So you've probably been asked this a lot but how did you do Greg's guitar? Was it spray paint?
Okay heres how I did my Greg Universe space guitar. I used a real guitar because I wanted to be able to play it but this tutorial also works for rock band guitars, or just what ever non functioning prop guitar you have.
I was lucky enough to find a flat black guitar to start with, which was this Jackson Dinky I got on ebay for 105 bucks and it plays surprisingly well for the price.
Here is what you are gonna need for this:
Blue painters tape
an exacto knife with a fresh blade
1 can of white semigloss spray paint- any brand
1 can of black semigloss spray paint- any brand
1 can Rust-oleum “GLOSS MAUI BLUE” spray paint
1 can of Rust-oleum 2x ultra color SATIN Nutmeg spray paint
1 can of any brand Metallic silver spray paint (optional)
1 red paint pen
Lots of old newspapers
You can find the paint pen and exacto knife at any craft store, the rest I bought from Home depot after like 45 minutes of matching colors and doing test sprays to find the closest ones to Greg’s guitar.
First thing you’re going to want to do is take any removable hardware off the guitar. Strings, nobs, switches ect. I took the nuts off the tuners on the headstock but thats not really necessary unless you like to be really detailed like me. Once thats done wiep the face and headstock of the guitar down real good with a disinfecting wipe or a wet wipe, something to get any dirt and grease off it from having someones hand resting on the face for who knows how many years and then dry it really well with some paper towels.
Then you are going to start taping over things you don’t want to get painted with the blue painters tape. I started with the pickups and the tone switch, then I did the bridge, the sides/back of the headstock and the tuners, Once all that was done I ran a line of tape along the outer lip of the guitar about half an inch wide and used the exacto knife to even out any spots that came out too wide. After that I wrapped the neck in some newspaper and made sure it was sealed on with more tape. and did the same with the sides and back of the guitar.
If you’ve been following along your guitar should look like this
Now you are ready for paint. I’m not an expert with spray painting and I’m sure you can find a tutorial on youtube or something that will tell you how to do even coats and how long you should wait between coats and stuff, but anyway. I painted the headstock and face of the guitar with the black semigloss paint and here is what they looked like 24 hours later.
Next you are going to wrap the headstock in news paper and seal it up (we’ll come back to that later) and tape a curved line across the front of the guitar just below the bridge and pickups, cover everything above that line with newspaper and tape it down then paint it again with the blue paint. After 24 hours you can remove the newspaper on the face and you’ll have this.
Next step is painting the land. Section off the far left piece of blue with a piece of tape and use your exacto to cut some ridges into the shape of the land. You can look at a reference picture of gregs guitar or just free hand it, it really doesn’t make much of a difference. Once its done pull off the left side the the tape, seal everythign with newspaper again so it looks like this
Then hit it with the nutmeg brown paint. Wait 24 hours
Now is when you’re really going to put that exacto knife to work. Take all the newspaper and tape off the face the guitar aside from the stuff you put on in very beginning. (pickups, bridge, and the outer lip) then tape over EVERYTHING. with tape. No news paper. Once thats done you are going to cut out a curved line between the pickups and the earth for the clouds. Then you are going to cut out the moon and start cutting out stars. (I used a Keurig cup for the shape of the moon) You can look at references for yourself if you want, but the stars disappear and reappear on Gregs guitar depending on the shot your looking at. I went through references for everrrr till I found them all so you are better off just looking at where I placed everything on my guitar honestly. Once you are done cutting everything It will look like this.
Now paint the guitar with the semigloss white.
This next part is optional but its what I did for my guitar. After 24 hours when the white was dry I taped off the clouds and moon and gave the stars one or two super light dustings with that silver metallic paint just to set them part from the clouds and give them a faint sparkle, Then when that was dry I taped off all the stars and taped a crescent shape off on the moon before giving that 3 or 4 dustings with the metalic silver paint. Thats how I got the shadow effect so that the moons shape changes depending on the lighting/angle its viewed from to replicate the ever changing shadow on Greg’s guitar.
Anyway, once all thats dry all you can pull the tape off of everything and view long awaited outcome of your hard work!
As you can see there was some overspray, which happens. I just taped off the respective areas and touched them each up individually. Once thats done all thats left is the do the JADER lettering on the headstock.
I used a white paint pen at first by mistake but I’ve since redone it in RED like Greg’s guitar. I just don’t have any new pictures. Just don’t make the same mistake as me because taking the strings off again to re do it was annoying.
Anyway, one you do the lettering and it drys you can put your guitar back together and rock out. Just don’t forget to pick up a red guitar strap!
Hope this helps anyone looking to do a Greg guitar, and if you do use this write up, make sure you tag me so I can see your awesome guitars!
