Gold Bevels on a RR3

[Mortuus]

Hey guys,
I would love to paint my trans black RR3's bevels with pearl gold. Don't worry, I am
experienced enough with my airbrush to spray lines hehe.

My question is: would it increase or decrease it's value ?

Keep in mind that the bevels would be flawless, as Jackson would do.
Thanks.

[jrnic]

I think that any mod would decrease the value.

[Sunbane]

+1. Any mod that goes beyond replacing the pickups will decrease the value.

[DrDoug]

I am in the middle of repainting my RR3 now. I am going with Sherwin-Williams Diamond White base (bright white) and S-W neutral pearlescent midcoat for the body, with S-W Intense Blue Pearl bevels. Then I am laying a S-W single clearcoat mixed with a pinch of HOK Ice Pearl (fine glass flake) and a pinch of HOK Purple Haze Pearl over that, and then two full clearcoats to top it off.

I don't care about retaining value, and since I replaced my MOTO inlays with MOP I figure what the heck. I got it used with a chip on the back of the upper wing and a small bit of belt buckle rash on the rear, so I want to do this up nice. I partially filled the rout for the Floyd so now my Floyd Rose Pro looks like it came from Jackson, which looks really nice. I stripped it down to bare wood by sanding (no harsh strippers for this wood!), and I was surprised by the multitude of sins that Jackson covered with the thick factory paint. I sharpened up the bevels, yet kept the parting lines gently rounded to inhibit paint 'pull-away' while spraying.

I smoothed and sealed the wood, and hit it with a bunch of S-W P-50 primer, block sanded it down to completely level and topcoated that with another layer of P-50 to hide the cut throughs. So the primer is just enough to level and cover and no more than that. Then I laid down two coats of the Diamond White base, but I picked up a black speck in it (on the back), so I cleaned that up and tomorrow I am spraying one thinned coat of the white base and hitting it with the neutral pearl afterward. Then I will tape off the body and airbrush the bevels blue the next day (weather permitting!) and follow that with the clear pearl and final clear.

After sanding and polishing, I am aiming for a 3.5 mil finish (or so), which should be plenty thin yet durable as I added the flexative additive for the paint, and the paint is a complete 2K (two component) system which uses a hardener in the primer, base, mids and top coats.

I will post some pics when I get it all done as I am taking pics throughout the job, and I am having real fun making this RR3 "mine".

[Mortuus]

Nice project Doug!
I'm also using HOK paints for mine hehe.

And for the value, it's pretty sad. My problem is that I may not keep the guitar after this
summer. Well, would it be fair to label it as unique and sell it a bit more pricey?

[wilkinsi]

Even un-modded, Jackson imports lose too much value. Do the mod anyway.

[Spivonious]

Why are you painting it if you're planning on selling it? My opinion is make the guitar what you want it to be, and worry about resale value later.

[Sunbane]

Don't bother modding it if you're going to sell it anyway - you're just throwing money into the wind. Maybe if you manage to pull off a super sexy graphic with pro quality finish, you'd get your money back.

[DrDoug]

I wouldn't bother modding it unless you intend to keep it. I bought my RR3 because I wanted one to keep, but once I got it I had to start in to the mods. First the new SD pickups and push/pull pots, then the Floyd Rose Pro and then the MOP inlays. After doing all of that, the paint seemed to be the only aspect lacking. Since I intend on keeping mine and passing it on to our son, I figured at least I will be giving him something that this old man has loved rebuilding and playing.

While painting the body, I have been thinking about the headstock now...lol. With the white body and blue bevels, I am thinking a white headstock face with blue Jackson script that matches the bevels would look killer. To be a smartass, I may add my signature to it too.

It never ends.

[Mortuus]

I'll think about it. I may not sell it too,
since the only downside about it is the bolt-on.
Anyway, before attacking myself to my Jackson, I worked on my first guitar project today:
I took an old strat copy out of the closet to re-paint it. I sanded it down to the bare wood, since I want a trans finish. Unfortunately, as I thought, the wood is pretty ugly. Since it's a simple test, it's not that bad.

Pics coming soon.

[DrDoug]

I have no problems with bolt ons, and regarding the neck diving of the RR3, I relocated my upper strap peg to the center of the bolt on plate, about half an inch from the top edge of it. At that point, the guitar is almost perfectly balanced so that eliminates the neck dive problem. Plus repainting it allows me to plug the old holes (the PO had tried the peg in another location and left an extra hole in the back).

After I stripped my RR3, I saw that the wood they used was butt ugly (to say the least), so no trans finish on it unless I put a veneer on it (not interested).

One other thing is I used Acheson's Electrodag SP-008A silver/copper conductive paint for the cavities, and I even coated the bores of the holes for the wiring. Now I can place a digital probe in the neck pu cavity and one in the jack cavity and get a reading. Now that is shielded! I will still bond all of the sections together with a wire, but I wanted to shield all of the wiring in the guitar too.

[Mortuus]

Ah, I didn't thought Jackson used ugly wood on the higher-end imports, even if the color is opaque.
At least, the flamed maple top on mine is looking pretty good.