repainting my guitar

hektik · Post by **hektik** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:42 pm

its a neckthru, so I haven't touched the neck yet, I sanded down the body and headstock with a hand sander, I went too much in some spots so I had to even it out so it didn't feel lumpy and shit like that. How should I go about stripping the paint from the neck? Use a chemical or sand it by hand?

also what's the best way to go about painting it? I still want to have a "fast" neck and don't want to ruin that. what should I do to protect the fretboard?

I plan on painting it white with black binding.

Dawdy · Post by **Dawdy** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:37 pm

i've never completely stripped the paint off a guitar when painting it. just take it down past the clearcoat. my one guitar i painted was a neckthru. i just sanded the neck as i would anywhere else.

when painting it, mask off the fretboard with masking tape. i usually double layer it just to make sure no paint will seap through. take your time to make sure you mask it perfectly where the fretboard meets the neck because you want a nice straight line.

i dont have any before/after pictures of the neck, but this is after a light sanding and sprayed by hand with spray can. applied the decals, and then clearcoated over them

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:58 pm

sand it by hand. get some 80 grit, youll go through the paint pretty fast but not so fast to ruin the neck... work your way to 220, use stain then if you want and rub it with tung oil... paint on necks suck.. i actually leave my necks raw wood and my own hand grease oils em up great after a few months

hektik · Post by **hektik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:02 am

i sanded my guitar body so much i think it weighs a lot less now. or maybe it feels that way because i don't have the floyd rose in it along with the pick ups

i might just do that, ernie.

the electronics are fucked up, it three switches along with the pick up selector on it, and i don't know what they did other than change the tone of the guitar. i just use the bridge pick up anyway. is there anything i can do to fill the neck pick up hole?

nice paintjob, dawdy. i'm gonna come up with a name for mine and put it on the headstock. shit's gonna be wicked pissa

hektik · Post by **hektik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:33 am

here's what i got right now

i still need to sand the horns above and below the neck, my sander couldn't get in there comfortably, and i did NOT want to dig into the neck.

and that little bit of red left on the front of the head stock holds a black metal plate that says "keep on rockin' " so I'm gonna put that back on there.

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:58 am

thats a nice guitar. its a bitch sanding around the neck joint. it seems easiest to put some shitty pickup in and just not hook it up versus trying to actually fill it though

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:59 am

those switches were fer coil tapping and shit but if you just use the bridge pickup and volume knob, thats all you really have to hook back up

hektik · Post by **hektik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:14 am

I can't find any information on it. It's a yamaha rgx 1220j. I can find info about the 1220, but not the 1220j. the 1220 didn't have the other switches on it, and I was shocked at how good it sounded when I first played it. It's a versitle guitar. sounds good for pretty much anything. I got it for 50 bucks, so i'm not too broken hearted defacing it.

any idea on how i would go about filling it? i'd put the old pick up back in there, but i think it would look better with just one pick up in it. i also HATE the floyd rose and block it, but when I block it, I feel like I don't have the bridge zeroed out or whatever the term for it is. It always looks like it's pulling forward a bit, and in turn I think that is affecting the action (too high), so I dont really know how to deal with it. I'm a bassplayer so I'm used to pushing down harder on the strings and just using the bottom four on my guitar, so when it goes back together I'm probably just gonna put 4 strings on it like max cavalera did

Dawdy · Post by **Dawdy** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:35 am

hektik wrote:but when I block it, I feel like I don't have the bridge zeroed out or whatever the term for it is. It always looks like it's pulling forward a bit

this should help with that. i actually made something exactly like this because i was to cheap to buy one. i set it to where it made the bridge sit perfectly parallel to the body, and then i over tightened the springs. You can still divebomb and the springs will pull it back to "zero". You cant pull up though. If you dont want to use the floyd at all, it works as a good way to block it. Just tighten the springs even more to make sure it wont move.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Floyd-Rose-Tremolo-S ... 1e5ac1e00e

hektik · Post by **hektik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:29 am

I'll probably glue a bunch of pennies together and rig it up like that

here's an idea for Amberlamps (thats the name i'm deciding to go with)

yes, that's the metallica "scary guy" i think the dude looks cool but not sure if i want to place it there. just a rough idea of what I am going to do with it.