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Guitar painting: part 2 (the sanding)

I sanded the guitar over the past couple of days.

Before:

just about stripped (front)

After:

sanded frontsanded back

Not pictured: me using my 26-inch pythons to remove the bridge screw sockets. Train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins.

So there’s actual wood grain going on there, sweet. Anyway, sanding by hand sucks. I got most of it done but borrowed one of them oscillating sanders to get rid of the really stubborn stuff. Also doing the little rounded tips at the end of the guitar was a living hell on ice.

I ordered some Golden Age Humbucker pickups for it. They’re cheap and they have really decent ratings at Harmony Central. I’m too poor and shoddy a guitar player to buy really nice ones so hopefully these’ll do. I can’t imagine much worse than what was in there before. Can I also say I care so little about “classic tone” that it’s ridiculous. I’ve been reading a lot about pickups and everyone’s bizarrely concerned about how “classic” their tone is. When someone tells me their pickups sound like they’re from the 50s I think “oh, you mean crappy?”

Thanks to Paul Roub for pointing out that I could ditch my big ugly pick guard and use plastic mounting rings instead. I love the internet.

So next is to treat all the dings and notches and fill the holes in the body, re-sand lightly and then put some sealer on it. I still haven’t found where they sell Krylon spray paint in Ottawa, but I’m a ways off from actually painting. Getting closer though…

Other parts in this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Posted to by Brad on 6/01/06 @ 2:40 pm |
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8 Responses to “Guitar painting: part 2 (the sanding)”



  1. 1
    Sam

    I hate to see that beautiful wood-grain get buried under a coat of paint, even if it does cover a few bumps.

  2. 2
    Brad

    I dunno there’s just nothing appealing about wood-looking guitars to me. My bass is all woody looking and it’s embarrassing to me.

  3. 3
    Tomas

    hey how did you remove the bridge metal things

    what is a 26 inch python

  4. 4
    fernando

    lol.. i could be wrong, but a 26 inch python refers to the dudes arm muscles

  5. 5
    jefferson

    how did you sand the guitar?

  6. 6
    Matt

    hey brad, please tell me how you got those bridge screw sockets out. and were they easy to put back in afterwards? i’m doing something similar to a 1997 jackson guitar.

  7. 7
    Brad

    I just used a wrench. As soon as I got a good grip on them they popped out pretty easily. And they went back in fine though I was careful to tape the holes up good so they wouldn’t get filled with paint.

  8. 8
    PoisonedV

    I still haven’t gotten around to painting my guitar. I think I might just make some custom decals.



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