Stripped and refinished my 2016 Les Paul Traditional w/ pictures

[jbyrd78]

I totally get wanting to do something different.
I do that buy/sell/trade/mod all the friggin time.

Yeah, I hear ya. The only reason I applied the red was to have the shadow's under everything after I fade the red completely off.

 

[Azhar]

Superjob!!!Looks ssssweet!!!

Alright fellas, hopefully everyone had a quiet holidays. I ended up having some free time late last week, so I hoped into the trenches and stripped the front of my 2016 Les Paul Traditional, that I had been trying to fade out in natural sunlight, and a tanning bed.
All I have to say, is that I'm glad I stripped the finish off the front. I tried a heat gun/scraper, and sandpaper, but I ultimately ended up using acetone to get everything off. That finish didn't want to go anywhere. From what I was able to remove with the heat, it looked like catalyzed lacquer, and vinyl sealer was used to finish this guitar.

I ended up wiping Tru-Oil on the wood, then I sprayed:
-3 sealer coats of clear WATCO lacquer in a 50/50 mix.
- 1 wash coat of lemon yellow
- A wash coat of RAF blue/brown shader band
- A wash coat of cherry red ainline dye for the sunburst band
- 4 coats of WATCO lacquer thinned in a 50/50 mix

I took pictures of the process, but unfortunately, it will not let me upload the pics. It says the files are to big. So if anyone could help me out with the upload I will send you the pictures if you could upload them because I really want to share the results. Thanks

 

[TheWelder]

Great job refinishing the Trad! I wouldn't call yours a 'clown burst' as you have a nice fade and transition from red to amber.

 

[jbyrd78]

Morning guys,
Thought I would take a few minutes and post a 2 week update on how the fading is going. Since I put my LP back together, she has spent 10hrs in a tanning bed, 1hour in direct sunlight, and numerous hours by the window with the blinds opened in indirect light. I'm happy to say the red aniline dye is fading! All the areas left covered, still have the bright cherry red still underneath. At first, the cherry red band got really dark, and now it is getting very light in color. Some areas are still darker than others, but that is only b/c the red was sprayed darker in those areas. I will keep posting back so you guys can all see the progress.