Can I custom paint my guitar?

Custom brush paint for a guitar?

• I need to know what kind of paint I should buy to paint a totally clean wooden telecaster body, but i dont need to do the spray clear coat (and i dont want to airbrush paint job ) until ive done the actual paint job by hand with brushes to do more elaborate paintings, So what kind of brush paint would i use to do this and not screw up the wood? anything in particular ? because my friend said probably not acrylics but i dont if he knows what hes talking about?

• Answer:

  Few things in the vintage guitar market are as confusing as Fender and Gibson custom color guitars. The number of colors offered and lack of good, clean, documented specimens today makes identifying the original colors difficult. Many authors of some excellent guitar books have shed light on Fender and Gibson custom colors. Though I greatly appreciate this current research on custom colors, I feel they may have created some general confusion as to what color is what. Also, as a guitar refinisher, being able to duplicate the original custom colors accurately is important to me. And the information I've seen to date isn't complete or accurate enough to allow this. So I've done my own research and have found quite a few things that differ from the accepted custom color knowledge base. For example, takes these quotes from several popular vintage guitar books: "1958 Strat in Shoreline Gold with gold parts". (this caption is actually describing a "true" one-off custom color, not Shoreline Gold. Shoreline Gold is very bronze in color and wasn't even available till 1959). "1961 non-tremolo model in Coral Pink, a subtle variant of the world famous Fiesta Red finish". (Fender never had a color in its pallet called "Coral Pink" or "Salmon Pink". This color is mostly likely Fiesta Red, which has a very pink hue). "Some colors changed in 1963, but the total stayed at 14. Some, such as Shoreline Gold and Inca Silver, changed in name only." (Shoreline Gold and Inca Silver were dropped in 1965 and replaced by Firemist Gold and Silver, completely different colors). "Foam Green is related to Surf Green but is a bit lighter". (actually Surf Green is lighter in color than Foam Green). "Enamel lacquers were marketed by DuPont under the Duco brand; acrylic lacquers bore the Lucite brand". (Duco is DuPont's brand name for nitrocellulose lacquer. There’s no such animal as an "enamel lacquer"). As you can see, custom colors may be one of the most mis-understood aspect of the vintage guitar market. The following research can provide more accurate information on the custom color paints and finishing techniques used. This may help you better identify a true factory custom color, and should clear up the many fallacies about them. Paint is made of three major components: pigment, binder (also known as resin), and solvent. Pigment is the what makes the color. Pigments can be organic or inorganic. Organic pigments, though more expensive, offer a wider range of shades. Inorganic pigments are derived from various metallic ores. For example, white is made from titanium dioxide, black is carbon, zinc is yellow, orange is molybdate, and red is made from iron oxides. Pigments are dispersed in binders, often called resins, which provide the protective and mechanical properties of the paint film. As paint dries, the binder forms a film that allows the paint to adhere to the surface. Early binders were made from natural materials such as linseed and soybean oil. These are still used in many oil-based house paints today. But natural binders quickly gave way to synthetic binders, which comprise 90% of the market today. These synthetic binders include alkyd (made from acids), celluloid, acrylic, epoxy, and urethane to name a few. The pigment and binder dispersion is dissolved in a solvent, which controls the consistency of the paint and evaporates after the paint is applied. Without the solvent, the pigment-binder mixture would be too thick to spread easily and uniformly. Nitrocellulose lacquer uses a celluloid-based binder. Acrylic lacquer uses a acrylic-based binder. Both use acetone as their solvent, which is what defines these products as lacquer. Acetone is an extremely fast evaporating solvent. That's why lacquer became so popular. It dries very fast and gives excellent gloss. Quick drying time is important for production environments such as car and guitar manufacturing because time is money. Since nitrocellulose lacquer uses celluloid as its binder, there are some problems. Celluloid is the same material used for tortoise shell pickguards on D'Angelicos, Gibsons, Epiphones, Gretsches and other guitars from 1900 to present. And we all know what happens to those old pickguards made of celluloid - they turn to dust with time.