Decorating my acoustic guitar; maybe painting or maybe a collage?

J

jessie a

New member
I'm considering decorating the face of my guitar with postcards, ticket stubs, pictures, handwritten notes, stickers, and other little things I encounter on my travels. It would be like an expression of me and what I'm interested in right now and what I've been doing. Or I've also thought about just painting a pretty scene on it. The problem with that is, I'm not very talented at free handed painting so it could easily get messed up.

It's just a basic model guitar and not worth much, plus I think it would be cute, so why not? Perhaps you have done something similar? If so...

What are your suggestions as to how to attach the items to the surface of the guitar. I plan to sand it, apply sanding sealer, sand it again, and then apply a base coat before attaching the items. I don't think I should use a plain old glue? I also need to know what to put over the items to make them stay, protects them, and make sure they don't get damaged or discolored.

Any help is greatly appreciated! :]
 
I don't' agree with the first comment regarding the refacing changing or "deadening" the sound. What you're planning on doing will not affect the sound quality or even playability as long as you use the decorations very light and the coats of a quality urethane appropriate. I've refinished several guitars in the past and on one of my Jackson model 4's I used vine and flower stencils (total Steve Vai nut at that time) and then sprayed several coats of a good urethane, lightly sanding in between. It took over a week to finish but when it was done I had a steel-hard top layer over the stenciled pattern which looks incredible. If you are using post cards and other items that are at least several mils thick you are in for a lot of coating, sanding, coating, sanding, and on and on and on in order to get the top coat sealed perfectly. I would affix your decorations firmly with any adhesive that wont cause wetness and bubbling and that means a non-water based spray-adhesive. Get your pattern laid out, prepare the surface just as you've said, spray a light coat of adhesive and then affix the decorations and allow to dry well. Then you can begin spraying clear urethane (spray cans work fine) and once you get several coats on, you can use light steel wool very sparingly to sand between hardened coats. Do this over several days and the final coat will result in a deep lustre.Although you will get yellowing over time, try and keep it out of the sun.
 
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