Hey Kitten, whatcha doin'? Wanna paaaainnt the guitar?

April 5, 2007 6:18 AM

So after entering Stage Two* of Newbie Guitar Hero play, I decided to get all fancy and paint my guitar. I had to take the thing apart to do so. In my eagerness to get it back together to see if I now had a nice looking 50$ paperweight, I did not wait as long as I should have to let the paint/varnish dry. Questions about repair and correction inside!

I used Krylon Fusion paints for the yellow and white and followed it up with a coat of Krylon Acrylic Gloss. While the surface could be touched without smudging, pressure would leave finger prints, which happened as I put the guitar back together.

Also, when I put the guitar down at night to let it dry, part of the box the neck was leaning on became stuck. I managed to peal off most of it, but what remains does not look pretty.

So my questions:

- Can I sand down the finger prints, and if so, what sort of paoper do I use?

- Is it okay to touch up with some more Krylon Fusion over the affected parts after sanding, or will that react poorly to the gloss? If not, what to use?

- Are there better products that I should be using for future customization attempts on these plastic controllers?

The guitar works fine, so I'm not interested in taking it apart again to resand/paint the entire thing. I just want to touch it up as much as possible! My wife says it looks great, but these little things are going to drive me mad!

* Stage Two** is "Left Hand Becomes Crippled Claw, Right Hand Fingers Bleed"

** Stage One is "Realizing You Have To Strum AND Press a Fret at the Same Time"

posted by robocop is bleeding to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 comments total)

Cool--were you going for a Korina look?
posted by sourwookie at 7:03 AM on April 5, 2007

No, but the woodgrain look is for my next attempt. I figure a reddish brown glaze applied with a woodgrain tool over some light brown paint would look pretty sweet.

Thanks for the reference picture!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:41 AM on April 5, 2007

I'll admit I'm using only my years-old knowledge of model building, but doesn't Acrylic gloss come off easily with just a little turpentine? If that's the case can you just dab on a small amount with a brush, smooth it out, and then re-gloss?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:48 AM on April 5, 2007

So I took some fine grain sandpaper and it managed to smooth out the bumps pretty well. Then I did some touch ups with a Krylon paint pen.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:31 PM on April 7, 2007

For further reference after my technique has improved. Here's my Rock Band strat I did recently.

Painting these things works best in stages. If you rush, there's more chance of fucking stuff up.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:18 AM on February 4, 2008