Jack White's off gray tele with White hardware on SNL

I really like White's tele that was in the background during his second song on SNL. (see pix)

It looks like lighter than Navy gray with all white bigsby and hardware.

I want to do the same with a guitar build.
Does anyone with experience painting metal think it could be done using a white enamel paint from a rattle can?. Would the chromed parts need to be stripped before painting or would just roughing up the finish allow the paint to adhere to the part? I'm open to ideas.

it's aluminum soooo. Acid etch it and rinse, that's to rough it up. You could use the same stuff used for PCB's from someplace like Radio Shack. Give you a good rough surface without scratching it up with paper or steel wool. Then use heat resistant paint and bake it in the oven, get that from an auto parts store, commonly used for exhaust headers if your looking for white. Alternatively I think white is an option for powder coating and that rig will set you back about 30.00 or so from Harbor Freight, you'll need a compressor. Powder coating bakes on as well and has really good bonding to metals. Another possibility is Mil Spec 2 part paint which is expensive, requires special shipping (haz mat), a PITA to use but really durable (basically epoxy). The trick is in the etching first and keeping it clean before coating. Good luck, great idea...

I could be wrong, but that looks like normal chrome or nickel hardware reflecting the stage lighting (the reflections change in the video). Watch the video around 2:10-2:15.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/jack-white-sixteen-saltines/1388803/

Also, I assumed the tele was a light sonic blue or daphne blue.

it's aluminum soooo. Acid etch it and rinse, that's to rough it up. You could use the same stuff used for PCB's from someplace like Radio Shack. Give you a good rough surface without scratching it up with paper or steel wool. Then use heat resistant paint and bake it in the oven, get that from an auto parts store, commonly used for exhaust headers if your looking for white. Alternatively I think white is an option for powder coating and that rig will set you back about 30.00 or so from Harbor Freight, you'll need a compressor. Powder coating bakes on as well and has really good bonding to metals. Another possibility is Mil Spec 2 part paint which is expensive, requires special shipping (haz mat), a PITA to use but really durable (basically epoxy). The trick is in the etching first and keeping it clean before coating. Good luck, great idea...


For the baking, how hot would the over need to be?

Powder coat would be best option

"All bleeding stops eventually"

125-175 should do it for about 30 minutes...if you can smell it pull it out and let it cool, otherwise I'd just turn off the oven at that point and let things cool off inside. I sprayed the jugs from an ancient BSA years ago. Fired them up to 350 for about an hour and then hit them with heat resistant black wrinkle paint then sanded the fins edges...looked great. I just baked an input jack I'd sprayed with black hammered finish in the micro a few days ago at 1 minute on high and the wood it was sitting on started to smoke...it was starting to smell like paint too. Rule of thumb I guess is to keep from scorching it...you just want the metal hot. You could also heat the parts up and spray them while still hot and that keeps from scorching the paint. After I pulled the football jack plate out of the micro, using a potholder that piece of wood was flipping HOT yeow, I shot it again and it seemed to really take it well. I might mention that putting metal parts into and then firing up a microwave doesn't qualify me as the sharpest tool in the shed...but heck I wuz inna hurry...better to use the oven and not risk blowing up your microwave oven. YMMV

You can paint it (the folks who are suggesting powder coating are correct) but I don't think it will stay looking good for too long.