Just wanted to back at this video and thank YOU! I've watched this video and the rest of the 3 parts and I've been trying to repaint my guitar since last year, these videos you're making are really helpful! great explanations and easy to understand. Thank you very very much!!🤘🏻🤘🏻🔥
Thank you so much for doing these videos! Can’t wait for the clear coat one ;). You inspired me to actually do some guitar refinishing myself. It’s a rabbit hole I never saw myself doing but with the help of your videos I’m loving it!
Another great video! I always enjoy how you cover the basics. Unlike all of your other videos, this is one area I feel very confident in. Painting can be very difficult for those that don’t understand how it works. I believe you did a beautiful job covering the do’s and don’ts. Especially about edges! Many people take stuff standing way too far and end up having to put many extra coats of paint on to cover the mistakes. One thing I learned early on was to take my paint and let it sit in a sink full of warm water for a few minutes before painting, and try to have your work as close to room temp (or warmer if possible) when painting. It helps it to lay down smoother and makes sanding that much easier. Note: if you do warm the pain in water *dry the can thoroughly before attempting to use it*, no one wants to fling water drops on their work when painting. One last thing I learned was that you don’t need to go to a specialty shop to get your pants. Most automotive stores carry a wide variety of paint you can use. In closing, I believe this video will greatly improve beginners painting skills. As always thank you for taking the time to do this for us! I can’t wait for the clearcoat 🤘
Thank you for the kind words :) I try to be very in-depth about this and point out things that beginners especially will easily start doing, not realising that they're just causing themselves headaches. You'd be surprised how good a finish you can get with very little if done right😆 And yup, good points from you right there! And totally true, automotive stores have EXCELLENT paints for guitar building. Spraying is the same for both and very often you'll find guitar finishers that have a history of automotive finishing. The two are very closely linked, which I always found funny in a way :D
@@IPGuitars I am very fortunate that I have a background in automotive repair/paint. I used to work at an automotive parts house that also mixed custom paint colors for body shops. During my time doing this I also discovered that I could mix my own custom colors and “crush” them into a rattle can. Meaning I ended up with some fun colors with pearls and micas in them that I got to create myself. One step I generally do that may be overkill is after I’ve done my scuffing and I am preparing to add more coats, I usually give the surface a wipe with a good glass cleaner or another product to remove oils that may be left behind from my hands. Then dry with a cloth that won’t leave fibers behind. I’ve had finger prints show up after my paint dries and learned this the hard way 🤦♂️. I firmly believe a good paint job is 90% preparation and 10% paint. I think my favorite point that you made was to wear some kind of respiratory protection. I don’t think people understand how toxic breathing in paint can be. Side note, it was so cool to see user submissions in your live stream last week. I LOVE seeing other people’s work.
Oh that's awesome! I can imagine how fun it was realising you could mix your own colours. I absolutely agree that preparation is the key. You might be great at spraying a finish, but if the prepwork ain't there, the end result will suffer greatly. As for how toxic things can be: a previous workplace of mine got me spraying without ventilation/protective gear. I was breathing fumes and could feel lacquer bubbling in my lungs. Needless to say, probably has decreased my lifespan a good bit🤦🏼♂️ also did irreversible damage to my lungs, so yeah. If you don't have protective gear, don't do spray stuff. Seriously ain't no joke And to the submissions from others: I HAVE TO do that again, it was soooo much fun!
I enjoyed watching this very much, very thorough explanation, thank you! Even though I don't plan on painting my guitar, it was really educational and fun to watch.
Great video :D I have a few questions regarding my upcoming project. I'm just gonna leave them here and maybe you get around to answering my questions. I recently bought a Harley Benton ST 57 DG. It's a very nice playing affordable strat copy that looks pretty much like David Gilmour's guitar. But it just looks too new and perfect for my liking. So I want to do a relic job on it, but since it has a poly lacquer on it, that's pretty much impossible. At least from what I heard. So my plan is to get the paint off and then refinishing it with a Nitrocellulose Lacquer before relicing it afterward. I don't know anything about refinishing guitars. This is the first project in this direction so I don't yet know what supplies I need. Obviously the lacquer, but do I also need primer? Should I use a coat of clear lacquer on top afterward? I mean it's gonna be reliced anyway and the color is gonna be black, so does it even matter? And finally.... should I use a grain filler on the alder body? Your videos are great. Keep up the good work. Greetings from Germany
Heya, right off the bat I don't quite understand why you couldn't relic a poly finish? Relicing is essentially making the guitar look like it has seen a lot of use, poly guitars just age differently :) it all boils down to what kind of relicing you are after. Essentially (at minimum) you need sandpaper, time, and the finishing product :) If you're going to use paint: then primer, your color, then clear coats. If natural/stained/transparent: your stain, sealer coat (clear, or grain filler), and your clear coats. Alder isn't as porous as some woods, so you shouldn't need grain filler really :)
@@IPGuitars Thanks for the answer. I am after the look of an aged nitro finish like on old Les Paul's. And that look with the small cracks in the finish cant be done easily with the thick poly lacquer. I would probably have to cut the small cracks with a razor blade and then use shoe polish or something and that would take ages. It's a cheap guitar so I'm just gonna go at it and hope for the best.
Hi Thanks for this Video , I made the mistake of getting a great finish with a white gloss but never clear coated it (LISTENED TO A MATES ADVICE) so it turned out that the paint marked very easily. so now I've stripped it down to the bare wood ,primed it with rattle cans, and got the first coat of Colour on ,Really like this Video for the attention you give on the "scuff sanding" and painting,
My literal reaction to "..but never clear coated it" was "Oh noooooooooooo." I hope that you'll get a superior finish this time around :) and thank you for digging the video!
Thank you for this video, great information as I'm planning to refinish a guitar myself with spray cans at home. I have a question, how long do you wait before wet sanding, after a session of paint?
Hi TomSter, what's up? Hope you're doing well with this crazy pandemic happening. Just wondering, how should I proceed if I had an already amateurly painted neck and I wanted to make it like it was at first (maple neck like every MIJ Jackson)? Handsand 100>180>320>400>800>2000>4000 and then?
Hey man! Hope you're doing well as well :) Honestly, I'd say 120, 180, 240, wet the grain, 240, wet the grain, 240, 320, and maybe 400. Then depends on what finish you want to go for be it oil or a clear coat :)
@@IPGuitars thank you very very much for answering me. I'd like it to be as much simple as possible, so maybe just a couple of layers of clear coat and wet sanding would do the trick
Not a bad idea at all :) but as far as simplicity goes: oil is the way. Put on, rub off excess. Let sit for 20 minutes. Repeat until the results are to your liking :D
Ah damn! Hate when that happens. Only way really is to carefully try to lift it out with a scalpel. You'll need to scuff sand anyway before clears so that should do away with any raised edges from pulling the hair out. If it's any consolation, I had a white and transparent white guitar under finishing once. Our spraybooth wasn't exactly a "clean room" so I spent hours picking off dust, hair, and other particles in between coats. It was a nightmare.
I will let the paint/clear set overnight before scuffing. Essentially it would be: Spray session, next day: scuff and second spray session, and then repeat as needed with each day of spraying starting with sanding.
Your videos are great. If you add a drop of glycerine based hand soap to your h20 spray bottle, your sandpaper will glide more than water alone. Also, how do you like the Asus laptops? I have an XPS but my next one will be Asus i9.
Thanks :) I wouldn't add any soap to the mixture honestly. While the sandpaper might glide more, the soap will leave a little bit of residue that might cause issues with applying finish. Besides, the aim of the sandpaper here is to eliminate the friction and by feeling the "resistance" I can better gauge how much I need to take off still :) if the sand paper just glides over the surface I'll lose that "touch" so to speak :) And I honestly have no idea about laptops :D I've owned one and can't remember what it is, nor does it work anymore haha
Thank you and awesome to hear this inspired you :) Ah, good question and something I covered in a previous video. A primer will definitely help in getting a good surface and coverage quicker on the "main paint". I didn't use a sealer or primer in this case, because of how I stripped the paint to the pre-existing sealer coat. I did have to do a few extra layers of the black to get it looking even. In short: if you got primer, go for it. All it does is make your life a little easier :)
@@IPGuitars Oh that's strange. My question was: do you recommend a gloss or satin stain for a fretboard? I'm going to use it on a guitar which is satin black.
Yeah, unfortunately I don't know what it is. TH-cam has been doing that for a while. ANYWAY: The stain itself isn't satin or gloss. Unless of course you are using a pigmented lacquer or something. But if you're talking about the final finish on the fretboard, there's no rules for such :) of course in most instances with maple boards and the like, you'll find that they've been clear coated in a lacquer. But I have done oil just the same, either just a lemon oil substitute or then a finishing oil similar to what I would use on the whole guitar itself. By itself the stain (be it water or spirit-based) will be just matte until a finish is applied on top.
@@IPGuitars oh yeah I was wondering if you could possibly make a video painting a dean ml cause I’m probably gonna get one and paint it so I wanna know what to do for an ML first
The process is the exact same as with this guitar :) The Dean ML to my knowledge has a polyurethane finish (as did this one), so if you're going to be using paint over it, you'll just need to sand the surface enough to give your paint somewhere to grab to. Then it is your choice on how much of the original paint you want to strip before doing the repaint.
I'm not quite sure actually. If you can't find it, but want something similar, look for sprays where the nozzle will create a fan while spraying (instead of a "cone"). That will then work pretty much the same as the Mastons that I used here.
Just wanted to back at this video and thank YOU! I've watched this video and the rest of the 3 parts and I've been trying to repaint my guitar since last year, these videos you're making are really helpful! great explanations and easy to understand. Thank you very very much!!🤘🏻🤘🏻🔥
Thank YOU so much for the kind words and support❤️🔥 That means a lot
This video exactly what I've had in mind searching for references. Thank you so much.
Glad you found what you were looking for! :)
Thank you so much for doing these videos! Can’t wait for the clear coat one ;). You inspired me to actually do some guitar refinishing myself. It’s a rabbit hole I never saw myself doing but with the help of your videos I’m loving it!
Thank you for all the kind words!
And also, the rabbit hole will only get deeper from here on out😈 So WELCOME to the club!
Looking good, I wish I had somewhere to spray. I'm finishing with a roller at the moment and that means more level sanding between coats.
I know the feeling. I mean, the balcony isn't any place I should be spraying AT ALL, but we make do with what we got :)
big efforts you put on this video, thank you 😁
Thank you for the kind words :)
Another great video! I always enjoy how you cover the basics. Unlike all of your other videos, this is one area I feel very confident in. Painting can be very difficult for those that don’t understand how it works. I believe you did a beautiful job covering the do’s and don’ts. Especially about edges! Many people take stuff standing way too far and end up having to put many extra coats of paint on to cover the mistakes. One thing I learned early on was to take my paint and let it sit in a sink full of warm water for a few minutes before painting, and try to have your work as close to room temp (or warmer if possible) when painting. It helps it to lay down smoother and makes sanding that much easier. Note: if you do warm the pain in water *dry the can thoroughly before attempting to use it*, no one wants to fling water drops on their work when painting. One last thing I learned was that you don’t need to go to a specialty shop to get your pants. Most automotive stores carry a wide variety of paint you can use.
In closing, I believe this video will greatly improve beginners painting skills. As always thank you for taking the time to do this for us! I can’t wait for the clearcoat 🤘
Thank you for the kind words :) I try to be very in-depth about this and point out things that beginners especially will easily start doing, not realising that they're just causing themselves headaches. You'd be surprised how good a finish you can get with very little if done right😆
And yup, good points from you right there!
And totally true, automotive stores have EXCELLENT paints for guitar building. Spraying is the same for both and very often you'll find guitar finishers that have a history of automotive finishing. The two are very closely linked, which I always found funny in a way :D
@@IPGuitars I am very fortunate that I have a background in automotive repair/paint. I used to work at an automotive parts house that also mixed custom paint colors for body shops. During my time doing this I also discovered that I could mix my own custom colors and “crush” them into a rattle can. Meaning I ended up with some fun colors with pearls and micas in them that I got to create myself. One step I generally do that may be overkill is after I’ve done my scuffing and I am preparing to add more coats, I usually give the surface a wipe with a good glass cleaner or another product to remove oils that may be left behind from my hands. Then dry with a cloth that won’t leave fibers behind. I’ve had finger prints show up after my paint dries and learned this the hard way 🤦♂️. I firmly believe a good paint job is 90% preparation and 10% paint. I think my favorite point that you made was to wear some kind of respiratory protection. I don’t think people understand how toxic breathing in paint can be.
Side note, it was so cool to see user submissions in your live stream last week. I LOVE seeing other people’s work.
Oh that's awesome! I can imagine how fun it was realising you could mix your own colours.
I absolutely agree that preparation is the key. You might be great at spraying a finish, but if the prepwork ain't there, the end result will suffer greatly.
As for how toxic things can be: a previous workplace of mine got me spraying without ventilation/protective gear. I was breathing fumes and could feel lacquer bubbling in my lungs. Needless to say, probably has decreased my lifespan a good bit🤦🏼♂️ also did irreversible damage to my lungs, so yeah. If you don't have protective gear, don't do spray stuff. Seriously ain't no joke
And to the submissions from others: I HAVE TO do that again, it was soooo much fun!
I enjoyed watching this very much, very thorough explanation, thank you! Even though I don't plan on painting my guitar, it was really educational and fun to watch.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent stuff. Keep 'em coming dude 😎
Thanks, will do!
best one iv seen thanks
a natural finish on a rg8 would look awesome i think
Oh for sure! Just not what was ordered this time around :)
Great video :D I have a few questions regarding my upcoming project. I'm just gonna leave them here and maybe you get around to answering my questions. I recently bought a Harley Benton ST 57 DG. It's a very nice playing affordable strat copy that looks pretty much like David Gilmour's guitar. But it just looks too new and perfect for my liking. So I want to do a relic job on it, but since it has a poly lacquer on it, that's pretty much impossible. At least from what I heard. So my plan is to get the paint off and then refinishing it with a Nitrocellulose Lacquer before relicing it afterward.
I don't know anything about refinishing guitars. This is the first project in this direction so I don't yet know what supplies I need. Obviously the lacquer, but do I also need primer? Should I use a coat of clear lacquer on top afterward? I mean it's gonna be reliced anyway and the color is gonna be black, so does it even matter? And finally.... should I use a grain filler on the alder body?
Your videos are great. Keep up the good work.
Greetings from Germany
Heya, right off the bat I don't quite understand why you couldn't relic a poly finish? Relicing is essentially making the guitar look like it has seen a lot of use, poly guitars just age differently :) it all boils down to what kind of relicing you are after.
Essentially (at minimum) you need sandpaper, time, and the finishing product :) If you're going to use paint: then primer, your color, then clear coats.
If natural/stained/transparent: your stain, sealer coat (clear, or grain filler), and your clear coats.
Alder isn't as porous as some woods, so you shouldn't need grain filler really :)
@@IPGuitars Thanks for the answer. I am after the look of an aged nitro finish like on old Les Paul's. And that look with the small cracks in the finish cant be done easily with the thick poly lacquer. I would probably have to cut the small cracks with a razor blade and then use shoe polish or something and that would take ages. It's a cheap guitar so I'm just gonna go at it and hope for the best.
Okay, then of course refinishing with nitro would be the way to go :)
Hi Thanks for this Video ,
I made the mistake of getting a great finish with a white gloss but never clear coated it (LISTENED TO A MATES ADVICE) so it turned out that the paint marked very easily.
so now I've stripped it down to the bare wood ,primed it with rattle cans, and got the first coat of Colour on ,Really like this Video for the attention you give on the "scuff sanding" and painting,
My literal reaction to "..but never clear coated it" was "Oh noooooooooooo."
I hope that you'll get a superior finish this time around :) and thank you for digging the video!
Thank you for this video, great information as I'm planning to refinish a guitar myself with spray cans at home. I have a question, how long do you wait before wet sanding, after a session of paint?
Usually it should say on the can, but a good rule of thumb is to leave it overnight before sanding.
Hi TomSter, what's up? Hope you're doing well with this crazy pandemic happening. Just wondering, how should I proceed if I had an already amateurly painted neck and I wanted to make it like it was at first (maple neck like every MIJ Jackson)?
Handsand 100>180>320>400>800>2000>4000 and then?
Hey man! Hope you're doing well as well :)
Honestly, I'd say 120, 180, 240, wet the grain, 240, wet the grain, 240, 320, and maybe 400. Then depends on what finish you want to go for be it oil or a clear coat :)
@@IPGuitars thank you very very much for answering me. I'd like it to be as much simple as possible, so maybe just a couple of layers of clear coat and wet sanding would do the trick
Not a bad idea at all :) but as far as simplicity goes: oil is the way. Put on, rub off excess. Let sit for 20 minutes. Repeat until the results are to your liking :D
@@IPGuitars hah! I knew you'd suggest me something great!!! Thanks!!!!!
No problem at all :) Have fun!
I got a hair on my paint just as I thought it was finished and looked great.How should I go about removing it before clear coating??
Ah damn! Hate when that happens. Only way really is to carefully try to lift it out with a scalpel. You'll need to scuff sand anyway before clears so that should do away with any raised edges from pulling the hair out.
If it's any consolation, I had a white and transparent white guitar under finishing once. Our spraybooth wasn't exactly a "clean room" so I spent hours picking off dust, hair, and other particles in between coats. It was a nightmare.
How long do you wait before you scuff sand ?
I will let the paint/clear set overnight before scuffing. Essentially it would be: Spray session, next day: scuff and second spray session, and then repeat as needed with each day of spraying starting with sanding.
Your videos are great. If you add a drop of glycerine based hand soap to your h20 spray bottle, your sandpaper will glide more than water alone. Also, how do you like the Asus laptops? I have an XPS but my next one will be Asus i9.
Thanks :) I wouldn't add any soap to the mixture honestly. While the sandpaper might glide more, the soap will leave a little bit of residue that might cause issues with applying finish. Besides, the aim of the sandpaper here is to eliminate the friction and by feeling the "resistance" I can better gauge how much I need to take off still :) if the sand paper just glides over the surface I'll lose that "touch" so to speak :)
And I honestly have no idea about laptops :D I've owned one and can't remember what it is, nor does it work anymore haha
Nice job! You inspired me to spray my own guitar. A question though: don't you need to use a primer?
Thank you and awesome to hear this inspired you :)
Ah, good question and something I covered in a previous video. A primer will definitely help in getting a good surface and coverage quicker on the "main paint". I didn't use a sealer or primer in this case, because of how I stripped the paint to the pre-existing sealer coat. I did have to do a few extra layers of the black to get it looking even.
In short: if you got primer, go for it. All it does is make your life a little easier :)
@@IPGuitars Thank you so much!
Hey, could you re-ask your question on the other video? TH-cam deleted the comment it seems.
@@IPGuitars Oh that's strange. My question was: do you recommend a gloss or satin stain for a fretboard? I'm going to use it on a guitar which is satin black.
Yeah, unfortunately I don't know what it is. TH-cam has been doing that for a while. ANYWAY:
The stain itself isn't satin or gloss. Unless of course you are using a pigmented lacquer or something. But if you're talking about the final finish on the fretboard, there's no rules for such :) of course in most instances with maple boards and the like, you'll find that they've been clear coated in a lacquer. But I have done oil just the same, either just a lemon oil substitute or then a finishing oil similar to what I would use on the whole guitar itself. By itself the stain (be it water or spirit-based) will be just matte until a finish is applied on top.
Would air brushing work
Definitely!
@@IPGuitars oh yeah I was wondering if you could possibly make a video painting a dean ml cause I’m probably gonna get one and paint it so I wanna know what to do for an ML first
The process is the exact same as with this guitar :) The Dean ML to my knowledge has a polyurethane finish (as did this one), so if you're going to be using paint over it, you'll just need to sand the surface enough to give your paint somewhere to grab to. Then it is your choice on how much of the original paint you want to strip before doing the repaint.
@@IPGuitars okay thanks have a good day!
Where can I buy Mason spray paint in the U.S.?
I'm not quite sure actually. If you can't find it, but want something similar, look for sprays where the nozzle will create a fan while spraying (instead of a "cone"). That will then work pretty much the same as the Mastons that I used here.
✌🎸 Don't you use primer ? ✌🎸
I do, but this one is a refinish that I sanded down to the sealer coat :) The sealer that was there gave me a flat surface to work with
the spray finish is not good for the body cover up skin
Part 3 th-cam.com/video/o6IrOBOvf8Q/w-d-xo.html