striping an olp mm1 question...

**bjk** · 11.17.06, 07:12 PM

Hey all, I'm getting ready to stripe an OLP MM1 (red, white, black ala Poundcake video style). I've seen some great looking ones in the replica thread. But I have a question. Do you need to strip or sand down the body before painting, or can you just paint right over the glossy finish? And how much drying time between coats & taping? Thanks for the advice!!!

**Jimmy is Cool** · 11.17.06, 07:32 PM

You should strip the guitar of it's gloss finish, then paint on your first coat. I've found that you should wait about 2 to 2 and a half hours for it to completely dry and tape it up

**Warmoth** · 11.18.06, 08:44 AM

Strip off he laquer with a medium grit sand paper. smooth it out with a soft grit sandpaper when the laquer is off. Have fun, this is a hard job. You should remove all your hardware. tape up your pickups if you are sketchy about removing pickups. Remove the guitar neck or tape it thouroughly if it is a set neck. When spaying the paint be careful to not apply too much paint because it will not dry properly. Start with black. let it dry ... 2-4 hours or more. If it doesn't dry completely the tape for the stripes will peel of the paint. Start by painting the whole guitar black. Place a few pieces of tape where you want you want black stripes. Paint the guitar white. let it dry a long time... 4 hours minimum. 2nd coat it if necessary. Let dry. Place tape for where you want your white stripes to go. Paint the guitar Red. Let dry. 2nd coat if required. Let it all sit for about a day. Peel off all of the tape ... hopefully it wont peel off the paint. That is why drying and patience is so important. You should now have your red/white/black replica.

**bjk** · 11.18.06, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by Warmoth

Strip off he laquer with a medium grit sand paper. smooth it out with a soft grit sandpaper when the laquer is off. Have fun, this is a hard job. You should remove all your hardware. tape up your pickups if you are sketchy about removing pickups. Remove the guitar neck or tape it thouroughly if it is a set neck. When spaying the paint be careful to not apply too much paint because it will not dry properly. Start with black. let it dry ... 2-4 hours or more. If it doesn't dry completely the tape for the stripes will peel of the paint. Start by painting the whole guitar black. Place a few pieces of tape where you want you want black stripes. Paint the guitar white. let it dry a long time... 4 hours minimum. 2nd coat it if necessary. Let dry. Place tape for where you want your white stripes to go. Paint the guitar Red. Let dry. 2nd coat if required. Let it all sit for about a day. Peel off all of the tape ... hopefully it wont peel off the paint. That is why drying and patience is so important. You should now have your red/white/black replica.

Cool. That was pretty much my plan. I'm only striping the front and the headstock- so taping around the body of the guitar was kind of tedius. And no, I didn't disconnect the pickups, just wrapped them up and unscrewed them so I could work around them while striping so lines would look continuous.As for the volume and pickup switch I just removed the nut and washer so they fell into the body cavity.
After the stripe job comes the really scary part- installing a Floyd Rose. I actually robbed it off another guitar. It looks like I won't have to do any routing, just drilling the two holes for the height adjustment anchors (what are those called?). It doesn't look terribly hard to do, it's just a matter of lining it up. I'm scared the strings won't line on the neck. Is it just a matter of eyeballing it once the neck is back on, then marking it where the studs would go? I may be way off, tell me if I am. Remember, I don't need it to pull up, dust dive.....

**Warmoth** · 11.18.06, 12:58 PM

I wish I could give u advise on the whammy set up... what u said makes sense to me but I have only worked on guitars already set up with a Floyd Rose.... sorry! One suggestion, I route the body and setup the floyd prior to painting so that it's just assembly work once painted.

**HipCat5** · 11.20.06, 04:58 AM

If you own a regular MM-1, installing a Floyd Rose doesn't really come out that well because they route the bridge cavity too close to the pickup route on those models. Its a matter of the difference in measurement between the Floyd Rose and the vintage tremolo styles they install in the "F" models and regular models, respectively. I give OLP props, they get the scale length perfect on those guitars, but they don't make it easy for Floyd retrofits. Of course, on the F models they got the routing correct.

I did exactly what you're referring to (install a Floyd into a regular vintage Trem MM-1) and I've never been 100% happy with it because the pickup position robs the guitar/pickup of its ability to produce that warm tone. Move that pickup 1/8 - 1/4 inch away from the bridge and that's the sweet spot. My MM-1 sounds like a hot single coil strat and I've never been able to rectify the problem with swapping out pickups.

FWIW - at least you're aware.
Good Luck

**ncbuckeye3** · 11.20.06, 07:53 AM

When I did my Kramer 1984 paint job, all I did is rough-up the gloss surface so paint would stick. You don't have to strip it all the way down, but make sure you take all of the gloss off of it.

I also did a VH1 on a MIM Strat body. The first time I painted it, I didn't take any gloss off of it and all the new paint came right off. I took that one down to the bare wood for the second try.

**bjk** · 11.20.06, 08:34 PM

Well the paint job is done. It came out pretty good. I copied the stripe patterns straight from a picture of Eddies EBMM. The only problen was the paint had a bit of a cracking effect in some areas after a couple coats. But not bad for a first try. Heck, I only paid $140 for the thing at a Musicians Friend clearance center here in KC. It's mostly scratch & dent items but you find good deals on a ton of stuff. This one just had a broken p/u switch.
Anyway, after the paint job I got brave and tried to install the Floyd. I drilled out the holes and thought I had everything lined up. But when I put it in, I realized they were drilled a hair too close together. DOOH! So I dicked around and widened the hole so it'd line up, but then I couldn't keep it anchored in place. So I just stuck the regular tremblo back in there. You don't really notice the holes, but I'll probably end up filling them in with wood filler. It's really a fun guitar to play, even though it's really light and kind of feels like a toy. But the neck is really fast.

**Wolfgang Bob** · 11.21.06, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by bjk

Anyway, after the paint job I got brave and tried to install the Floyd. I drilled out the holes and thought I had everything lined up. But when I put it in, I realized they were drilled a hair too close together. DOOH! So I dicked around and widened the hole so it'd line up, but then I couldn't keep it anchored in place. So I just stuck the regular tremblo back in there. You don't really notice the holes, but I'll probably end up filling them in with wood filler.

As a carpenter by trade, I would glue wooden dowles in the holes (let dry overnight) than re-drill to the correct size. that SHOULD hold the trem posts in place. That's what iv'e read on other "do-it-yourself" guitar sites. Somebody please correct me if I,m wrong....................

**tommywho5150** · 11.22.06, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Bob

As a carpenter by trade, I would glue wooden dowles in the holes (let dry overnight) than re-drill to the correct size. that SHOULD hold the trem posts in place. That's what iv'e read on other "do-it-yourself" guitar sites. Somebody please correct me if I,m wrong....................

you are 100% correct on this one bud. when ever i build a guitar i dowel ALL the holes in the body and pretty much start from scratch that way i know the holes haven't opened up over time. as for stripping the guitar i ALWAYS strip it down to the bare wood prime it and then apply the paint, that way you can control the amount of paint better who knows how many coats of paint it had in the factory ( i once had a strat i bought brand new and when i stripped it down it was actualy primed then silver then blue then black then laquer!!!) the amount of paint can affect the overal tone of the guitar by altering the resonance of the wood.