10/01/2026
Hello, everyone, my guitars have two spirals routes in the wood, exactly as on the ones I made for Prince, one on the headstock and one around the jack on the body. These have to be done with some care to look right but they also present a bit of a problem when painting. The finish on my guitars consists of a primer-sealer coat, colors coats and several coats of clear. The clear coats are then fine sanded to remove surface texture and flatten out imperfections before the final polishing which gives them a glossy shine. That sanding and polishing can't be done to the bottom of the routes however so the spraying must be controlled in a way to make it flow as smoothly as possible in these areas. This is even more tricky when the guitar has a "candy" reflective finish since the color coats are semi-transparent and can have a slightly different thickness in the routes leading to a bit different look. I've found a way to deal with all this over the years however, and here is a look the spirals on several of my guitars!
