Read Time 2 Minutes
After you choose the wood of your guitar and your neck, you need to consider
what hardware you will give this monster instrument, as well as what finish you
will place on the guitar. Hardware and finishes are the representation of your guitar.
Hardware comes in Black, chrome, nickel and gold. Black and Gold are pretty much
black and Gold. Chrome is shiny where nickel is like a dull silver.
What kind of bridge you want, tune-o-matic, wrap-around or floyd rose
floating trem with locking nut, will dictate what your body needs to be routed
out for. When purhasing parts online at a company like Warmoth, the bodies sometimes
come pre-routed for the tailpiece. They also allow you to pick what bridge system you want the
body routed for. Beware, as once you route out for one bridge it’s not practical to make a change.
Finishing the guitar body is an extensive project to itself. You can look around online for
places that paint You can always do the Eddie Van
Halen tape pin stripes, too. Get your wood parts, paint the body a color, tape
it and paint it another color; Repeat until desired result. I always wanted to try this.
You can also go with a clear coat should you not be able to part with the cool wood grain pattern
your guitar body may have.
The prepping of the body can be one of the longest time consuming parts of the
process. If you’d like your finish to be “super fine” then be prepared to feel
like you’ve taken a part time position as a sander. From what I understand, when
you start your guitar finish you have to primer your guitar body and then sand it down
to a smooth finish. Do it again. Then do it again, add to that and do it again.
Basically, you need to sand the primer to feel as smooth as glass and then spray
your guitar. Using a paint sprayer would be more consistant,
and doing a light coat of paint at a time would be better. Taking your time to sand
out the bumps in the finish before the next layer of paint is applied will prove to be
better. Patience is really important here.
Marc Amendola is a guitarist/producer/songwriter in Connecticut. He produces artists, teaches guitar & fronts the rock band Fear The State. Find out more about Marc at www.marcamendola.com
wpDiscuz