I recently aquired a new American FSR with a sunburst finish. I bought this guitar strictly for how it sounds, but having said that, I'm not particularly fond of the sunburst finish. I've read some articles suggesting that the newer poly coats can be easily stripped/peeled using a heat gun as long as care is taken not to scorch the wood. However, I'm unsure about the sunburst. Is it the same poly coating at the painted strats? And, what about the darker portion around the edges of the guitar, are they poly or stained black? Lastly, are there any comercial strippers that will remove poly without damaging the wood.

Thanks in advance for any advise I might recieve.

Axlton, I have never stripped a guitar, so cannot say for sure, and wouldn't strip any of my three sunburst guitars because I really like the look. I cant say i like the idea of taking heat to a body either, as i would be worried about what it might do to the glue holding the various sections of the body together. However, I can tell you:

1) the poly can be reasonably thick, getting on for a millimetre;
2) it looks like it might be 'peelable', as it it quite flexible in its natural state; and
3) the wood isn't stained black under the finish but has an orange tint. [edited this bit!]

I base this on the various chips and dings I've collected! All of them, including a sizeable one of the darkest edge of my 80s Japanese strat, show slightly orangey wood underneath. The flaky edges of the chips can be flexed with a finger nail. It's also way thicker than I had ever expected it would be!

Yours could of course be different. If you are intent on stripping it, I would suggest starting with areas that are not easily seen, so under the trem plate on the back or the scratch plate on the front. If it all goes wrong and you scorch the wood or simply change your mind, at the very least you can hide it.

YMMV!!

[edited these bits! Thanks to ceri for the subtle hint that I should look again!]

_________________
Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus

Hi axlton, welcome to the Forum.

There are three ways to strip any guitar body. Sanding; paint stripper; heat gun. In reality the second two always involve a bit of sanding work as well.

I prefer the heat gun because it's quick, cheap and less toxic than chemicals. I find those thick polyester finishes come off a treat with heat - here's a Tele-type bod with a very thick finish I did as a demo for Forum user SBLS on another thread. This took about half an hour including photography:





Couple of tricks to remember. Do the edges and cavities first, because that way the paint that's still there on the front of the body protects it from scorching till you're ready for the wide, flat areas:



Other than that, keep the heat gun moving. As soon as the paint starts bubbling get in there with the scraper while moving the gun steadily along. That way you avoid scorching the timber:



Even so, you are bound to get the occasional slight burns, especially the first time you try this. However, so long as you don't keep the heat in one place for long they won't be bad and will just sand out easily.

Regarding sunbursts. I don't know about Nobby's MIJ guitar but traditionally Fender's sunbursts were done by dunking the body whole into a big vat of amber stain. That created the middle of the burst, and then brown and black semi-trans lacquer were sprayed around the edges, before clear lacquer was put all over the entire body. (Forum user Twelvebar has more to say on this subject... )

Whether you have a sunburst or a solid finish the lacquer is the same, with or without dye to colour it. If you have a polyester finish then that's what's all over the body, regardless whether it's transparent in the middle, black round the edges or whatever. So there's no procedural difference stripping a sunburst to any other type of finish.

Any more questions, gissa shout.

Cheers - C

_________________

What are you planning on using for a color/finish once you've stripped it?

Back when I was a senior in High School ('76), I decided I would do this to my strat in wood shop.

I wanted to go with natural (just take the existing finish off, sand, reseal etc.)

Once I got the finish off I discovered the wood on the body was not exactly a good looking specimen for a natural finish, but it was too late to turn back, sand instead of changing course and spraying it with a solid color, I went with it anyway, but was never happy with the results, morale of the story for me was, I should have let it be.

Guys, my apologies - having looked more closely in daylight, there is a definite orange-ish tint to the wood under the chips. It isn't a particularly strong colour, but it is there. I'd figured it was the natural colour and was only thinking about whether or not it was black! I might have to blame halogen spot lights...

So ceri, the process you described fits with the finish of my MIJ sunburst guitar too.

I've changed my first reply too so noone goes stripping something expecting totally bare wood under there...

BTW ceri, your second pic in the how-to post reminds me of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Hahaha - yes!

And BTW backatcha; I wasn't in the slightest questioning what you were saying about your MIJ sunburst. I've seen them done different ways at different times: for instance, there's a gentleman in Manchester who does a very respectable sunburst using an amber tinted lacquer for the middle bit, rather than staining the wood.

And if Twelvebar looks in I've a feeling he'll have more to say about how the black edges are done too...

Cheers guys - C

_________________

Heh! I know that, but you could have... 'cos I was wrong!



"All of the can, half of the how, and none of the why" - it's how my granddad described me at eighteen. I wonder how much that sucker would be worth now? (your strat, not my granddad!)

_________________
Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus

hahaha! Exactly!!!

I plan to stain and wax it... I'm going to do a dark red semi-transparent stain.
I'm also doing a custom pick guard for it. It's going to be black latigo leather with hand tooled nautical stars. [edit: I decided for sure how I'm doing the pickguard so deleted the other option]

Any thoughts on how this might look, good, bad, ugly?

Oh, btw, I forgot to say thank you to Ceri for the exaustive tutorial, I could not have imagined I'd ever get so much help in such a short time.

Thank you!