Customize Your Guitar

Customizing a guitar is a fun way to express yourself and make your instrument more personal to you. Stand out from the crowd by decorating the body of your guitar and adding special parts and accessories to make an acoustic or electric guitar look truly unique to you and your style.

Steps

Decorating the Body of Your Guitar

1. Paint your guitar. Disassemble your guitar carefully to paint the body of it with spray paint or another paint that is safe for guitars. Add designs or repaint the whole surface, then top with a guitar lacquer for a shiny, professional finish.
   • It’s important to sand down the surface of the body before you paint, using sandpaper and a sanding block to smooth the surface and help the paint adhere to it.
   • It’s a good idea to coat the body with a primer before adding paint. Add several layers of each to get an even color in your desired shade.
   • Note that painting, especially if you’re doing the entirety of the guitar body, is best done on a solid-body electric guitar. Hollow-body guitars like acoustic guitars are more sensitive to changes to the wood and susceptible to getting the paint into the interior of the instrument.
2. Add stickers or decals. Add any stickers or decals you want to the body of an electric or acoustic guitar for some extra character, color, or to make a statement.
   • Note that most typical stickers will leave a sticky residue behind or even pull up the lacquer or paint on your guitar. Make sure you are happy with the stickers being there permanently before you apply them.
   • You can buy decals that look a little bit like giving your guitar a tattoo. It’s best to spray a coat of lacquer over a decal for a shine consistent with the rest of your guitar.
3. Draw or write with pens. Sketch out your own freeform design or use a stencil to create patterns, pictures, or words on the body of your guitar with markers, pens, or paint pens.
   • Remember that most markers and pens are permanent. Sketch out a design lightly with a pencil before you add color from a marker. You may be able to remove some color with a little rubbing alcohol.
   • Try adding your own signature to your guitar for an extra personal touch.
   • You can also add some sparkle to your designs by applying small gems or rhinestones using wood glue.
4. Add colorful binding or purfling. Choose a colored or patterned decal to easily change up the existing binding and purfling on the edges of your guitar, which are the thin plastic or wood pieces between any two edges of the instrument body.
   • The binding piece on your guitar is usually white or neutral wood, but the purfling can come in a herringbone pattern or other colors and patterns.

Adding Custom Guitar Parts

1. Buy fretboard inlay stickers. Try an alternative to inlays made of stone or shell in a guitar fretboard by purchasing stickers made to look like the real thing. These are easily applied and stay put under strings and fingers.
   • Try different shapes, designs, or even custom words for each fret.
   • Carefully remove the strings on your guitar, clean and dry the surface of the fretboard, and center the stickers evenly on the frets to apply them.
   • You can also buy stickers meant for the headstock of your guitar, which you can even personalize with your name like a famous musician!
2. Add a unique pickguard. Add a pickguard to your guitar in a fun color, shape, or pattern. The pickguard is used to protect the surface of your guitar face from scratching of the pick, but it can also be a highly decorative, customizable piece.
   • Applying a new pickguard is easiest to do on a guitar that doesn’t already have a one, but it may be possible to replace an existing one by carefully removing it with a bridge removal knife and a little heat from a lamp.
3. Try colorful strings and knobs. Replace your current strings and tuning knobs with colorful varieties or different finishes.
   • Make sure you don’t sacrifice quality when replacing guitar strings. Use the same gauge and steel or nylon material of your current guitar (or upgrade to better quality!), or you will end up with a completely different sound and feeling while playing.
   • Electric guitars have even more options for knob customization, as you can replace knobs on the face of the guitar as well with special shapes and materials. Just make sure you check whether your guitar has solid shaft or split shaft pots before you buy new knobs.
4. Install new bridge pins. Replace the pins that hold your guitar strings on the bridge of your guitar. Customize with unique pins that contain shell, bone, brass, or other materials that give them color and shine.
   • Bridge pins made from bone and wood can also change and improve the quality of sound from your guitar strings.
5. Replace pickup covers. If you have an electric guitar with pickup covers that can be replaced, try a new color or finish for them.
   • All you should need is a screwdriver to replace removable pickup covers. They come in all different colors and finishes to complement your guitar any way you want.

Customizing with Other Accessories

1. Get a new case or make your own. Protect and carry around your guitar in style by getting a new hard or soft case. Or, Make a Guitar Case easily with some fabric, batting, and a sewing machine.
   • You can also make your own hard case if you have good woodworking skills and access to the materials necessary to cut a custom shape for your guitar.
   • Make sure that if you make your own case, there is no extra room inside for your guitar to rattle around and get damaged, but also doesn’t get squeezed too tightly.
2. Decorate your existing case. Try spicing up an old case with new, unique details to display your personality and style.
   • On a soft case, you can sew or iron on patches, embroider patterns, or attach buttons or piping.
   • On a hard case, you can add stickers, paint or pen designs, or replace the clasps and other hardware with new fixtures in a different metal or color.
   • On any case, you can also try customizing the lining by hand-sewing or using fabric glue to attach your own fabric in a fun color or pattern to the inside of the case. Just make sure your guitar still fits well in the case with your added lining.
3. Get a new guitar strap. Get yourself a new guitar strap to easily add a touch of color or pattern to the overall look of your instrument. Choose a wide, well-made strap for comfort and durability.
   • You can also make your own guitar strap with any piece of heavy fabric and the right fittings to attach it to your guitar. Or, simply spruce up your existing strap by wrapping new fabric around it.
4. Find unique guitar picks. Get new picks that express your style or complement the look of your guitar. Find guitar or music stores that can create custom picks for you, or that make unique or unusual picks.
   • You can even make your own picks using a pick puncher, which cuts out the right shape from any hard plastic or other suitable material.

Warnings

• Consult a guitar expert or someone very knowledgeable about your specific brand and variety of guitar before you make any permanent alterations to the guitar. Have a professional disassemble and reassemble parts for you if you are not perfectly comfortable doing so.
• Remember that paints, pens, markers, and even stickers can be permanent or leave permanent marks on your guitar! Don’t risk ruining an expensive instrument with decoration that is not well thought-out or sketched-out first, as you cannot reverse it.

Related Articles

• Custom Paint Your Electric Guitar
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• Design Your Own Guitar
• Make Flexible and Durable Guitar Picks
• Change Strings on an Electric Guitar
• Make Your Guitar Feel Like an Ibanez

Sources and Citations

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