Painting my bass?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sondriven
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sondriven

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I think I want to paint my bass another color. I have an Ibanez SR500/Metallic Blue and want to strip it to the bare wood and stain it a clear lime-green color.

If I sand blasted the body of the guitar would I wreck anything and after the paint is all gone would I have good looking wood underneith. And does anyone have any recommendations on the type of paint?

Please let me know if anyone has done this to a guitar and what kind of results they got.



sondriven
 
I wouldnt sand blast it. I dont know where you live but when I lived in Colorado a product called Aircraft Stripper #10 was available. Brush on 1 coat and wait about an hour and 95% of the paint would wipe right off. Sand the rest by hand with the grain. If you have never painted a guitar and want it to look good have someone who knows how to spray paint do it. You could probably use a stripper first then maybe sandblast it?
 
are you sure?

stripping a body to bare wood and staining and glossing it has to bee done carefuly and slowly. Its very labor intensive. Are you sure your bass is worth the effort and money. Are you willing to accept the fact that it may not turn out the way you like....I suggest buying an unfinished body from warmonth or stew-mac before stripping your bass----if this is your only bass are ready to part ways with playing it while you're working on it?


Best tips can be found in funiture refinishing books. Be careful with chemical solvents and sanding techniques----you don't want to raise the grain.......a few more words of warning, your bass may have a plywood body instead of a solid wood and may not give you a nice grain to work with thru the translucent green stain. I don't mean to discourage you from a fun project----i love to tinker with stuff myself----but I know th diss apointment of ruining an otherwise nice guitar .
 
dragonworks said:
You could probably use a stripper first then maybe sandblast it?
Click to expand...

I'd be glad to use a stripper. Just bring one over to my place.

BTAIM, keeping in the thread:

One of my first axes was a Strat. Someone had already pretty much destroyed the finish so I kept applying different paint. Sometimes sanding it, sometimes not. It was a hoot. I still have the decrepid old thing mainly because I couldn't sell it if I wanted to. Sounds good and plays adequate. Looks like shit, but then again, I was just painting it for shits and giggles.

Feel free to try to paint your axe. You'll get out of it what you put into it. If the Strat had a decent finish on it before I repainted it, I might have regretted it. Be prepared to not have as good of a paint job as a new axe on the showroom floor.
 
Wally, we had a band house one summer on Todlie Drive(sp?) The house is probably worth a Mil today, this was 1979. Everybody else in that neighborhood was driving Mercedes, Cadilacs and Lincolns and here we are with vans and beat up sedans and loud rock and roll blaring out of the basement. Needless to say there were some very interesting incidents of which I may relate sometime.
But back to the thread, I used Aircraft Stripper #10 on guitars and had no problem, never used it on a plywood job allthough I dont see where that would matter.
 
Re: are you sure?

How do I find out what Kind of wood is under the paint, before stripping it?
 
After you stripped and sanded it down, If you found the wood not worthy of staining, you could always repaint it. I've had a couple of guitars sprayed at an auto body shop. they have the equipment to give you a nice finish. They did my SG in '66 Buick.

If you decide to have it sprayed, give it a coat of sealer first. That will fill in the open grain, and give a nice smooth finish.

Twist
 
To find out if its a ply body or solid, take the pickgaurd or any plate that covers routing holes off. Look inside the cavity. If you see layered evenly spaced straight stripes in the wood its ply. As far as the wood under the paint, it pretty much a gamble. Most makers determine if the grain is paint grade or stain grade. Stain grade usualy is better looking but that doesn't mean paint grade looks like total shit........if you find out that the body is ply, you could conceal the layers around the sides by painting the back and sides a solid color and use the translucent stain on the top. Go to stew-mac.com and order a free catolog. They have tons of shop suplies and paints and stains and clear coats. As far as having the body sprayed by a car painting shop---Great Idea but DON'T USE MAACO!!!! www.keithmessedupmybuick.com
 
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