Refinishing a transparent finish guitar

[bduersch]

I have a USA Custom exotic wood fixed-bridge rarity guitar... I love the tone and feel of the guitar. However, I think it spent a little too much of its life in a pawn shop window, and the front face of the guitar body has this strange color fading going on (which I've seen on other USA Customs before, so I'm not completely surprised by it). Now it's probably not all that noticable, really, but for some reason it drives me nuts!

So here's my question... how hard would it be to refinish the body? I assume I'd have to sand through the clear and the stain first. (I think I'm afraid of doing damage to the maple top.)

Also, I've heard before that sometimes flame-top guitars are stained black, sanded down, then restained in color to make the flame stand out more. Any truth to this?

I'd love to refinish it in the sienna transparent (deep red) color that the USRG30's used to come in. Yummy!

--B

[Vaibanez]

The most time consuming part would be removing the old finish.
The staine may not be stain at all...it may be a tinted clear undercoat.
That was a common method for cost reasons.

A multi-step stain-sand-stain process would be too costly for a production model.

My guess is that it will remove down to bare wood fine.

Yes...I have read and have instructions on the black/color stain process.
Traditionaly, the first coat is a consentrated color coat that is applied very dark, then sanded, then a thinner color coat is applied in stages until the desired color depth is achieved. Let this dry a couple days...just to be on the safe side and apply your sealer coat. Then poly the bad boy and polish until you can shave in the reflection....

[frankfalbo]

I don't know what color it is now, but if it was a darker color AND it was a rub on stain, then you might begin sanding and find that the stain penetrated the wood very deeply. Like if it was green for example, your stripped body might have greenish patches or areas with dark green pores. It's no big deal but you'd have to refinish it with a similar or very compatible color. It was probably a spray on color though. My old bandmate had a trans red USA custom and it was an overcoat.