I want to refinish a Classic Vibe Tele

Pickers,
I have a Classic Vibe Squier Telecaster with white front and back binding.
I want to somehow strip the finish and repaint it a different color and somehow preserve the white binding on it. I'm not positive what they originally used to stain / clear it. Could be anything from lacquer to poly to who knows what.

I will try to attach a photo of the body here.

I'm told I can just "rough it up" and paint over the whole thing the way it is but that doesn't sound right to me.

I need advice on stripping it down to wood and painting it and clear-coating it properly. Any advice will be appreciated.

John in Ohio

When I refinished a guitar with binding I masked off the very edge of the binding as best as I could, painted the color, then scraped away at the binding when it was dry to get a sharp edge. Then took off the tape and clear coated over the whole finish and binding. Stew mac sells a binding scraper for this purpose, but it's easy to build yourself with an exacto knife.

Rob from Rhomco guitars has a neat method using a microscope slide. (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showpost.php?p=7787805&postcount=10)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/rhomco/BindingScraper006.jpg

A thread on reranch about this. (http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewtopic.php?t=39307&sid=c2919d0b9f10bf1c844e6c95dd3dec5b)

When I refinished a guitar with binding I masked off the very edge of the binding as best as I could, painted the color, then scraped away at the binding when it was dry to get a sharp edge. Then took off the tape and clear coated over the whole finish and binding. Stew mac sells a binding scraper for this purpose, but it's easy to build yourself with an exacto knife.

Rob from Rhomco guitars has a neat method using a microscope slide. (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showpost.php?p=7787805&postcount=10)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/rhomco/BindingScraper006.jpg

A thread on reranch about this. (http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewtopic.php?t=39307&sid=c2919d0b9f10bf1c844e6c95dd3dec5b)

Thanks for the reply.
Did you strip the lacquer and paint off first or just spray over it?
John

I only refinished the top of a Gretsch Anniversary with white binding.
I sanded down the top, through the black spraypaint hack job, but didn't remove all the original green that was still under there.

Then I primed it with white, a couple coats, and then moved on to green.

It depends what color you want. If you are going transparent to show the grain, you'll naturally need to strip. But if you are doing a solid color, just sand it down to get a little "tooth" on the surface and you can then prime it in white and do whatever custom color over that. Fender famously finished colors over sunbursts at the factory when they didn't some out right.

Here is how mine turned out:

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x23/jonathanbennett120/IMG_4706.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x23/jonathanbennett120/IMG_4710.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x23/jonathanbennett120/IMG_4728.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x23/jonathanbennett120/IMG_4724.jpg

I only refinished the top of a Gretsch Anniversary with white binding.
I sanded down the top, through the black spraypaint hack job, but didn't remove all the original green that was still under there.

Then I primed it with white, a couple coats, and then moved on to green.

It depends what color you want. If you are going transparent to show the grain, you'll naturally need to strip. But if you are doing a solid color, just sand it down to get a little "tooth" on the surface and you can then prime it in white and do whatever custom color over that. Fender famously finished colors over sunbursts at the factory when they didn't some out right.


WOW - That came out beautifully. I just want a solid color, maybe some flake in it. I have a guy that does cars professionally who will spray it for me. So if it's not too much to ask, what kind of paint did you use for the white and the green, and what kind of clear did you use?

I'm painfully uneducated in this area :confused:

Thanks,
John in Ohio

I wanted to go cheap, so I actually bought Testors brand plastic model spray paint from their "auto-lacquer" series (http://www.testors.com/category/136961/). It was a three part system sold in 3oz. cans that came with a white primer, the "diamond green" that looks very much like Gretsch's "smoke green" and a clear lacquer. They discontinued that color. :(

They do make some great metallics though and it's very nice paint. Worked really well.

You might want to consider selling/trading your tele for one that's the color you're looking for....if you like something available. I'm slowly working my skills up and have painted several guitars and even with no binding, I can't tell you how many "oops"es and redos I've done. I did one with binding but sanded the top to the binding and clear finished it with tru oil. All my other paint jobs have been black lacquer with a clear coat over. It's months of work....and the number of months is more than 3 start to finish.

Im actually going to do exactly the same, as the body on the sunburst ones are alder it will be easier than the other ones to strip. I intend to take the binding off and chuck it, hot gun the finish off, sand to bare wood, respray in nitro (not sure what colour yet), add new binding. I cant see how you can get the finish off without removing the binding.