THE EASY WAY TO PAINT YER GEETAR
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:57 am
There ain't one, sadly.
For those who are interested, here's a letter I wrote to a young fella who attends college at my daughter's alma mater, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and who has been writing me for instruction on refinishing his bass himself. I thought I would also post it here, just to inform interested Forum members.
The tone may be a bit preachy, and I apologize for that, but we've been corresponding and he asked some very specific questions which this letter answers, and that's why it reads sometimes like a friendly lecture.
So, I'll let it speak for itself:
"It is expensive to repaint a bass or guitar! Even more expensive if you're only doing one, because you have to buy, borrow or rent a good spray gun, and the materials we use (which generally follow the Rick factory's methods of painting guitars) can't be bought in small quantities, leading to some waste unless you've got a friend who's also doing a refin or you yourself are doing more than one instrument.
The primer which is the key to getting a perfect finish on an old and nicked-up guitar, costs about $58.00/quart, then there's hardener, and reducer, all from the same place. Then there's sandpaper at almost a buck a sheet, the black paint at $30.00/pint, and clearcoat at $50.00/quart, and clearcoat activator, too. Clearcoat uses the same reducer as the primer.
I charge from $550.00 to $750.00 to refinish a guitar (there are lots of variables affecting price), and I'd estimate that about $100.00 of that is paint materials, another few bucks for depreciation and utility burden, so say, $150.00. The rest is for my labor and experience. The most I make is maybe $25.00 per hour, if a job really goes smoothly. Most don't, because this is not a production line painting new guitars. These are old instruments that all require some type of tweaking or other to get them up to snuff.
You can see now that people are not exactly beating down the doors to take part in this "moneymaking opportunity". You can get poor a lot quicker than you can get rich, doing this.
I have written lots of papers on finishing as it applies to items like guitars, but reading is no substitute for actual hands-on learning. I have personally taught over 150 students how to set up and use a spray gun, and the average time to get the hang of it is about 6 hours. Proficiency begins after several weeks of daily use of the gun. Then there's the chemistry of various paints and the ins and outs of different systems.
For those who are interested, here's a letter I wrote to a young fella who attends college at my daughter's alma mater, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and who has been writing me for instruction on refinishing his bass himself. I thought I would also post it here, just to inform interested Forum members.
The tone may be a bit preachy, and I apologize for that, but we've been corresponding and he asked some very specific questions which this letter answers, and that's why it reads sometimes like a friendly lecture.
So, I'll let it speak for itself:
"It is expensive to repaint a bass or guitar! Even more expensive if you're only doing one, because you have to buy, borrow or rent a good spray gun, and the materials we use (which generally follow the Rick factory's methods of painting guitars) can't be bought in small quantities, leading to some waste unless you've got a friend who's also doing a refin or you yourself are doing more than one instrument.
The primer which is the key to getting a perfect finish on an old and nicked-up guitar, costs about $58.00/quart, then there's hardener, and reducer, all from the same place. Then there's sandpaper at almost a buck a sheet, the black paint at $30.00/pint, and clearcoat at $50.00/quart, and clearcoat activator, too. Clearcoat uses the same reducer as the primer.
I charge from $550.00 to $750.00 to refinish a guitar (there are lots of variables affecting price), and I'd estimate that about $100.00 of that is paint materials, another few bucks for depreciation and utility burden, so say, $150.00. The rest is for my labor and experience. The most I make is maybe $25.00 per hour, if a job really goes smoothly. Most don't, because this is not a production line painting new guitars. These are old instruments that all require some type of tweaking or other to get them up to snuff.
You can see now that people are not exactly beating down the doors to take part in this "moneymaking opportunity". You can get poor a lot quicker than you can get rich, doing this.
I have written lots of papers on finishing as it applies to items like guitars, but reading is no substitute for actual hands-on learning. I have personally taught over 150 students how to set up and use a spray gun, and the average time to get the hang of it is about 6 hours. Proficiency begins after several weeks of daily use of the gun. Then there's the chemistry of various paints and the ins and outs of different systems.
