Spraying nitro on top of a Warmoth finish?

[Spider]

Hi there,

I bought a swamp ash chambered strat body in black from the Showcase sale, I now want to change the colour to Sonic Blue. I was hoping to be able to avoid stripping the body by keying the current finish with 400 grit and then priming with white primer, spraying the sonic blue and then lots of clear coats. I've finished guitars before so I've got some experience.

Anyone ever done this? Would I encounter any problems? Most importantly, any thoughts on whether or not this approach would adversely affect the tone?

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[dmraco]

If you sand all the poly off you should be OK.  I would try to get down as far as you can...to the primer coat.  GOOD LUCK...that poly is tough.

I recently did this on a vintage ibanez.  I took it down to grain fill/seal coat.  Not easy.

 

[Cagey]

Hi there,

I bought a swamp ash chambered strat body in black from the Showcase sale, I now want to change the colour to Sonic Blue. I was hoping to be able to avoid stripping the body by keying the current finish with 400 grit and then priming with white primer, spraying the sonic blue and then lots of clear coats. I've finished guitars before so I've got some experience.

Anyone ever done this? Would I encounter any problems? Most importantly, any thoughts on whether or not this approach would adversely affect the tone?

Thanks for your thoughts!

I don't think you'd have any problem, and I seriously doubt it would affect the tone. Most of the discussion about finish type/thickness affecting tone is baseless when it comes to electric guitars. About all that's pertinent is durability issues - lacquer is more brittle relative to the urethanes, so it's easier to scratch/chip and more susceptible to environmental extremes. If we were talking about a acoustic guitars, that would be different. On electrics? Fuhgeddaboudit.

 

[rifraf4u]

I would have serious reservations about putting nitro on top of poly. Maybe you could test it on the neck fitting or something.

 

[-CB-]

There is poly, then again there is poly... and yet again... poly.  The question always is:  What kind of poly.

In the can, or spray poly urethane finishes dont do well with lacquer.

But... catalyzed epoxy-poly finishes, as done by Warmoth (and others) should be ok.  Test a small area first - or - use a drop of acetone on the finish in a pickup route or control route.  If the acetone softens the finish, its not gonna work.  My guess is it will work just fine.

What you want to do, however, is scuff sand the epoxy finish - using 400 or 600 paper.  Just dull it down, take all the shine off.  That will give the new oversprayed lacquer something to bite onto.  Clean it all with naphtha before spraying.  Use lots of naphtha and clean rags.

After 4-6 coats you can level out the orange peel and let it sit a while before buffing.

FWIW, Fender often did custom colors over either blonde or sunburst - as those were standard colors that they had a lot of.  That made for easy custom color application and finishing.  So yah, its a go, depending on the acetone test.

Read more about the acetone test at Frank Ford's www.frets.com

 

[Spider]

Thanks, everyone for your advice, much appreciated. I'm going to try it and see what happens - I'll post completed pics whenever I've got something worth posting!