Manchester Guitar Tech
More as an experiment than anything else, I decided to have a go at relicing the body I finished in August. The first job is to add a few knocks and scrapes. I dropped a set of keys on the front and back and gently knocked the edges in a few places. Any damage on …
Preparation Finishing alder is much easier than painting an ash body as the wood is more tightly grained. The reduction in finishing costs is why Fender used alder bodies for their solid colours and sunbursts from the late fifties. As with any wood however, preparation is absolutely fundamental to achieving a good result. If you …
Will experiment with a relic treatment on the body instead. Here is the distressed Telecaster body. Here’s how I distressed the lacquer. I’ll distress the ice blue metallic Telecaster next. I gifted the butterscotch Tele to Pete (him with the freezer). Hoping he’ll let me freeze more guitar parts soon…
I’m often asked how to spray a butterscotch guitar body so thought I’d put together a bit of a tutorial. Please note that I do not offer a refinishing service. The body I’m using is by Guitar Build who offer a range of CNC machined guitar bodies. I’m very impressed with the accuracy of the shape, which …
I finally finished this build today – a Tele style guitar which uses a Warmoth vintage style body and an AllParts fat neck. The ash body was stained and sprayed with a few coats of clear satin nitrocellulose lacquer for a natural look. The pickups are Bill Lawrence and also fitted is a Bill Lawrence Q-Filter …
When painting a guitar, preparation is critical to success. At every stage, it’s important that you get the body as smooth as you can. A bit of work early on saves a lot of work later. Open-pored woods such as ash must be grain filled before lacquer is applied otherwise the lacquer will sink into the …
Preparing to paint Unless you have a purpose-built spray booth, paint outdoors. Lacquer fumes are toxic and explosive. Even if you are outdoors you should wear a dust mask to avoid breathing the spray. The Saga kit bodies are already sealed with a coat of polyurethane sealer which gives a good surface for your top coats. …
Finish Repair A customer had had an accident with his Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 5-string bass. He had dropped it and knocked a large piece of the finish off the lower edge of the guitar. I filled the damage with matching lacquer so that the damage was no longer noticeable. Sunburst Gibson L6-S finish repair …
This was also refinished by a customer. It’s a mid 90s Mexican Fender DuoSonic re-issue with a 22″ short scale neck. David writes: “Results are great! Again I thank you for the paint – clearly excellent quality, and for the advice both on your web site and via email – invaluable. There is no way …
This was refinished by a customer who sent me the pictures below. Krissy writes: “I would just like to thank you for a superb product and the advice from your web site on “how to do things”. I have enclosed a short bio on my 20 year old Stratocaster.this was brought new in antique white …