Has anyone here ever sanded down a guitar and put on a new finish. I have a Gibson Les Paul Special with some paint damage and I would like to refinish it. Just wondering if any of you do it yourselfers have done something like this before, thanks.

How old is that guitar? If it is of the vintage era it would be very valuable and I would suggest any work done to it be done by a professional luthier. It may be worth more with the origional finish than if you tried to paint it.

Its definately not a vintage guitar. It is probably a 2000 model of Gibson's least expensive model(not epiphone). The problem is that my guitar was damaged and I repaired it, except now there is a visible blemish from the accident. so basically I want to sand it down and make it perty again. Here are some pictures of the area with the most damage. Sorry for the quality, all I have here is my camera phone.

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You could probably get a new neck at www.stewmac.com. Diyguitarist.com has info an refinnishing a solid body. Also checkout www.projectguitar.com. I used to have more but I can't find them now.

Good luck!

What type of finish are you looking to do? Solid color or trans? I have refinished a few and can even give some advice on parts at wholesale. My wife and I just closed our retail music store and retired. Guitars are still my first passion and I still have a lot of contacts for parts and accessories, even thought about doing a wholesale book for musicians. Let me know if I can help.

Brilea

that's a pretty common spot for neck breaks. your strap come off? i would get a new neck.

Ya a new neck would be the way to go unless your neck through body then your in a bind, I don't think yours is though. That is a tough spot to have a break though as there is a fair chunk of tension on your neck, and it will effect your tone etc. If you have no choice other then to fix it.

I would probaly sand the area down ever so slightly low, then use a auto filler ( bondo etc) to coat the area, then sand it with a fine paper to reshape it to the contours of your neck. But then your stuck in a situation where you will have to paint your guitars neck a solid colour, as you will no longer have the look or colour of the wood grain there. But I would probably go the neck route as you will always have tension/tuning issues and tone issues.

actually, I've had the guitar fixed with no problems with tone or tuning for over a year now. I am just sick of looking at my nasty workmanship and i'd like to touch it up so you can't tell it was ever broken. I wanted to repaint the entire guitar because I also have some paint damage at the base of the guitar from sitting on my crappy guitar stand. Basically I wasn't sure what kind of paint was used, now I believe automotive paint would be my best bet. Thanks for the interest!