How to repaint?

Emp_Fab

I've got a PRS-style twin HB guitar that is a strange colour.  It's like a milky white with a pinky-lilac hue to it and semi-transparent as you can just make out a quilted-maple pattern beneath.  It looks like perhaps it was supposed to be a proper quilted maple top but was maybe flawed so they decided to hide it with paint.

Either way, it has a rosewood fingerboard and no binding.  The back of the neck is painted as per the body.

I want to redo it all in a solid colour - white or yellow or dayglow green, but I don't know how to tackle the neck.  Specifically, the join where it meets the edge of the fingerboard.

I'm a fussy sod when it comes to the feel of a neck in my hands, so any ridge on that join would drive me nuts.

How do you paint a neck?

WezV

clear coats.

Marshall_stax

Don't! If you're fussy about feel (guessing you don't like that painted sticky feel) then sand it back and oil the bare wood. It will feel (and look imho) much nicer. 

Corvus

I knock down ridges, it's a bit of a chicken game because go too far and you wipe out or chip the ridge. Fine abrasive pad or fine sandpaper. Polish back up if solid colour, leave if it clearcoating over.

Can help to pull tape asap after paint to make the edge soften over.

Emp_Fab

I like it.  Thanks for the tips guys.

Emp_Fab

Marshall_stax said:

Don't! If you're fussy about feel (guessing you don't like that painted sticky feel) then sand it back and oil the bare wood. It will feel (and look imho) much nicer. 

@Marshall_stax I don't fancy taking the whole guitar down to bare wood but I do rather like the idea of taking the neck down and painting everything else.  Are bare, oiled necks common then?, I would have thought that splinters might have been an issue.

Marshall_stax

Emp_Fab said:

Marshall_stax said:

Don't! If you're fussy about feel (guessing you don't like that painted sticky feel) then sand it back and oil the bare wood. It will feel (and look imho) much nicer. 

@Marshall_stax I don't fancy taking the whole guitar down to bare wood but I do rather like the idea of taking the neck down and painting everything else.  Are bare, oiled necks common then?, I would have thought that splinters might have been an issue.

Natural necks are very common. Splinters should not be an issue at all, there shouldn't be any. All you are doing is sanding off the finish until you are down to the wood (like you would with a body you were refinishing) and then applying a new finish. Be that oil or a stain etc. I have done it a few times with various guitars. I prefer to use just a few coats of Tru Oil (There are many threads on here that will explain how that works) Others choose different oils or stains and so on. 

randella

Emp_Fab said:

Marshall_stax said:

Don't! If you're fussy about feel (guessing you don't like that painted sticky feel) then sand it back and oil the bare wood. It will feel (and look imho) much nicer. 

@Marshall_stax I don't fancy taking the whole guitar down to bare wood but I do rather like the idea of taking the neck down and painting everything else.  Are bare, oiled necks common then?, I would have thought that splinters might have been an issue.

My best-feeling neck is on an old Fender (HM Strat).  The poly was nicely applied, nothing like a 70's CBS 1/4" thick toffee apple horrorshow.  It was knackered in several places though so I (very carefully!) sanded it back to wood and applied a single coat of Tru Oil.  It feels majestic and doesn't gunk up and get sticky at gigs.

There'll be a school of thought (and they might have a point) that says I'm not doing the stability any favours, but it's a short-scale Fender neck with a dual-action truss rod that never gets strung with anything bigger than a nine-thou top E.

So, as usual - YMMV.