The chinesium tuning machines that came with the kit are pretty bad, so o got a set of sweet Grover tuners.

I put a bunch of clear coats on the guitar and it looks good! I lightly sanded between many of the coats just to knock dust spots and high spots off.

I’m going to let the lacquer harden for a while (the say 7-10 days). Then I will sand and polish a bit.

I applied a couple coats of clear lacquer to the headstock, and now it’s time for lettering!

I laid out the area where the “Les Paul” goes using blue tape and a photo of a ’58 headstock as a reference.

Next I enlisted the wife to use her cursive skills and a silver paint pen to write Less Paul (punny, right?)

Now it’s time to apply a punny sticker I had made.

All done and ready for some sealer.

I want to color the back of the neck, and the back of the body red. I needed to mask off the top so I wouldn’t screw it up. I also made a handle to hold it by. The handle is mounted in the bridge pickup hole.

After I masked it off, I sprayed the back cherry red

After letting the burst dry for a bit, i determined I wanted to do a bit more…

1. I wanted the perimeter a bit darker red.
2. I wanted to fix the dark spots near the controls

I sanded the dark spots a bit and took care of them pretty much. Then I sprayed more red. I got the edge looking like I wanted to, but I added a couple more “apprentice marks” that add character (as the wife calls it). I’m still happy with the results. Remember I’ve never painted a guitar before, let alone sprayed a burst.

The ugly spot is near the 3-way switch, and there are a couple dots here and there.

It looks less orange in person.

Today is the day to spray the burst. I was super nervous about it looking shitty. Spoiler, it came out pretty good.

The paint I bought is a cherry red sunburst finishing kit from stewmac.

I wanted to spray the top first, so I masked off the sides with blue tape.

Then I sprayed the top amber.

Next came the cherry red.

I tried the ber and red lacquer put on a piece of maple I had. It looks pretty cool!

I sprayed all the wood parts that will be painted with sanding sealer. This fills the grain up with a thick coat of stuff that can be sanded off level. This makes a good base to paint on and prevents a ton of lacquer from absorbing into the wood.

I found another gap in the headstock that needed to be filled with epoxy and sawdust.

The mahogany wood on the guitar body and guitar neck needs to be filled to smooth it out a bit (to make the painting easier).

I used a product made specifically for this and mahogany wood.

I also filled a chip in the ebony with some epoxy mixed with epoxy sanding dust.