Recently purchased 1991 American Standard and am in the process of getting it back in shape. Was black poly but prior owner used some red (I don't know what kind of) paint to "embellish" the body. Some dribbles, lines, hand prints, etc. I would like to remove the red without destroying the original black (to the extent possible). I don't want to necessarily bring this back to mint or anything, just want to get rid of the red and leave a reasonably shiny black finish. Any ideas?

upload some pictures,please. so we can see what's going on...

normally there are three ways to remove paint from a guitar:
Chemical method: paint remover (you can get different level of "strength" on some brands)
by heat, with a hot air gun, or by sanding.

now, the problem is that you don't want to take all the paint, just the top layer over the original. it can be tricky on any of the methods. in my opinion heat would be too aggressive, sanding or applying paint remover can be too if not done super carefully. i wouldn't recommend any method until knowing what kind of paint it is, maybe doing some test with less aggressive (and different base) solvents, starting with water, alcohol, turpentine and so on, although before using any petroleum distillates solvents like turpentine, mineral spirits or naphtha i'd test it first in a very small area, or even better, if the red paint was applied below the pick guard or the springs area, thats your lab.

Thanks for the perspective. Sounds like good advice. Appreciate the response.