I remember back in the early 1980's when I was in college studying music. Everyone was playing plain guitars, no fancy colors just black and sunbursts. I played my 1977 BC Rich Eagle, this was the first real guitar I every owned. I remember this was the first time someone showed me a FloydRose® (on a Lespaul. ) Most people were playing Gibson's, Fender Lead II's and Ovation's. Then I remember putting the first sticker on my case for a new football team in Philadelphia called the Stars. They won that year. The reason I told that story was because when I started working at Ibanez I remember this was when people started adding graphics to their guitars, basically they were putting stickers all over them. The stickers were anything they could find from a car bumper sticker to whatever they felt was cool. Painting a guitar is not difficult if you have the correct equipment , however it is time consuming. Painting a guitar without the correct equipment is not impossible but it is more time consuming. To actually do some special graphics on a guitar you first need to figure out what you are want to do.

Lets start from scratch Oil Finish Sitting in front of you is a guitar body and neck unfinished. Its time to do some finish work so where do you start? It depends on what type of finish you want and also what type of wood you have. The easiest and quickest finish is a standard oil finish. It is not a law but I tend to like oil on any type of grainy wood like mahogany or sometimes ash. Any bass I make with a exotic top or an exotic wood construction other than transparent colors I like oil. Oil finish gives you a more true to life wood feel, but it has its drawbacks. Its hard to keep clean, it wears un-even in the areas that your hand rests and the wood sometimes gets darker after time. I made a bubbinga top bass with a solid mahogany back years ago and it was beautiful when I finished it , but it came back six months later and it was completely black in color from the air. So be careful when using oil. What type of oil to use. Every one has some idea about this and I only talk from experience. I first started with Watko Danish oil, many other companies like formby's make a danish oil also. This is a great finish but it is sort of dull. I wipe it on with a rag and I have heard stories of the rags catching fire or exploding so be careful. I still use Danish oil on necks but that's about it. Then there is tung oil, it is really almost the same to me as the Danish oil finish so the method for doing this is the same. Recently I heard that Musicman was using gun oil to finish their necks. I went to my local gun shop and bought Hoppes machine oil and I used this on allot of samples. I thought it was great but when I went back to the gun shop and asked for more they looked at me strange and pointed me at the gun stock oil in a can. So I bought this and now thats all I will use. It sprays on easy, dries fast and has a slight shine to it. I figure if it protects gun stocks from sweaty arm pits then it must be able to handle any musician. To do an oil finish first you need to sand the body well, make sure every scratch from the sand paper is gone. I never start sanding wood with anything less than 180 grit sandpaper. I feel that even #120 leaves deep scratches that are hard to get out. Sandpaper is used in grades starting with a lower aggressive grit and moving up to a smooth grit to get the previous scratches out. I generally use power tools to sand the body, if I try to sand by hand there is always some small spot that I sanded too deep and it shows when the instrument is finished. I use an orbital sander that is air powered that I purchased at our local auto body store Bill Flannery's automotive ( They send me a great basket of snacks every Christmas too), The orbital sander works quickly but leaves some circle scratches in the wood that can show up after finishing. To eliminate these you need to sand back and forth with the grain before finishing. For this I use a regular back and forth Black and Decker palm sander. Some people I have worked with use this for the entire process and it seems to work well, but the orbital cuts faster and keeps the paper cleaner longer. My process on wood is to start with #180 (Some other builder's start with more aggressive paper.) sand with the grain that means back and forth from top to bottom, this way any scratches go with the grain. (Cross grain scratches are hard to remove.) On the top/ back and sides I use the palm sander but on other areas like cutaways or areas that the sander does not fit, I made special blocks that fit in the cutaway's. (I just use large dowels or broom stick handle, cut to size and covered with rubber or felt.) After finishing with the #180 I move to #220, Then #320 and finally #400 for grainy woods, or woods that will be sealed and sprayed a color. For hard maple or natural finishes I tend to sand higher with #600 and a Scotch brite medium pad because any tinting will show the scratches. If the guitars body was just made, you need to seal the wood first. Sealing the wood is what we do so that all the grain is filled in so the paint will not sink after finishing. Depending on the wood grain and if the instrument will have a natural finish or sunburst, I prefer staining the wood directly. However some woods like spruce can have a deep grain and need to be sealed first because staining the wood directly can make an uneven color. If the body is going to have a transparent stain, I stain the wood before any sealer. For this I use alcohol base stains, I have tried many different style of stains from spray lacquer to water based stains but I really prefer the alcohol base. One main reason is it can be easily wiped on and if the color is to dark I can pour alcohol on the color and wipe it down to lighten it up until I get the exact color. Stains are available from a place in Texas re-branch guitars. To apply a stain directly to the wood you will need to mix up the stain, some companies sell it pre mixed. Make sure the surface that you are staining is clean with no hand oils. Put on a new pair of latex cloves and use a new sponge or a bag of rags. First wipe off the wood with straight alcohol and a clean rag to remove any residue. (Use denatured alcohol.) Apply the stain directly to the cloth and wipe it on with the grain. Some people use a circular motion to do sunbursts with a darker color on the edge but I always spray sunburst's after I clear over the hand stain. Sunbursts are tough to do, you only have one shot if you spray it directly on the wood. My method is first staining the wood, spray a clear coat over the stain then spray the burst. If you mess up, wipe it off and start again. This has no affect on the base coat that is under the clear. Staining Movie

Sealing the wood. Depending on the kind of wood and the grain different ways are used. If the wood is very pores like mahogany sometimes I use an actual pore filler. This is a paste that is brushed on the body in the direction of the grain. Let it sit for about twenty minutes and then wipe if off against the grain so that any of the filler in the grain pattern does not come out. If you wait any longer than twenty minutes it will harden and become almost impossible to get off, sanding this does not work because the pore filler clogs the paper. After the wood is pore filled or if I am using a body material that is not so grainy like alder, maple or basswood, I use a Polyester sanding sealer sprayed on in my paint booth. The difference between polyester and other finish like lacquer is as follows. When you spray lacquer finish on a body it is sprayed at around 28PSI (Pounds per square inch) over 80% of the paint evaporates into the air. This is why it is almost illegal to spray in many places in the United States. All the finish that evaporates goes into the air and causes pollution.

Polyester on the other hand is sprayed at a much higher PSI around 40-42 PSI and almost all the finish that goes on just stays there. It is sort of like spraying honey or maple syrup it just goes on really thick. The advantage of this is that less coats are needed to seal the body. Most woods can be sealed with two coats of Polyester compared to maybe six to eight coats of lacquer and a two week drying time. The polyester being so thick seals and levels the wood. After it is dried polyester is easy to sand. I use an orbital palm sander with 400 grit paper to level it out then I hand sand the scratches out with a wet sand paper of #500 to remove any scratches and get the body ready for paint.

If there is any graphic to be painted on the body the guitar still needs a base coat, usually black or white depending on the graphic. A base coat is used to cover the wood so that any graphic painted on will stand out. For a base coat I use urethane based or lacquer base paints, depending on the application. I actually prefer using the urethanes more then the lacquers for any graphics. I use mostly House of Color paints they are great or sometimes PPG paints, (because they have every color in the world.) To spray a base coat follow the mixing and spraying instructions exactly as the manufacture states. Base coats can also be metallic or pearl I use mostly House of Color or PPG for these also. I have a special gun and a separate area for mixing so as not to contaminate the rest of my paints and spray guns. After the base coat is applied over the sanding sealer let it dry at least 24 hours before any graphic is painted on. If the body is already finished, (maybe you have a complete guitar that you bought and want to ad a graphic.) First you will need to take the guitar completely apart, this is all the parts and neck. For a graphic to stick to the finish you will need to rough up or scratch the surface of the guitar. To do you can use a Scotch brite course pad or use #500 wet sand paper. Completely rough up the area that the graphic will be located. It will look dull but don't worry this will disappear when the clear is applied. There are many types of graphics that can be done and many ways it can be applied, here are some examples.

Air Brush: An Air brush is basically a small spray gun that sprays a very fine line. This takes a really good hand to do and many artists are good with this, personally I have no luck trying to paint this way.

Next is a standard paint brush, just like a painting is done. Its best to use urethane or lacquer base paints. This system is also best left to people with good artistic ability unlike myself. There are many great artists out there that can do this for you.

To get a finish like EddieVanHalen just start with a base coat say red and then use masking tape on the body in lines and spay different colors over it. When you remove the tape the guitar will have lines on it. You can remove a different layer of tape one at a time and add new colors until finally you have what you want.

I made a guitar years ago (THIS PICTURE IS OF ME WHEN I FIRST STARTED AT IBANEZ IN 1984) for myself that had gears on it. I was in a band called Moving Parts and we thought it would be cool to have a guitar with gears. To do this I first painted the body red, after this I used what we call Frisk-it paper. This is basically a large piece of low tack tape that is easy to cut. The thing about Frisk-it paper is that the edge's are strong so the paints do not run or blur under the tape line. Normal making tape can do this and leave the edge lines blurry looking. After I put the frisk-it paper on the body I used a small Exacto knife to cut out the shapes of the gears and then I sprayed the guitar black. When I removed the Frisk-it paper the gears where there in red, Next I masked off the edges of the gears and painted them white to give the gears three dimensions. One other way to put a graphic on is to find a drawing or a picture that you like and shellac it on the top of the finish and clear coat over it. What ever graphic is done the guitar needs to be cleared or finished. In other words the body needs to have some clear coat applied over the graphic to protect it. For almost all graphics I prefer polyester because it is thick and it dries quickly, It also sticks to almost anything. I had a problem with urethane not sticking to the graphic and when I buffed the body the finish just peeled off.

Clearing the instrument. The type of clear depends on the application and the amount of coats needed. For polyester I use two coats, urethane I use three or four and lacquer I use at least six. Again follow the paint manufactures directions. I spray the instrument hanging up with a holder attached to the neck pocket. If the guitar is a set neck or neck through I attach a hook at the strap pin and I make a holder out of a dowel that fits in the machine head holes, This stabilizes the guitar when spraying otherwise the body will be blown around by the air pressure of the spray gun.

Sanding and Buffing After the finish has dried it needs to be sanded and buffed to a high gloss. To do this I start with a palm sander and #400 paper to level out the surface and then I use wet sand paper #500-#800-#1000 and then #1500 to remove the scratches to get it ready for buffing. The more and finer sanding you do the less buffing and more shine you will have. Also wet sand in one direction back and forth never go in circles.

Once the body is sanded I use a up-right buffing wheel with a German Menza compound. First I use an abrasive wheel with the compound on it to get the fine sanding scratches out and than a second wheel that is just soft cotton to bring out the shine. I use the buffing wheels because I have them, but you can get the same shine using a buffing compound that would be used on a car and just rubbing the scratches out. In the states I use a 3m compound and then I use a car polish called Mcquires to bring the body to a high gloss.