had a little ding in the paint where the paint just kind of flaked off easily, I decided to use an exacto knife to chip/peel the paint off. That proved to be a major pain in the ass. It came off in tiny little pieces a lot of the time that would fly in every direction possible. I'm not even sure how many hours it took me to get all the paint off. It was spread over several days. Don't think I'll ever do that again.
Here it is with the paint gone and some sanding done.
I decided to copy the method from another guy on Harmony Central. His guitar looked great so I followed what he did. I got some RIT clothing dye from Walmart. After applying a coat of the dye, this is what I got.
It was really chalky and not soaking into the paint. I took some 0000 steal wool to it and got this.
At this point, I thought it looked killer. Nothing like what I intended, but I liked it. However, a lot of the dye was just sitting on top still as a dry dust/chalk. After more steal wool...
I ended up doing three coats of the dye. Same process each time. Let it dry for 24 hours, then steal wool, then another coat. It was darking up each time and looking really cool.
When I was taking off the paint, I put a lot of little nicks and cuts in the wood. I filled in the some of the larger ones with wood filler. The filler really soaked in the dye and you can see them as much darker spots on the guitar. Also the edges soaked in the dye more as well as that one big spot on the front where I sanded a bit deeper I guess.
Finally I did 4 coats of tung oil. Here is the final product.
This started off as a body from a MIJ Charvel Standard made around 2002 as seen here in the original blue color.
I wanted to stip off the paint and stain it a medium brown color. Since it already had a little ding in the paint where the paint just kind of flaked off easily, I decided to use an exacto knife to chip/peel the paint off. That proved to be a major pain in the ass. It came off in tiny little pieces a lot of the time that would fly in every direction possible. I'm not even sure how many hours it took me to get all the paint off. It was spread over several days. Don't think I'll ever do that again.
Here it is with the paint gone and some sanding done.
I decided to copy the method from another guy on Harmony Central. His guitar looked great so I followed what he did. I got some RIT clothing dye from Walmart. After applying a coat of the dye, this is what I got.
It was really chalky and not soaking into the paint. I took some 0000 steal wool to it and got this.
At this point, I thought it looked killer. Nothing like what I intended, but I liked it. However, a lot of the dye was just sitting on top still as a dry dust/chalk. After more steal wool...
I ended up doing three coats of the dye. Same process each time. Let it dry for 24 hours, then steal wool, then another coat. It was darking up each time and looking really cool.
When I was taking off the paint, I put a lot of little nicks and cuts in the wood. I filled in the some of the larger ones with wood filler. The filler really soaked in the dye and you can see them as much darker spots on the guitar. Also the edges soaked in the dye more as well as that one big spot on the front where I sanded a bit deeper I guess.
Finally I did 4 coats of tung oil. Here is the final product.
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