IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Prepping A Ready-To-Paint Guitar
2. Become A PYOG Affiliate

.................................................................................................................................................................................

 

1. Prepping A Ready-To-Paint Guitar

When purchasing a "ready-to-paint" guitar, quite often, the guitar will come with a coat of sealer on it. The idea being that, the manufacturer is trying to sell a guitar that needs very little work before it can be painted.

But, one thing to keep in mind with just about any ready-to-paint guitar is, you'll still need to do certain things to the guitar prior to painting it.

1. FIG 1 shows me sanding down the sealer on an SPG ready-to-paint guitar. This is something you want to do - whether you're applying additional sealer, or applying your first coat of paint. The reason I'm sanding the sealer is to give whatever I apply something to bite into. For sanding, I used 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper and I used it dry. For this step, all I'm doing is removing the shine. I'm also doing this to remove any oil from fingers touching it as well - that could cause problems with the paint sticking as well.

You'll want to sand down the entire guitar prior to applying any additional sealer and/or paint.

2. FIG 2 shows the truss rod with a piece of masking tape over it. You want to protect your truss rod from getting hit with any sealer, paint, or clear. Using a small piece of masking should do the trick.

Your fretboard should be masked off prior to painting - unless you want a finish on the fretboard. (However, typically, maple is the only fretboard surface that has finish applied to it.)

3. FIG 3 shows a wire inside one of the bridge sleeve holes. FIG 4 shows the other end of this wire. This is the ground wire and this is normally where you'll find it on a Les Paul - or any guitar that uses a stop tailpiece.

When painting a Les Paul style guitar where the ground wire is inside the bridge sleeve hole, I don't like to remove this wire simply because it's sort of tricky getting it back in there. But you also have to protect that bare wire so that you don't coat it with any sealer, paint, or clear. Bare wire has to touch metal for it to ground properly.

4. FIG 4 shows the other end of the ground wire. I snip this wire off at the pot, remove all of the pots and wiring, and leave the entire ground wire in the cavity. You can tape it to the side of the cavity if you want to - just to keep it from falling out. Just a small piece of masking tape should do the trick.

5. To protect the ground wire from paint, I cut a small piece of sponge about 1" X 1.25" (see FIG 5, 6, & 7).

6. Using the end of a pencil or X-Acto knife (see FIG 8), I push the sponge below the surface of the guitar, so it's in there nice and snug. Now, my ground wire is protected from spray.

This is just one step I use prior to painting Les Paul style guitars.

(PLEASE NOTE: I didn't remove the nut for this demonstration, but when prepping and painting your guitar, you SHOULD remove the nut. Usually, all it takes is a screwdriver and a couple of light taps with a rubber mallet to pop it out. However, if this breaks your nut, then replace it with a better quality one.)

Here she is all prepped, masked and ready to go!

 

.............................................................................................................................................

 

2. Become A PYOG Affiliate

If you have a guitar-related website, I'd like you to partner with me to help promote my PYOG books through my affiliate program. I pay 35% on every sale and some of my affiliates are doing VERY well. If you're interested, please sign up here.