Crazy customization!

tell me what i'd need

ive actually whimped out of the custom made graphic area now, like i don think i'd have anything interesting to put on it. so what i've settled for doing is getting my favourite bands stickers (like bumper stickers and stuff) and stick them all on my guitar. It'll make it look pretty cool and will be far from perfect, which is pretty damn cool cause my guitar is the one thing in my life that shouldn conform to anything. So yer that's wat ive decided to do. I guess everytime i get a new sticker i'll just add it to the guitar and slowly the guitar will evolve! Its a shame gsr shutdown - they were supposedly a great customization place

Originally Posted by: suicidalmoosewhich is pretty damn cool cause my guitar is the one thing in my life that shouldn conform to anything.

so, just a guess here, your favorite bands are blink 182 and new found glory.. right?

Anyone know what is costs to get a paint job, or a custom graphic paint job?

Originally Posted by: puretell me what i'd need

All depends on what are you gonna paint on, paint with, and kind of paint. Do any one of 'em wrong and you get crap. I used to airbrush model trains, and ruined a number of expensive models in the process till I did my homework.

Originally Posted by: parrotheada1aAll depends on what are you gonna paint on, paint with, and kind of paint. Do any one of 'em wrong and you get crap. I used to airbrush model trains, and ruined a number of expensive models in the process till I did my homework.

im going to paint on my white plastic pick guard
hopefully with an airbrush
but i dont know what paint to use on my white plastic pick guard

i was such a dumbass loser i hate myself for doing this. i bought an airbrush set with the air-can for $30. aaaah it didnt last a month without running out. there was a $40 airbrush set with a compressor and it looked nicer but i was too stupid to get that instead i was impatient aah now i cant even use my $30 one and i should have gotten the $40 one...


but my problem now is that i can buy another airbrush set with a compressor but i dont know what type of paint that i should use with it.

Originally Posted by: pureim going to paint on my white plastic pick guard
hopefully with an airbrush
but i dont know what paint to use on my white plastic pick guard

Lemme ask you a couple things and be honest as hell. I'll explain the reasons below.
A. Do you have all the tools & paints to do the job AND know how to use them?
B. Have you ever stripped your guitar apart down to the pickups and put it back together including a setup?
C. Can you afford to buy a second pickguard if the one you work on gets messed up?
D. Can you live with a messed up paintjob?

Here's the real deal. If you answer NO to any one of these questions besides D, you might want to leave your guitar alone. The reason is that you can't do a good job without taking the pickguard off the guitar and stripping the electronics off of it. Yes you can try and mask off the pickups & electronics, but you run the risk of getting solvents & paints in there. When that happens, you might have to replace gummed up parts. (expensive)

You said "hopefully with an airbrush"... this leads me to belive that you A: don't have one, or: B, you have one and are not sure how to use it. If A happens to be true, you might as well save yourself some cash and buy a pre-decorated pickguard. Even a cheap airbrush kit will run you 50 bucks, plus the cost of a compressor. If B is the case, then you should practice your artwork on something cheap untill you get it right. Then go for the pickguard.

[edit] I read about your airbrush.... you might just want to buy a few more cans of air for it unless you plan on using it all the time. A good compressor isn't cheap... forget the ones made for 'hobby' use, they don't last. [edit]
BTW, PPG auto paint is NOT good for plastic, the solvents in it will eat through the stuff in about half a heartbeat. It's also insanely expensive for a project like this.

An alternative to airbrushing might be to use stencils & cans of spraypaint. Testor's / Modelmaster paint at the hobbyshop is a decent choice. The difference is that the paint drops in spraypaint are huge compared to an airbrush. If you don't do it right, the finish can come out real 'grainy' looking. Of course this all depends on what kind of paintjob you want on there. Doing a single color or even two isn't tough. If you ever built a model car and put some decals on it, you might be good to go.

Originally Posted by: PonyOneI have a couple stickers on my Strat. One is a limited edition "OBEY" sticker; it's got a black skyline with yellow windows, an orange sky, and a five pointed star with the famous Andre The Giant face in it, and says "GIANT" at the bottom, placed right below the trem. The other is a limited edition Guy Burwell sticker one of my friends gave me, of a guy in a suit with a bag next to him that's in brown and black; I put that one on the forearm cut. They both match the sunburst of my Strat perfectly.

Plus, the guitar was modified to be played left handed, so the part of the body that isn't obscured by my arm is solid, no holes... looks slick.

You can do some cool stuff with stickers but I absolutely abhor, hate, loathe and am pissed off by the Billy Jo of Greenday style excessive sticker thing. That fool from Good Charloette stickered up his guitar all punk, too. Seems to be a pop punk thing.

Those are wicked stickers! Do you know where they can be bought?

Lemme ask you a couple things and be honest as hell. I'll explain the reasons below.
A. Do you have all the tools & paints to do the job AND know how to use them?
B. Have you ever stripped your guitar apart down to the pickups and put it back together including a setup?
C. Can you afford to buy a second pickguard if the one you work on gets messed up?
D. Can you live with a messed up paintjob?

A= i have an airbrush and im hoping i can use that instead of something else cause ive been using airbrushs for quite some time

B= this the first guitar I'VE OWNED with a pickguard so ive never stripped anything like this. i was hoping some guy at my music store could show me how

C= yes i can

D= no such thing. my hands wont allow a messed up paintjob.




i just recently got an idea to make a custom stencil, for example get some wd-40 and spray it on a glass surface then use a glue gun to design a custom stencil and scrape it off the glass with something like a spatula and then lay it on the pickguard and start spraying.

that way my work will be original and ill still have alot of things i can have on it except a pre-made pick or a pre-cut stencil.

Originally Posted by: pure
i just recently got an idea to make a custom stencil, for example get some wd-40 and spray it on a glass surface then use a glue gun to design a custom stencil and scrape it off the glass with something like a spatula and then lay it on the pickguard and start spraying.

that way my work will be original and ill still have alot of things i can have on it except a pre-made pick or a pre-cut stencil.

WD 40 is useless for something like that, and a definite no no unless you want paint to peel. The stuff spreads by capillary action, and the lubricant remains behind after the spray vehicle dries out. What happens is that any remaining lubricant film will make the paint bubble up and peel. You gotta have a clean and DRY surface for anything to stick.

What about making some decals? Might be a whole lot easier and nicer looking to boot. You can make artwork on the computer, then print it out onto blank decal paper. Prep the plastic, apply the decals to the pickguard and then clearcoat it a couple times with an airbrush to seal the whole thing. If you are good with the airbrush, then you could work in some shading or highlights around the decals to make 'em stand out a bit more.

Originally Posted by: parrotheada1aWD 40 is useless for something like that, and a definite no no unless you want paint to peel. The stuff spreads by capillary action, and the lubricant remains behind after the spray vehicle dries out. What happens is that any remaining lubricant film will make the paint bubble up and peel. You gotta have a clean and DRY surface for anything to stick.

What about making some decals? Might be a whole lot easier and nicer looking to boot. You can make artwork on the computer, then print it out onto blank decal paper. Prep the plastic, apply the decals to the pickguard and then clearcoat it a couple times with an airbrush to seal the whole thing. If you are good with the airbrush, then you could work in some shading or highlights around the decals to make 'em stand out a bit more.

no, he said use the glue and wd-40 to make a STENCIL, and then I guess spray paint or air bruch over the stencil to make his own image..

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsso, just a guess here, your favorite bands are blink 182 and new found glory.. right?

lol - yer maybe if i was about 10 years old, i think i'll be puttin metallica, offspring, and soad stickers on mine, but prolly like put diff ones on there. lol - i love it how ppl just wanna start up flamewars because they have nothing else to do

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsno, he said use the glue and wd-40 to make a STENCIL, and then I guess spray paint or air bruch over the stencil to make his own image..

exactly!@#

Originally Posted by: suicidalmooselol - yer maybe if i was about 10 years old, i think i'll be puttin metallica, offspring, and soad stickers on mine, but prolly like put diff ones on there. lol - i love it how ppl just wanna start up flamewars because they have nothing else to do

hey, sorry, just when you said "my guitar shouldn't conform" it just sounded like you were one of those non-conformist punk/emo kids. no offense there buddy.

but... flamewars because I have nothing better to do... I think I might write something here, but I have a job I have to get back to... is that something better to do?

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsno, he said use the glue and wd-40 to make a STENCIL, and then I guess spray paint or air bruch over the stencil to make his own image..

I understood that clearly from the beginning. I was merely pointing out something that I learned the hard way about 15 years ago. You can make a stencil out of almost anything. I've actually made stencils out of rubber cement, liquid latex rubber, and even chunks of wood.
As I said though, you DO NOT want to use WD40, or any similar type product as a release agent. WD40 is a penetrant/lubricant. Paint will not stick to anything that has even trace amounts of the stuff on it. Adding to the PIA factor, the edges of the stencil will be very ragged looking and probably not pretty at all.
To get rid of the WD40, you would have to soak parts in a bath of warm soapy water, rinse in clear water, and then let it air dry or use a hair dryer. The thing is, the stencil itself wouldn't survive the cleaning process.

What kind of graphic effect are you trying to achieve? Got a piccie?

Originally Posted by: PonyOneyeah, the Rat Pack sticker by Shag can be found here, and the Guy Burwell sticker can be found here.

Thanks :D

Originally Posted by: parrotheada1aI understood that clearly from the beginning. I was merely pointing out something that I learned the hard way about 15 years ago. You can make a stencil out of almost anything. I've actually made stencils out of rubber cement, liquid latex rubber, and even chunks of wood.
As I said though, you DO NOT want to use WD40, or any similar type product as a release agent. WD40 is a penetrant/lubricant. Paint will not stick to anything that has even trace amounts of the stuff on it. Adding to the PIA factor, the edges of the stencil will be very ragged looking and probably not pretty at all.
To get rid of the WD40, you would have to soak parts in a bath of warm soapy water, rinse in clear water, and then let it air dry or use a hair dryer. The thing is, the stencil itself wouldn't survive the cleaning process.

What kind of graphic effect are you trying to achieve? Got a piccie?

i was originally going to paint a lanscape on it but then i realised that there's no way i can get a media that will stay on and will be controllable... so then i decided to see if there was another way to make a design, so i thought of a custom made stencil. the thing is, i dont have an example made caue i wasnt sure if it would be possible, and thats why i asked yall before i went ahead and used the wd-40 and the glue-gun.