Can you get a guitar refinished

It will depend, most of all, on the amount of preparation work required. If the guitar is to have a translucent finish it will require labour intensive stripping of the existing finish. Some wood species, mahogany for example, also need a treatment of grain filler in order to get a flawlessly smooth result.

And even with a solid opaque color, there will be a good deal of sanding required. The new finish will be applied in numerous thin coatings of color and potentially clearcoat. Burst finishes are again more labour intensive than single color finishes. Then we have to consider the amount of the guitar requiring work. Does the whole guitar need paint, or just the body or neck?

The original nitrocellulose lacquer finishes used on the majority of older guitars, and still today by the likes of Gibson, are more expensive than polyurethane guitar finishes. They age really nicely and can have an effect on guitar tone — especially important for acoustic guitars, or vintage electrics. A solid finish on a Fender-style body i. Double that if you ask the Gibson restoration department to take on the work.

At these prices it is obviously not economical to refinish the vast majority of new instruments. So… can you do it yourself? The answer is, of course, yes, but with a few caveats. Anyway, some folks think it doesn't allow the wood to "breathe" as well, so they want that off - and that means extensive stripping or sanding work. Poly is HARD to get off of there You can remove the nitro easily enough - get a can of acetone at the local hardware store and a roll of paper towels and go to town - it will come off fairly quickly and leave just the poly undercoat.

You could then patch and smooth any dings and then prime and finish All of these things are not unheard of with vintage Fender finishes. I've seen custom colors over 'bursts; both with and without primer in between This is also not unheard of - Fender used to do it fairly regularly; whenever a body had a flaw in painting a run or dust particle or other imperfection , it would be set aside, and at a later point, would get a "new" finish sprayed over the old one - sometimes with primer between the two, sometimes without it.

That's the "effect" I was going for with the relic above. I actually sprayed the body with clear shellac to "simulate" the poly , then white shellac primer, then sea foam green, then white primer, then shell pink. As a multi-finished guitar ages, those previous color s will "show through" the wear marks and dings, as you can see in the relic. I think it's kind of cool looking, but if you'd rather go the other way, it can be done - by stripping off the current nitro sunburst.

Like I said, getting rid of the nitro that is on there is easy, and getting rid of the poly underneath that is possible ; it's just a LOT more work if you want to strip it all the way down to the bare wood and start from scratch. I was nervous about dinging it up I tried to do a "nice" finish first, then "age" it , but I'm happy with how it turned out.

But shell pink? You don't see too many guitars out there in that color - it's probably the rarest of Fender's custom colors. The only thing that approaches it in terms of rarity in the classic custom colors is probably Burgundy Mist.

I would have agreed with you before I actually gave it a try. It was indeed a lot of work, but I pulled it off not once, but three times, so I know it's not a fluke. And if I can do it, then practically anyone should be able to do it; assuming they have a suitable place to actually spray and then hang the guitar. It looks to me like a satin finish, though it's hard to tell from the picture.

I just love how this Tele looks, though. The dings are on the edges. My definition of a ding may not be in sync with yours. There's cracks through the finish, but it didn't actually dent the wood itself. I'll take a couple of pictures tomorrow so you'll know exactly what I mean.

Knowledge bomb go BOOM! Great stuff there, Phil As for doing it yourself, it really is not that bad, as long as you are patient. I had done several strip-and-paint refins back in the 90s oh yes Well, the refin is done, just waiting on parts now. And yes, there will be a thread. But short version I don't know that I want to go into the refinishing business, but what I MIGHT be willing to do for you free of charge is the actual spraying and drying.

Ud Reks Member. Messages 2, I have a set neck that's currently all black. Mahogany body and neck, no maple cap, no binding. I want to have the body and neck stripped, then refinished. I just have no idea what the range is for this kind of thing. I'd be interested in either a basic stain over mahogany cherry, for instance , or basic paint like TV yellow or butterscotch if there's a major price difference between staining and painting. OlAndrew Member.

Need to know what kind of finish you're dealing with. Fair risk of damage, there. Solid finish guitars are usually made of mismatched pieces of wood, or just plain ugly wood, with the finish counted on the make it look good. No way to tell beforehand. Messages 27, Howard Member. Messages 1, Here are my current prices for finishes with some of the common options listed.

A tough modern poly designed especially for wood, very thin film builds. Traditional guitar finish as used by Martin, Gibson, etc.

Tough poly type finish. Best choice for metallics.