Partscaster/kit guitars for dum-dums

[Accoun]

I've been thinking about maybe doing a parts or kit guitar. Don't know much about them - currently looking at the Harley Benton kits (since they're easily available and I'm in the EU) and I'd probably go for the Strat one. Not sure if anyone has other suggestions. I know Crimson Guitars and the like are out of my price range. Maybe there's something in-between as far as the price goes, but I guess I'm overthinking and probably should just go for it?

Anyway, i have some questions, mostly related to the paintjob:
- I don't think I have access to an airbrush, so I assume I'd go with spray cans. Which ones should I do for? Like, car lacquer? Not interested in going all vintagey with a nitro finish.
- Would said rattle cans make a proper burst with some kind of proper technique? Or would this resort in a hard edge anyway and it would need diluted paint going through an airbrush? I don't think I'd go for a fancy three-tone burst, just a black edge, but a soft one.
- I was thinking about metallic purple. How should I go about this? Primer -> black -> colors -> gloss? Primer -> silver -> colors -> gloss? Or some other way?
- In case I decide to do the burst instead of just plain color, I also heard you might want to lacquer underneath, to make it easier on yourself sanding down when you make a mistake. Where would it go? Between the base color and the burst, or after primer or base?

 

[bostjan]

I've been thinking about maybe doing a parts or kit guitar. Don't know much about them - currently looking at the Harley Benton kits (since they're easily available and I'm in the EU) and I'd probably go for the Strat one. Not sure if anyone has other suggestions. I know Crimson Guitars and the like are out of my price range. Maybe there's something in-between as far as the price goes, but I guess I'm overthinking and probably should just go for it?

Anyway, i have some questions, mostly related to the paintjob:
- I don't think I have access to an airbrush, so I assume I'd go with spray cans. Which ones should I do for? Like, car lacquer? Not interested in going all vintagey with a nitro finish.
- Would said rattle cans make a proper burst with some kind of proper technique? Or would this resort in a hard edge anyway and it would need diluted paint going through an airbrush? I don't think I'd go for a fancy three-tone burst, just a black edge, but a soft one.
- I was thinking about metallic purple. How should I go about this? Primer -> black -> colors -> gloss? Primer -> silver -> colors -> gloss? Or some other way?
- In case I decide to do the burst instead of just plain color, I also heard you might want to lacquer underneath, to make it easier on yourself sanding down when you make a mistake. Where would it go? Between the base color and the burst, or after primer or base?

How handy are you with guitar tech work?

Automotive paint typically looks best. Just make sure that your coats, especially your clear coat, are all compatible with each other.

Burst look 100% better IMO if you do them by hand. I've always used Rit dye and blended the dye into the wood from the outside in. With spray cans, you'll almost certainly get a much harder edge.

Why would you spray black in between the primer and the colour you want?

Again, for a burst, I would highly recommend a water-based dye rubbed in by hand over paint. In that case, you absolutely want to rub the dye into raw wood, not lacquer.

If you use spray cans, you absolutely need to do it someplace dry with moderate temperature and good ventilation. I've only ever had bad luck with spray cans, honestly. But I live in a place where the weather changes every hour or two. It's always either super humid or super cold, and there are really no moderately cool dry days. Maybe your weather is better, but humidity makes for foggy/milky paint. Be prepared to sand it off and start again. The last couple guitars I've done, I just used a paintbrush and some wipe-on poly, and it was way more forgiving to work with.

 

[Accoun]

How handy are you with guitar tech work?

The basics maybe? I haven't worked on frets yet, at least. But I guess better to learn on a guitar like that rather than what I usually play.

Why would you spray black in between the primer and the colour you want?

Models (at least Warhammer) experience. Metallic paints looked better with a layer of black underneath, so depending on how much metallics the model had, you'd use a black primer or paint the areas black. Now that I think of it, mentioning silver might have came from hearing candy apple red was made by spraying red over silver, but that might not be needed with a premade color in a can?

Again, for a burst, I would highly recommend a water-based dye rubbed in by hand over paint. In that case, you absolutely want to rub the dye into raw wood, not lacquer.

Yeah, that would make sense for traditional Les Pauls/Stratocaster bursts. Not so much for metallics, right?

Thanks for the answers, overall.

 

[Accoun]

Oh, and forgot to ask - what grades of sandpaper I would need, especially for working with the finish?

 

[bostjan]

Ok. If you get a cheap kit, expect to do some fretwork. The nicer the kit, the less detail work you'll have to do to make it playable. I haven't done a lot of kits, but I put together two cheap ones (from Stewart MacDonald), and they definitely needed a lot of attention. Parts weren't sanded, the nut, although preslotted, was too low, the frets were uneven and all poking way out of the sides of their slots, etc. The Warmoth parts I purchased earlier this year all fit perfectly and the fretwork was perfect right out of the box, but we are talking 5x the price. Honestly, getting a finished guitar off of ebay and then taking it apart and reworking it would be cheaper and probably about the same amount of work as one of the cheapest kits, and the end result would probably be better, unless you totally boffed something.

I've never tried my hand at a metallic finish, so hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in. For flat finishes, though, I'd say that the more sandpaper you use, the better it will look. I wouldn't be too shy. Start with 120 or 160 grit on the wood, work up to maybe 600 or so. Wet it down a little to raise the grain and then sand some more. Once you paint it, you'll want to start back up, maybe with the 600 grit, depending on how bumpy the finish is, and work your way to as fine a grit as you can stomach, keeping in mind that you'll want to apply a few coats of clear over it. Once you are sanding down the clear coat, you'll want to really go as fine as possible to get it looking like a mirror, and even then buff with a cloth afterward.

IME, finishing takes so much longer than the rest of the assembly steps, but every minute you put into it shows, unless you end up sanding it all down again.

 

[Omzig]

The only kit i've ever used has been a HB les paul that my dad pickup up as "pandemic" Project, qualitiy wise it's pretty well cut/pocketed and drilled (Hardware isn't the best but the full kit cost less than my last Gotoh bridge....)

For refinishing YT is full of video's on rattle can finishes

stat here and watch the full 3 parts of this stewmac set ..a long watch but worth it.



Brad Angove (aka bruce wanye) also has some great kit/can video's...not to sure about his useage method of 2k Clear without protection though, 2K is nasty stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/c/BradAngove/playlists


If you want a good final finish then the more you prep the better it will be....if you can see/feel before paint you will see feel it after, paint is not filler !

Also you might want to look for a bit of a beat up guitar that you can strip/refinish such a guitar might have better hardware/guild qualitiy, that's how i started refinishing guitars

Bax music also do some Fazley guitar Kits in LP/ST/TL types.