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How do I paint my acoustic guitar like this:

enter image description here

Or this:

enter image description here

Matt
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    I think Arts&Crafts.SE is a good fit for this question however we need a little more information to better answer this for you. Are you asking about painting in a certain style or are you asking about what sort of paints you should be using? Can you [edit] your question to describe in more detail your desired effect? – Matt Sep 16 '16 at 14:35

1 Answers1

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The second example ("No me llores") looks airbrushed to me. The first... frankly, I think that you could achieve it with nothing more than a wood stain, correcting fluid and a pocket-knife.

You should be aware, however, that both paintjobs are likely to impair the tone of the instrument. The first one, especially, looks like a number of no-skill, homebrew paintjobs that I've seen over the years. They do very little for a guitar as guitar.

The tone of an acoustic guitar depends greatly on how the soundbox vibrates. Applying a ham-fisted paintjob onto the soundboard, especially, will change its sonic characteristics. What is worse, heavy-handed painting will make it nigh impossible to repair the damage, once it is done (you might simply find it impossible to be rid of the paint without having to sand off a whole layer of wood that it has seeped into, which introduces its own set of problems). This is the reason acoustic guitars are given only a thin coat of soft paint.

I would not recommend doing anything like this to anything other than a cheap and already sub-par guitar - unless you have no intention of ever playing it.

Solid-body electric guitars are much more amenable to crazy paintjobs.

  • I've seen Coldplay using this kind of painting all the time (actually the second guitar - no me llores - is Chris Martin's), so how would they do? Also, would it affect the sound my guitar while I'm playing it plugged or only acoustic? –  Sep 15 '16 at 19:02
  • The tone will be affected in both cases, however amplification may mask this because sound coloration is already going on via the pickup and amplifier. If you want the visual effect without spoiling the tone, it would probably be best to have a professional do it - that is: someone experienced in painting acoustic guitars. As a bonus, such a person is also likely to bring artistic skill to the table. –  Sep 15 '16 at 19:12
  • @RodrigoNader Coldplay uses clumsily painted guitars? C'mon, you're making this too easy. The joke practically writes itself. – Ernest Friedman-Hill Oct 24 '16 at 01:49