Newbie attempting to build FB-1!

Hey guys, this is my first build so I'm after as much advice, help, tips, feedback, and abuse as possible!

I've already had some good advice from Gavin Turner and Stan regarding the finish. I agonised over staining or painting my guitar and have decided on paint. On Gav's advice, this is what I'm going to use for the paint job:

Attachment 2580

I want to paint the body mainly black, with some really deep blue down the middle strip of the guitar.

I guess my first question is has anyone used the "Dupli-Color Autospray" before? It wasn't that cheap at about $13 for the 130g from Supercheap Auto but I'm unsure as to it's suitability. I've sprayed a couple of coats of primer down and one layer of it on a test piece and it seems ok so far. Ideally I want to go for a matte finish but have settled on the White Knight Acrylic clear coat in Satin. Unless anyone can give me some good tips for a matte finish?

I'm all ears!

So I've managed to shape my headstock, maybe not as tidy as I would like and pretty standard but I wanted to keep it in the Firebird style:
Attachment 2581
So now I'm just doing sanding, sanding and more sanding

The headstock looks great.

Great job - the headstock looks awesome. Personally I would take the nut off and level up the nut ledge before painting the headstock (personal preference). For a solid colour, I think all your products look great. The primer is perfect, and the septone will work well with the acrylic clear. I have used the super cheap colour before and it was great (my son's BC-1) but I didn't use white knight acrylic on that. You might just want to do a quick compatibility test between the dupli-colour and the White knight, but I reckon they will be fine. Sounds like a great colour scheme you have planned and am waiting with interest to see it come together!

cheers,
Gav.

Thanks for your help mate, as always your advice is appreciated. Not sure about taking the nut off, sounds like a bit of a mission!? I'll definitely check the White Knight with the dupli-color...that blue is very nice, exactly what I was after so hopefully they will work together.

That primer is godly. Gives such a level finish

Nice to know Nickosaurus! Hopefully I'll get it right.

I used the duplicolour on my green LP - it worked really well

Sweet, I wasn't sure but they had a good range of colours so thought it was worth a shot. Fingers crossed anyway.

spend the time on good prep, it is the key. when you finally go for top coats, you only need enough for good coverage, you dont want it too thick. 2 or 3 should do it. You can go thicker on the clear, as you will be cutting it back and polishing.
Always go with several thin coats and not a few thick ones or curing is a nightmare.

Enjoy mate, looks like you've got it covered

Yep, another one who used the Duplicolour on my ST-1 kit, with good primer it comes up a treat.

From memory Maxaxe did a tele in satin or matte black a while ago >12 months - may be worth a look.

Time to put an extension on the naughty room with all these evil finishes being used :)

Mate, I'm not sure my house is big enough! Being a bit of a novice, maybe you could elaborate...does this paint kill the tone or it just the chemicals used in the paint?

hey Sbkiwi, I think DB is saying both. Worth getting some kind of breathing mask and only spray the paint in a well ventillated area.
The solid paint killing tone is a debate for another time !

Poor SB.....
Only been here for five minutes and banished to the naughty room.....

Woks, better pour SB a beer and explain what the naughty room is all about :)

haha no worries DB, I may need some more bar staff soon as the naughty room is chockas !

SBkiwi there is a long list on the DB banned products and finishes list and anyone caught using them will be sentenced to time in the naughty room. It's not all bad I pour beers and AJ cooks wood fired pizza and we get wifi and workbenches provided haha

Woks, did you get my resume for bar staff? :D

Sorry Pest. Bar staff must be at least 18yo and experienced at pouring from a keg!

Dad found a 17yo barman in Germany, close enough :D

I'm pretty sure I can handle the naughty corner, sounds pretty good to me! I promise I won't do it again (or at least tell anyone about it!)

I keep using banned products so i get to stay...

haha its quite a pleasure SBKiwi in the naughty room, used to be a prison enviromment with no free beer, food or wifi. I've used enough banned products and built an Iceman to get 3 x life sentences so thats why I got nominated NR barman haha
We haven't heard from AJ in charge of the wood fired pizza cooking so we are on the hunt for a replacement, or as I own one can take over cooking pizza if someone else wants to pour beer - its a pretty cool job !

Ok changed my resume for cooking pizza, trust me I'm a pro :D

The naughty corner became the naughty room quite a while ago, we just have too many people / facilities! Even the current naught room is getting quite packed!

more of a naughty share house now...

Naughty room meets big brother :)

Hey guys, it has been a while but I'm onto my first coat of colour...matte black, has come out pretty good so far.
Maybe you experienced dudes can give me some advice on where to go next. I started to wet sand it with 1200 but it's not looking too flash now as is just coming up scratched. Obviously I'm going to give it another coat (or two) but I'll still need to wet sand that won't I, and then have a clear coat on top which will also need to be wet sanded? Anyway, just some advice of where to go next would be good.
Cheers,
Steve

For some reason I can't post photos, I keep getting an error message saying "entity too large". Does that mean I need to resize the image?

Hi Steve, yes resize your image to about 100-150kb in size should upload ok.
Once we see a photo we can comment.
You will need several coats of paint before you can rub it back with some 1200 grit and higher grit paper. Its a slow process but worth it

count me in for the naughty room sounds more like naughty heaven to me, as far as rubbing back paint goes I never rub back my colour coats, only my clear, no need to flatten colour if you are covering with clear.

Hopefully these come out ok...Attachment 3333

The light was pretty low, I could retake them if required...Attachment 3334 Attachment 3335

Looks good sbkiwi!

not a matte black fan but that looks awesome, great job so far

That looks awesome! love flat black guitars.