DIY Pickguard and pickup cover painting on a Squier Affinity V

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Hi Tbers! After much thought, I purchased a Squier Affinity Jazz V as my second bass and I am in need of help on how to paint both the pickguard and the pickups (covers) on it for when it arrives. I just love jazz basses but hate the traditional black/white thing that everyone has. Now I know I could buy a MIM/MIA pickguard but I want it to have DIY feel to it so that's a no go for me.

So if anyone cares, my theme for the bass will be to paint the pickguard red with black (mixed and dab it with a clear sandwich plastic wrapper for a marbel effect) and red pickups (or maybe front pup red and bridge pickup white).

If anyone has fairly specific ways of doing so then please share (specially if its stingray69, that guy knows how to mod those Squiers out)

[stingray69]

Originally Posted by EmmanuelArroyo

Hi Tbers! After much thought, I purchased a Squier Affinity Jazz V as my second bass and I am in need of help on how to paint both the pickguard and the pickups (covers) on it for when it arrives. I just love jazz basses but hate the traditional black/white thing that everyone has. Now I know I could buy a MIM/MIA pickguard but I want it to have DIY feel to it so that's a no go for me.

So if anyone cares, my theme for the bass will be to paint the pickguard red with black (mixed and dab it with a clear sandwich plastic wrapper for a marbel effect) and red pickups (or maybe front pup red and bridge pickup white).

If anyone has fairly specific ways of doing so then please share (specially if its stingray69, that guy knows how to mod those Squiers out)

Hi Emmanuel,

Thank You for the kind words!

I have painted plastic pickups covers before using Krylon Fusion Paint - available at a lot of hardware stores with pretty good results. However, the pickguard painting technique you are describing with mixed paint and dabbing for a marbled look - this is something I have never done. Not sure how to advise on that other than wishing you the best of luck with it & suggesting some trial practice if you are lucky enough to have an old pickguard at your disposal to test on first.

Here is the Krylon Fusion Paint on the pickup covers, IIRC i think i applied 4-5 light coatings and 1-2 medium-coverage sprays to do a gradual build up to avoid any run marks on the pick covers:

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Originally Posted by stingray69

Hi Emmanuel,

Thank You for the kind words!

I have painted plastic pickups covers before using Krylon Fusion Paint - available at a lot of hardware stores with pretty good results. However, the pickguard painting technique you are describing with mixed paint and dabbing for a marbled look - this is something I have never done. Not sure how to advise on that other than wishing you the best of luck with it & suggesting some trial practice if you are lucky enough to have an old pickguard at your disposal to test on first.

Here is the Krylon Fusion Paint on the pickup covers, IIRC i think i applied 4-5 light coatings and 1-2 medium-coverage sprays to do a gradual build up to avoid any run marks on the pick covers:

Thanks for stopping by and answering my questions. Did you sand the pickup covers? also was it easy to take off the covers?

Oh and one last thing I saw a pic of a stripped Squier Affinity V around here one day and I think it was yours, what happend with it?

Thanks again and you were actually THE reason why I picked one of these up as my new main bass. Best descision ever.

[sanderic]

Please take my suggestions with caution, as I have not done this on a plastic surface. As I am a full time artist in the French Quarter in New Orleans, I paint "marble" looking paintings all the time and can tell you how to achieve what I think your looking for in the red/black. However I fear you doing this on such a large pickguard
Pickguard material is the same material artist use for paint pallets. The reason; the paint will easily peel off for cleaning. Even if you were to use some type of heavy sealer coat over it, your foundation coats are not fundamentally solid. You would have to do some serious sanding/scratching to the pg and even then I'd be nervous about it.
Please keep this in mind. If you decide you want this, please post and I can direct you to my website where you can see these type colors.

[stingray69]

Originally Posted by EmmanuelArroyo

Thanks for stopping by and answering my questions. Did you sand the pickup covers? also was it easy to take off the covers?

Oh and one last thing I saw a pic of a stripped Squier Affinity V around here one day and I think it was yours, what happend with it?

Thanks again and you were actually THE reason why I picked one of these up as my new main bass. Best descision ever.

Well thank you for the kind words again!

I did lightly sand the pickup covers with steel wool just to very lightly aggravate the surface hoping to give the Krylon paint some extra grip, not sure if it is absolutely necessary though.

The stripped body was an experiment at a re-finish. I did strip the body and was going for a dark stain then a clear coat finish. Well, the stain turned out way darker than I wanted - not a good look, kinda blotchy too, lol. In retrostpect, I should have just stripped the paint and went with a clear coat for protection - it would have darkened the body enough. So, it is around somewhere in a collection of parts, lol. Maybe a rainy-day project if I want to sand the body down to remove the dark stain and shoot some clear coat on it.

Glad you are digging the Affinity V - I have two of them for the last few years. I also have much more expensive instruments, but I will always keep these with me. They play great and sound great! Definitely a sleeper among the Squier lines, but I've seen a few other TB'er with many years of experience talk highly of them too. They are my only jazz basses at the moment and they work very well in giving me excellent, growly jazz bass tones!

Here is the stripped Affinity Jazz V body:

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Originally Posted by sanderic

Please take my suggestions with caution, as I have not done this on a plastic surface. As I am a full time artist in the French Quarter in New Orleans, I paint "marble" looking paintings all the time and can tell you how to achieve what I think your looking for in the red/black. However I fear you doing this on such a large pickguard
Pickguard material is the same material artist use for paint pallets. The reason; the paint will easily peel off for cleaning. Even if you were to use some type of heavy sealer coat over it, your foundation coats are not fundamentally solid. You would have to do some serious sanding/scratching to the pg and even then I'd be nervous about it.
Please keep this in mind. If you decide you want this, please post and I can direct you to my website where you can see these type colors.

Thanks for posting. Yes please share your technique and help others.


http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=YNPkDifTpZQ

This is the kind of marble effect I'm looking for but in red and black.

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Well thank you for the kind words again!

I did lightly sand the pickup covers with steel wool just to very lightly aggravate the surface hoping to give the Krylon paint some extra grip, not sure if it is absolutely necessary though.

The stripped body was an experiment at a re-finish. I did strip the body and was going for a dark stain then a clear coat finish. Well, the stain turned out way darker than I wanted - not a good look, kinda blotchy too, lol. In retrostpect, I should have just stripped the paint and went with a clear coat for protection - it would have darkened the body enough. So, it is around somewhere in a collection of parts, lol. Maybe a rainy-day project if I want to sand the body down to remove the dark stain and shoot some clear coat on it.

Glad you are digging the Affinity V - I have two of them for the last few years. I also have much more expensive instruments, but I will always keep these with me. They play great and sound great! Definitely a sleeper among the Squier lines, but I've seen a few other TB'er with many years of experience talk highly of them too. They are my only jazz basses at the moment and they work very well in giving me excellent, growly jazz bass tones!

Here is the stripped Affinity Jazz V body:

[IMG]http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h290/stingray69-1/
103_2402.jpg[/IMG][/quote]

Hope that if you do something you'll post it here. Thanksgiving for all the help.

[stingray69]

Originally Posted by EmmanuelArroyo

Hope that if you do something you'll post it here. Thanksgiving for all the help.

Will do - best of luck with your pickguard!

[sanderic]

Enjoyed the refinishing video. Couldn't help but notice the comment "darker than I wanted". That is why it's art and not science, when blending, not mixing, colors, it is often the color that is in control, not the artist. To achieve the perfect blend takes experience, there simply are no shortcuts.
Once again, I hesitate to do this on a pickguard as the paint can easily peel. The video shows a wood body bass being refinished. The finish underneath has been scuffed allowing the topcoats to adhere.
OK, here is how I would do it on a pickguard. Sand the hell out of it, the rougher the better, it's your only hope of it holding up. Paint the pickguard with a grey primer. You won't need to worry about masking any edges, they can easily be cleaned with a scraper. Acrylic paint, cadmium red and ivory black. There are no substitutes for ivory black. Do not try mars black, permanent black, or any other black, they are too opaque and will overpower the red. Using a sponge ( I use a brush, but I think that would leave a texture too thick for your liking) put unblinded red and black on the sponge and apply to the surface, the first impression is the best, the more you mix, the muddier it will get. Occasionally add a dab of cadmium yellow deep. Do not clean the sponge, the mixture can leave some beautiful brown tints along with the color. You may see samples of my paintings at www.sandrasanford.com, look for Eric's Gallery on the site hope this helps. Best of luck.

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Originally Posted by sanderic

Please take my suggestions with caution, as I have not done this on a plastic surface. As I am a full time artist in the French Quarter in New Orleans, I paint "marble" looking paintings all the time and can tell you how to achieve what I think your looking for in the red/black. However I fear you doing this on such a large pickguard
Pickguard material is the same material artist use for paint pallets. The reason; the paint will easily peel off for cleaning. Even if you were to use some type of heavy sealer coat over it, your foundation coats are not fundamentally solid. You would have to do some serious sanding/scratching to the pg and even then I'd be nervous about it.
Please keep this in mind. If you decide you want this, please post and I can direct you to my website where you can see these type colors.

Originally Posted by sanderic

Enjoyed the refinishing video. Couldn't help but notice the comment "darker than I wanted". That is why it's art and not science, when blending, not mixing, colors, it is often the color that is in control, not the artist. To achieve the perfect blend takes experience, there simply are no shortcuts.
Once again, I hesitate to do this on a pickguard as the paint can easily peel. The video shows a wood body bass being refinished. The finish underneath has been scuffed allowing the topcoats to adhere.
OK, here is how I would do it on a pickguard. Sand the hell out of it, the rougher the better, it's your only hope of it holding up. Paint the pickguard with a grey primer. You won't need to worry about masking any edges, they can easily be cleaned with a scraper. Acrylic paint, cadmium red and ivory black. There are no substitutes for ivory black. Do not try mars black, permanent black, or any other black, they are too opaque and will overpower the red. Using a sponge ( I use a brush, but I think that would leave a texture too thick for your liking) put unblinded red and black on the sponge and apply to the surface, the first impression is the best, the more you mix, the muddier it will get. Occasionally add a dab of cadmium yellow deep. Do not clean the sponge, the mixture can leave some beautiful brown tints along with the color. You may see samples of my paintings at www.sandrasanford.com, look for Eric's Gallery on the site hope this helps. Best of luck.

Like the paintings sur-real bendy nature. I only have spray paint but I did sand it down and put a "primer" coat of white ( I could not find gray)
I will use a sponge now that you mentioned it. I will post a pic of it when done as swell as with the covers.

Thank you all.

[sanderic]

I can't think of any way my results could be achieved with spray paint ( if you do figure out how, do tell me, as you have saved me hours upon hours of labor) .
It doesn't really matter if the primer is grey, that's just a color I use.
Good luck with your results.

[EmmanuelArroyo]

Just finished the pickguard but I don't know how to upload it by iPhone.

[sanderic]

There should be a camera icon on the bottom of the screen. Click on it. You will the be asked whether you want to take a photo or use one from the camera roll ( I assume you have the photo on camera roll). Choose camera roll, click on the photo you want, and press send.
Can't wait to see your pics.