Attn: painters

[Niccolai]

Does anyone on the board paint guitars?
I'm looking to get a reasonable quote for a top re-spraying.

I'll discuss the job more thuroughly after the thread gets a couple 'bites'

[maotar]

Re: Attn: painters

You can check the guys at GMW here is the pricelist

[Niccolai]

Re: Attn: painters

I talked to Lee.

His a bit big for my budget. After me sanding, disasebmling and doing the prep work for him it would have still run me close to what the guitar cost and take almost 9 months for completion.

[maotar]

Re: Attn: painters

Well you can do it yourself using spraycans,

http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/ has a great how to ebook for sale.

[Niccolai]

Re: Attn: painters

I'm not going to get the finish I'm looking for with spraycans.

I have an ESP MH400NT with trans black top on order. I plan to have just the top sanded and resprays transparent white like this

[maotar]

Re: Attn: painters

mmm... you will be surprised what you can do with them but allright maybe ask a buddy who paints cars if he can do it for you.

[sully]

Re: Attn: painters

is that an acutal guitar or a mockup? imo, if you don't go with something like a gmw, per se, you may be setting yourself up for a disappointment. you may want to give paul at bigheadguitars.com a shout; a few here have used him and he seems to do a great job as well. if you want it to look great and factory quality or better, you have to pay for it. that's not to say that it should cost more than the guitar itself, but quality costs money.

most guitars that are trans black are that way because the top isn't that spectacular. if you strip the finish off of the trans black, you may find that the wood underneath it is disappointing. while the mockup you have is neat lookin, i would think that in reality the end result will probably not look like fluffy clouds. how trans is done is either with analine dyes applied directly to the wood, a darker tint first that's sanded back to give it some depth, then the actual tint applied, then cleared. it's common to use a black dye first, but in the case of what you'd like to do, you'd need maybe a light grey dye, then sand it back and add the white somehow. or you can use tinted clear coats (candy colors) shot over the guitar. the more candy you apply, the more vibrant your color is. i've not yet seen a white analine dye, and most candy colors are shot over a white or black basecoat, and i don't see a candy white on the house of kolor site. that's not to say it doesn't exist, though, and i could be talking out of my ass by saying that it doesn't exist.

if you do wind up doing it yourself, go to reranch.com; they've got some good products and great information.

sully

[Niccolai]

Re: Attn: painters

Yea it's a mockup I did, and after I sand the top if the quilt doesn't look good, i'd be fine going with solid white. I understand the price of painting a guitar reflects quality, but this job would cost nearly 550 dollars after shipping and that's assuming I do the sanding, disassembling, and prep myself. I'm just not willing to pay that

Trans white is usually a white base tint added to a clear to spread the pigment load. You'd need some white base coat (shimrin) and SG100 intercoat clear to mix it with. Then topcoat with UC/UFC-35 clear.

[sully]

Re: Attn: painters

there ya go; DIY white candy! cool!

also, in your mockup, you've got a different control layout; are you wanting it retopped, too?

[Niccolai]

Re: Attn: painters

no, the control layout is to stay the same, but I was having trouble mocking up a 3-way blade so I just halfassed it with a toggle.

[LouSiffer]

Re: Attn: painters

To get the trans tops, you USUALLY dont use paint, you use a dye and clear over top of it. The dye is usually applies like a normal wood stain ( an applicator of some sort). Notice I said USUALLY. It can be sprayed, but, in my experience, you get a richer color and save some time by using an applicator. The difficult part is getting the "eveness". That is where spraying is beneficial.
The tricky part here is that you want to use white and still have some grain appearance.
I have not tried this, but, this is the technique I would try to get the desired look.

1: Seal the body. 2: Use a basic opaque white and apply only a couple of quick thin coats. 3: I would sand through the coats until the grain started showing through probably about 80%. 4: Apply trans white paint( the amount of layers would depend on how much grain you want to see ). 5: Clear, wet sand, polish, wax and done. -Lou