Custom Guitar Paint In Austin

We paint and refinish high-end vintage guitars, custom guitars, or specialty guitars for discriminating guitar players, NATIONWIDE.

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Finding a reliable guitar restoration service can be difficult as it’s important to trust the person handling your instrument. There are often unanswered or overlooked questions when it comes to custom painting musical instruments such as electric or acoustic guitars. Whether you have a custom guitar, acoustic instruments, electric guitar, vintage guitar, etc, most people go into this with the knowledge that they want a “shiny finish” and don’t realize all of the work that goes into it. Our objective is to furnish you with relevant facts and details, so you can make an informed decision.
 
Mythic Guitar Company provides custom paint and restoration services for high-end electric guitars and bass guitars in Austin, TX, with a focus on quality.
Our guitar finishing process involves the use of instrument grade water-based stains and nitrocellulose lacquers or PPG Epoxy Primer, Polyurethane auto paint, and clears. We do not use stains or paints that are intended for porches, decks or houses, or spray paint as we understand that you are bringing us a guitar.

Prioritizing quality over cost can lead to longer-lasting results, even if it requires a larger initial investment. While we are more expensive than others, our work and reputation more than speak for itself. We are a high-end shop, and generally deal with high-end musical instruments.

Paint is more than just a protective coating, it can be a statement! A guitar’s paint job can show the guitar player’s personality and add to stage presence! It’s important to get it right no matter the type of paint used, but, we will help you decide which is best for you!

TYPES OF PAINT.

 

We specialize in nitro finishes.

Nitrocellulose Lacquer Guitar Finishes:

Fender and Gibson guitars used Ninitrocellulose lacquer, also known as lacquer paint, until the 1970’s. It’s smooth. Nitro Finish guitars are sought-after because they can be “reliced” or antiqued. Nitro finish paint will “check” over time or with certain weather conditions, creating lattice patterned cracks. Playing guitars with nitro finishes will polish the spots where your body comes in contact with the guitar. Eventually, the paint in those spots will wear through. Nitro is also known for a very glossy finish.

With continued use, the finish and stain will eventually wear out. Nitro paint has the advantage of not fully drying, making it more resistant to minor damage. Many players find the patina and ability to wear it in like a baseball glove desirable.

Nitrocellulose paint has a limited variety of solid colors, however, the guitars can be stained and then a nitro clear coat can be applied over the top.

Painting nitrocellulose takes at least 6 weeks (not accounting for our current workload). Thin layers are sprayed hourly over several days. Sanding is done in between coats. Then it takes 2 more weeks for it cure enough for polishing without shrinking. It needs another 4 weeks before it’s considered “fully cured”, but it never fully cures. Painting, wet sanding and polishing a guitar with nitrocellulose can take between 80-700 labor hours. The majority of the labor goes towards sanding and buffing to a mirror finish.

 

Nitro paint jobs are more expensive due to their highly toxic nature and starts at $1600 for most paint jobs.  For a more cost-effective alternative, consider using poly.

Polyurethane Paint Guitar:

Poly is a durable paint and can provide a perfect finish. When using Polyurethane paint, it is common to apply sealer, primer, base coat, and clear coat in multiple stages. Single-stage paints are also available, which have the paint and clear combined. Poly paint is highly durable and can resist micro-abrasions and minor dings, but it can be harder than the wood it covers. When a guitar is dinged hard enough, a large chunk of the finish may fall off, revealing bare wood. Relicing a guitar with Poly paint is more difficult to do evenly, often requiring sandpaper and tools.
The Poly paint supplier offers a wide range of paint codes, with over 175,000 options available. Poly paint is also known for a very glossy finish.
 
It is worth noting, that either of these options will leave a smooth surface.

 

Poly paint jobs start at $1100

Which do we prefer?

Ultimately, it is up to the customer, however, we prefer poly! it is used on most modern musical instruments and leaves a smooth surface, and generally requires less coats of paint. If we can ever convince a customer NOT to use Nitro, we will. Poly is less expensive for the customer and we are very experienced in its use. It’s more durable, and takes “days” instead of months!

“Great, so, how does this work?”

Typically, customers call us and say “I want kind of a sort of green-ish, blue-ish kind of color that is a cross between grass green and a blue lucky charm marshmallow – but not really 50’s blue, but kind of greenish, with metal flake and I want it to be candy with pearl metal flakes.” We love those conversations, but, we have made the process much easier for both of us!
 
1. To get the color you want for Polyurethane guitar paint, find a car with that same color and note its year, make, and model. This type of paint is actually car paint. With this information, our auto paint supplier can match the exact color from their database of 175,000 beautiful colors as well as custom colors.
 
2. If you do not have an exact color in mind; For Polyurethane guitar paint, go to your nearest home depot or lowes and pick through their paint chips. Find one that you like and bring that with you when you drop off the guitar (or mail it with the guitar). We can take the paint chip to our auto paint supplier and match the color, add metal flake, pearl, or anything else. (We will not purchase the house paint from home depot.)
 
3. For Nitrocellulose guitar paint, we need the “name” of the paint and which Fender or Gibson model guitar (and possibly year range) it was used on. They may or may not have that color available, but all of the major and well-known Fender and Gibson colors are available (Blonde, TV yellow, Sun Burst, Tobacco Burst, Sherwood Green, Fiesta Red, Sonic Blue, etc). There are a variety of colors to choose from.
 
4. For Guitar staining, it is pretty much impossible to match an exact color due to several factors. You would basically tell us “I want a green and yellow fade” and send us a photo from Google to reference and we will match it as closely as possible and clear coat it with Nitrocellulose lacquer, or Poly clear.
 

 

We do not use acrylic paints or paint guitars with acrylic paint or provide matte finishes

“How much does this cost?”

There are several factors which can drastically affect the price of a custom-painted guitar finish. Some of these factors are, the color itself, the type of paint, the number of colors, coats of paint, the level of gloss, whether we have to fill dents, holes, and chips, whether we have to sand the guitar down to bare wood, whether we have to disassemble and re-assemble the guitar (which requires a full setup once it’s completed), etc. You can ship or bring us the entire guitar, or you can bring or ship us just the body, and we will account for this in the overall pricing.
 
Please call us for a quote today! If you email asking for a quote, I will send you a link to this page or ask if you have read it.

Most paint jobs in our custom shop cost between $1500-3200. 

 


“How do you paint the guitars? what’s your process?”

First and foremost, we generally sand the guitar down to wood, and fill the wood grain, then sand the entire surface with 400 grit sandpaper and apply more grain filler, until we are ready for the color coat, then we add several coats of color. We may use a heat gun to melt the paint off, or we may use various grit sandpaper to sand it down to the wood surface, or even a chemicle paint stripper, depending on what is currently on the guitar. Then we get to the grain filling.

Sometimes, we will use medium grit sandpaper and thoroughly scuff the existing paint, and paint over top of the flat surface. We can put a color coat of nitro over the top of poly, but not the other way around, or we can use poly color coat over the original poly.

The application process is pretty straightforward. we use very expensive, high-quality spray guns. Our spray guns are some of the best on the market. We spray several color coats, then wet sand (most color coats) then apply several coats of clear coat, then wet sand, and buff to a mirror polish and completely flat surface. This process is the same regardless of the type of finish.  If the guitar is a bolt-on neck, we take the neck off, and tape the neck pocket and most of the holes and cavities in the guitar before doing anything else. we often have to tape the neck pocket several times. We use high-quality tack clothes and expensive orbital sanders and paint in a well-ventilated paint booth to ensure the highest quality.

As a side note, a painted acoustic guitar generally does sound less bright than various other finishes, however, a painted acoustic guitar with a thin coat of clear, isn’t nearly as affected as one with primer, color coat, and clear coat. 

Contact Us

(QUOTES will not be given by email. If you email, please ask to schedule a time to speak about your project.)


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