Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Catalyst77 on May 15, 2008, 10:48:09 PM

Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Catalyst77 on May 15, 2008, 10:48:09 PM
I've had this guitar since i was 19 but havent ever really liked the colour - seams a bit too hair metal for my tastes.

It plays awesome and the VH2 complements the alder really well.

Was thinking about saving a few pennies and sending it off for a paint job.  I know the wood underneath isnt going to be all that pretty so its going to have to be a solid colour.  But with the black hardware i'm stumped.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t29/benmartin1977/espgreen.jpg)
Title: Re: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: noodleplugerine on May 15, 2008, 11:01:00 PM
Quote from: Benmartin1977
I've had this guitar since i was 19 but havent ever really liked the colour - seams a bit too hair metal for my tastes.

It plays awesome and the VH2 complements the alder really well.

Was thinking about saving a few pennies and sending it off for a paint job.  I know the wood underneath isnt going to be all that pretty so its going to have to be a solid colour.  But with the black hardware i'm stumped.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t29/benmartin1977/espgreen.jpg)


Could have it none more black - Or white, which would look great with black hardware. Or a sunburst - Which can look superb on super strats (think Shawn Lane's charvel, etc).
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: ailean on May 15, 2008, 11:26:37 PM
I'd probably go black or dark grey with a metalic fleck.

A nice red with a black burst around the edge could work well. Something like the one below, but a solid red and more pronounced burst.
Title: Re: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: ilÿti on May 16, 2008, 12:14:42 AM
Quote from: Benmartin1977
too hair metal

There's no such thing.
Title: Re: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: opprobrium_9 on May 16, 2008, 12:42:34 AM
Quote from: ilyti
Quote from: Benmartin1977
too hair metal

There's no such thing.


O yes there is  :roll:
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Philly Q on May 16, 2008, 12:48:36 AM
White.

But it's not going to be cheap - I've never been convinced that refinishes are worth the money.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 16, 2008, 12:56:31 AM
(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/jackson%20feline%20dinky/completed-front.jpg)

Ben - here is the Pewter/gun metal colour I was speaking of onthe phone
We can add blue to that colour to get this:

 (http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/valentine%20ergo%20bass/controls250.jpg)

Both pretty masculine colours but in keeping with an 80s guitar.

Either that or keep the original colour and just get some spandex and cowboy boots.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 16, 2008, 12:59:02 AM
Or we could strip it - add a maple veneer (0.6mm thick) to the front and then you can have a burst of somekind showing off a flame maple front.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: ericsabbath on May 16, 2008, 03:57:43 AM
black/graphite chrome spray!  :D
or silver chrome if you change the hardware
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: hunter on May 16, 2008, 05:34:11 AM
Just don't change the finish but add pink pickup covers - perfect!

:O)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: noodleplugerine on May 16, 2008, 08:36:06 AM
Quote from: FELINEGUITARS
Or we could strip it - add a maple veneer (0.6mm thick) to the front and then you can have a burst of somekind showing off a flame maple front.


That would be sweet.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Catalyst77 on May 16, 2008, 09:12:23 AM
Hmm; quite like the idea of the maple veneer - would open up some possibilities.

I'd have to check it out; cause i had one of those on a wolfgang special and it looked really cheap and tacky.

Was considering something like this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop_image/product/5f321b19b526080af174c94268e8f6d1.jpg
                       
 But I dont know if it would work on a non-symetrical guitar.

Quote from: FELINEGUITARS


Either that or keep the original colour and just get some spandex and cowboy boots.



I'd kill for spandex - but i just don't have the legs for it!  although i do have a fetching mullet wig.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 16, 2008, 09:36:38 AM
Quote from: Benmartin1977
Hmm; quite like the idea of the maple veneer - would open up some possibilities.

I'd have to check it out; cause i had one of those on a wolfgang special and it looked really cheap and tacky


go with the veneer - there is no reason it should look like a tacky veneer job you see on cheap guitars.  A good flamed maple veneer will look like a good flamed maple top

i would be tempted to go with that gun metal finish jonathan posted on the back side and neck with a grey burst onto a flamed maple front - maybe adding some kind of binding to the top edge to seperate the two

although as veneers go i would be tempted by some poplar burl like on prozacbears ibanez if you wanted a more natural finish
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 16, 2008, 09:56:52 AM
(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/paul%20hovey%20PH1/PH1-fullfront-726.jpg)


This one had a maple veneer on it allowing the alder body to supply the tone and just have the veneer for appearance.

Normally you need to use a burst to hide the join between the body and veneer.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Catalyst77 on May 16, 2008, 10:22:53 AM
Sounds very tempting - are there any luthier sites that show what veneer options there are ?

Or is any generic style veneer a usuable option?

Quote from: WezV


i would be tempted to go with that gun metal finish jonathan posted on the back side and neck with a grey burst onto a flamed maple front - maybe adding some kind of binding to the top edge to seperate the two

although as veneers go i would be tempted by some poplar burl like on prozacbears ibanez if you wanted a more natural finish


Not sure about the binding - prob look really good, but would it be possible on a contoured body? its quite rounded
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Roobubba on May 16, 2008, 10:32:59 AM
well, given that both Jonathan and WezV are luthiers, you could just ask them directly? :)

One thing's for sure, these guys produce some absolutely stunning work (like the burst top on that tele, and this coming from a tele-hater!!)!

Roo
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 16, 2008, 11:08:21 AM
I wasn't proposing binding because the edges of the ESP are already rounded over and because fitting binding to an existing guitar would be very tricky.

More i was suggesting bursting the colour in to a dark colour that hides the join at the edges of the body.
I also suggested the veneer shown because I have lots in stock

Also veneers:

(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/Blackwood%20Tabby/blackwood%20tabby1.jpg)
(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/puma/puma.jpg)
(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/Southpaw%20stealth%201/southpaw%20stealth.jpg)
(http://www.felineguitars.com/spec_sheets/guitar_images/Madrone%20Gunslinger/Madrone%20Gunslinger.jpg)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 16, 2008, 11:42:08 AM
yeah, the body edges is a tricky one  (nothing a bit of filler wouldnt solve :P ) but i saw it as a way to get the gun metal and a normal trans black togther with a nice seperation between the two, i really like that gunmetal finish jonathan posted :twisted:


that would be an expensive job though because of the work involved  in installing a simple strip of binding into a complete guitar and it all comes down to personal taste anyway...

as jonathan has shown above - veneers dont need to look cheap!!!
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Sifu Ben on May 16, 2008, 12:43:37 PM
I just shot my load over that Tabby, and i'm not even a Tele guy  :oops:
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: ToneMonkey on May 16, 2008, 12:56:08 PM
Quote from: Sifu Ben
I just shot my load over that Tabby, and i'm not even a Tele guy  :oops:


Errr, that'll decrease the valueuntil it's cleaned off.

How about a material finish?  There's some material with cowboys on which I did consider using for one of my Cigar Box Guitars (the missus likes it).

Essentially lay a piece of material over the top and poly over the top, bit more involved but not too difficult.

EDIT: Here's a link: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/mat.htm
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: gwEm on May 16, 2008, 03:31:43 PM
fool!! the intense torquoise is great  :twisted:

other options:

shocking pink
magenta
luminous yellow
gingataff avatar green
zebra stripes
black with airbrushed dragons
white (if you must be fancy and tasteful ;) )
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Twinfan on May 16, 2008, 03:50:11 PM
I love it just how it is   :oops:
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Philly Q on May 16, 2008, 04:20:37 PM
Quote from: gwEm
fool!! the intense torquoise is great  :twisted:

other options:

shocking pink
magenta
luminous yellow
gingataff avatar green
zebra stripes
black with airbrushed dragons
white (if you must be fancy and tasteful ;) )

Yeah, I'd go with white, pink, yellow, seafoam green (or whatever it is now) or... baby blue.

Let's face it, drag it out of the closet, it is a hair metal guitar  :wink: .  Pretending it's anything else is like me pretending to be a gangsta rapper (and I have only to look at that c--k Tim Westwood to see what a bad idea that is....)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 16, 2008, 05:56:36 PM
Quote from: Sifu Ben
I just shot my load over that Tabby, and i'm not even a Tele guy  :oops:


Yeah - that had an Australian/Tazmanian Blackwood veneer front ion an alder body. In a lot of ways it looked like hawaiian Koa.
That sold to someone who already had one of our guitars that i built for him
Sometimes one isnt enough :twisted:
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: ilÿti on May 16, 2008, 06:15:02 PM
Quote from: hunter
Just don't change the finish but add pink pickup covers - perfect!

:O)

Paul Gilbert is proud of you.

(http://www.paulgilbert.com/fshow.27.jpg)

But he's very unimpressed with everyone else in this thread.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Will on May 16, 2008, 06:15:29 PM
Quote from: FELINEGUITARS
In a lot of ways it looked like hawaiian Koa.
That sold to someone who already had one of our guitars that i built for him
Sometimes one isnt enough :twisted:


I honestly thought it was at first glance
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 16, 2008, 08:12:19 PM
Quote from: Will
Quote from: FELINEGUITARS
In a lot of ways it looked like hawaiian Koa

I honestly thought it was at first glance


they are VERY similar, so similar you can use them on the same guitar and not realise its different woods

here is a thin tazzy top i have with a koa headplate
(http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/new/tazzy.jpg)

the koa usually has less of the dark streaks that the taz has but but you can see how close the colours are  and although these dont match perfectly, you can get more variation than this in the same species, hell,  even in the exact same tree!
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: opprobrium_9 on May 16, 2008, 10:50:55 PM
ick, i will never understand this obsession with garish colors of a queer persuasion on guitars :roll: :? PDT_047

That Paul Gilbert guitar has to be the worst out of the lot of "80's" ideas on this thread.  Consequently the only tasteful guitars on this thread are those that Feline posted, thanks for bringing a little bit of decency into this thread Feline ;) - it really eased the pain of the rest.  By the way, the top on that tabby is astoundingly beautiful!
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Catalyst77 on May 16, 2008, 11:09:28 PM
Quote from: opprobrium_9
ick, i will never understand this obsession with garish colors of a queer persuasion on guitars :roll: :? PDT_047

That Paul Gilbert guitar has to be the worst out of the lot of "80's" ideas on this thread.  Consequently the only tasteful guitars on this thread are those that Feline posted, thanks for bringing a little bit of decency into this thread Feline ;) - it really eased the pain of the rest.  By the way, the top on that tabby is astoundingly beautiful!


I know I may have started this thred but the only reason i have a garish guitar is cause it plays like a dream and sounds awesome!

Ultimately thats more important i guess.  I would like to tone the thing down but i'm not really prepared to fork out over £400 to do it

Guess I need to find myself a whitesnake tribute band!

BTW here's my other ESP:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t29/benmartin1977/PICT3691.jpg)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 17, 2008, 12:58:15 AM
Quote from: Benmartin1977
I would like to tone the thing down but i'm not really prepared to fork out over £400 to do it


a basic respray to another colour will work out less than that wherever you go... but as soon as you start looking at differnt options things start to add up

I know i suggested a gun metal finish on back and neck with binding and a black burst flame maple top but that would be an ideal for me and certainly cost a lot of money to actually achieve ( well over £400 i would expect, because i always want the stuff that is a bitch to do)

at the end of the day just spraying it a solid colour (like black, or dark blue or grey, or even pure white  for instance) needn't cost you 400 smackaroonies


but the guitar is naturally quite 80's and it might be best to embrace that
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: opprobrium_9 on May 17, 2008, 03:00:26 AM
that's a beautiful top on that red one Benmartin.  I was not so critical about you buying the guitar, because obviously it is about the playability.  But it is just all these 80's suggestions to mod it  :roll: that gunmetal finish does look quite nice though.

There are some things you could do on your own that would cost less than 40 quid though, and i think, look cool.  You could sand down the body to take off the paint job and you could apply stain to it and keep sanding and staining until you get a nice antique look to the thing.  Or you could paint it with something else and do the same thing getting a "this guitar has been through WW III" look :twisted:. Or, you could sand it down and blow torch the fvcker then lacquer it and that would look hot!
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 17, 2008, 11:11:39 AM
Quote from: opprobrium_9
There are some things you could do on your own that would cost less than 40 quid though, and i think, look cool.  You could sand down the body to take off the paint job and you could apply stain to it and keep sanding and staining until you get a nice antique look to the thing.  Or you could paint it with something else and do the same thing getting a "this guitar has been through WW III" look :twisted:. Or, you could sand it down and blow torch the fvcker then lacquer it and that would look hot!


some of these things are suprisingly difficult to get looking right...

and i always found using spray cans to be very expensive and difficult to get good results with them... but thats only if you are aiming for a good finish

although i must admit i brought some spray cans from here recently
http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html

£15 a can but very good stuff  and much easier to get good results than using stuff from halfords

i brought i because they had burgundy mist, and someone mentioning burgundy mist had given me gas for a bass in said colour
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Philly Q on May 17, 2008, 11:19:54 AM
You can get decent results with spraycan car paints, if you're patient and careful enough.  I wouldn't attempt a sunburst, but it's fine for solid colours.

Not the greatest pic, but this is a spraycan finish and it's still looking fine 20 years later:

(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/hhhjxgzghk.jpg)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Jonny on May 17, 2008, 11:29:13 AM
I did a burst finish on my Stratocaster copy. I thought the burst was good. I just didn't put any clear at the end though. But the bursting was easy (to me) and it is your own guitar, so whatever makes you happy.
Quote from: WezV
although i must admit i brought some spray cans from here recently
http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html

£15 a can but very good stuff  and much easier to get good results than using stuff from halfords

i brought i because they had burgundy mist, and someone mentioning burgundy mist had given me gas for a bass in said colour

They only have Halfords over here. :(

Don't trust those orange aproned B&Q people with their Plasti-kote stuff.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: gingataff on May 17, 2008, 11:51:15 AM
Personally I like my superstrats as bright and garish as possible, your baby blue ESP is a bit mild for my tastes 8)

As an aside, does anyone remember those ESPs back in the 80s that had real Dollar bills under the clear finish? When I was a teenager they looked really cool, of course with inflation the way it is I'm sure they are worthless now :wink:
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: noodleplugerine on May 17, 2008, 12:00:25 PM
Quick google and look at this!!!

http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar.php?ID=5544
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Jonny on May 17, 2008, 12:04:16 PM
That's putting your money into your guitar to a whole new level.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: WezV on May 17, 2008, 12:11:28 PM
Quote from: Philly Q
You can get decent results with spraycan car paints, if you're patient and careful enough.


too true, its the patience that most people struggle with.    it can be a very slow process because of the amount of thinners in those lacquers... it feels dry in seconds but aint fully hard for ages and if you spray the next coat to soon the layer underneath is stopped from curing effectively.  If you take the 'wack it on' approach you can be waiting months or even years for it to be fully hard

those cans i pointed to have a few advantages, they are a bit thicker than standard spray cans  so cover better  and build nicer, but probably have a much shorter shelf life because of that.... but the big advantage is the fan shaped nozzle that makes it much easier to get an even coat without runs.
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: opprobrium_9 on May 17, 2008, 11:03:41 PM
Quote from: noodleplugerine
Quick google and look at this!!!

http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar.php?ID=5544


interesting approach @ a guitar!
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: Lazy_McDoesnothing on May 17, 2008, 11:42:19 PM
Guess what my vote is:
(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8193/99902402zw8.th.jpg) (http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=99902402zw8.jpg)(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6101/16678950rq3.th.jpg) (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=16678950rq3.jpg)
Not the same but it has a lot of the same features.  I just wanted a chance to show off.  :o
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on May 18, 2008, 12:12:45 AM
This is Ben's other ESP that we renovated

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/felineguitars/pimped/PICT3691.jpg)
Title: What colour should I paint My ESP?
Post by: noodleplugerine on May 18, 2008, 12:13:42 AM
Quote from: FELINEGUITARS
This is Ben's other ESP that we renovated

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/felineguitars/pimped/PICT3691.jpg)


And its gorgeous!!!