painting a headshell

[justinhedrick]

my peavey VTM headshell has seen better days. the kid who had it before me painted PART of it with some chameleon paint that changes color under different light and the head overall is starting to look pretty beat. what could/should i use to paint it?

i wanted to paint it a green color, but don't want people to think i'm a poser . . .

[Hemisaurus]

Yeah I know I did it, but I probably did it wrong. I just got a can of fluorescent green paint they use for road markings or something. I wasn't going for a quality job. Getting a paint that will stick well to tolex could be tricky.

[VOLVO)))]

Strip the tolex, sand off all of the contact cement, sand the wood smooth, fill holes with bondo, prime it, sand it, prime it, sand it, three coats of enamel paint, sanding between each, then clear three times, sanding between each.

[justinhedrick]

Strip the tolex, sand off all of the contact cement, sand the wood smooth, fill holes with bondo, prime it, sand it, prime it, sand it, three coats of enamel paint, sanding between each, then clear three times, sanding between each.

yeah, i honestly don't have time for all this . . . i think i'm going to go hemi's route when the temp in illi-noise stays above 60 degrees.

[VOLVO)))]

Then don't ask, next time. Just do it and allow it to look like garbage.

[Hemisaurus]

Hey mine looks quite nice under stage lighting

Plus I think I have the advantage if I ever want to go back to black I can just hose it off with my pressure washer

[VOLVO)))]

Sorry. That may have came off harsh. I dont half ass anything. Nor do i do substandard finishing on anything.

[Hemisaurus]

Punk ways die hard

[VOLVO)))]

Who says DIY cant look good AND last? If i see another butch job this week, I may explode.

[Hemisaurus]

I didn't say DIY. I'm talking about the days before the internet, and Behringer. The old days, when I was skint, and I've painted a bass with car spray, I've fixed an amp with lamps pulled from a Xmas tree. Those heady days when you didn't know things like stewmac and guitarfetish existed.

[VOLVO)))]

I didnt say dont improvise. I said dont half ass anything. Improvising, adapting, and overcoming isnt halfassing, its going the extra mile.

FYI, car paint is great for guitars if you sand ot between each coat.

[Hemisaurus]

But half-assing is the point, and it's fun 

Seriously though only last night you were lusting after Fender's first half assed attempts at solid state? It's OK to half-ass, but only if your a name brand

I guess there's also maybe a definition difference, I've got a bass with a half assed bridge, it's a piece of drywall, and a bit of brass rail from a draught strip, that just happened to be the right size, but it works, the bass plays good, well bar the fact it's the one I need to refret

I guess I'm a fan of Heath Robinson and since I arrived stateside his American cousin Rube Goldberg  which may also relate to the days or road crewing when it was a fix it now situation, and I appreciate the re-purposing of stuff for intersting and creative fixes, like an anti-steampunk.

That said, there's also a place for the job done right, because if it's done right first time, it don't need fixed out on the road, so I'm not pooh-poohing your method, because if I sent my amp sleeve out to be refinished, that's the sort of job I'd want done on it.  If I've got an amp on the bench, and unlimited funds, or some funds at least, that's the way I'd fix it.

[justinhedrick]

wow. this really took off!

and sunn, it didn't come off as harsh, just honest.

the thing is, that it already looks like crap already, so it really CAN'T look worse. plus, if you've ever worked on a VTM you know that the head weighs about TWICE of what it should. I want to get a 5150 headshell from peavey (because the VTM will bolt right in), but they told me that they don't have any more lying around. sucks.

[VOLVO)))]

Build a new one. The vtm is 3/4 plywood (or mdf, not sure) with facings on it. The amp itself is heavy, eyeball the transformers. They're monsters, that's why you can abuse the hell out of a peavey. Those big metal corners don't help, either.

Strip the tolex, amd roll on grizzly grip. Super tough, many colors, fairly inexpensive. Google it.

[Hemisaurus]

wow. this really took off!

It was kind of interesting to me too, I'd never really thought about it, but I have both a love of quality work, and duct tape band-aid jobs. Seeing as most of my friends are skint, it's usually the latter I'm doing nowadays. Repair as an art-form.

Various places sell head sleeves, if you can't build one yourself but want a replacement, I know Weber does, probably a bunch of other places too.

[Lumpy]

You can probably strip off the paint on there now with Goo Gone or whatever (goo gone is pretty toxic so wear latex gloves, do it outside etc).

You can use latex paint on tolex, it will get dinged up a little but touch-ups are easy. This is probably the easiest route. I have a cab that has white/grey snakeskin tolex. Since I'm not in Whitesnake (yet) I painted it with black latex paint. It's been scraped up so you can see some white bits here and there... no big deal. Not bad enough to even bother with touch-up paint. It's still 99.9% black.

I would say don't do anything, unless it really really sucks. You play shows mostly in the dark. And nobody else cares, even if they can see it.

[Lumpy]

Also, if it's not really that bad looking, and then you paint it, you are probably making the problem worse, in the long run.

[Hemisaurus]

Found the can I used, FWIW here it is, it's True Value's own brand, you can probably pick it up at most of their stores.

[spookstrickland]

Punk ways die hard

I can dig it

I had a professor that used to say "do it quick, dirty, easy and cheap"  that has always stuck with me.

[Hemisaurus]

Justin, here's something better than Tolex

[VOLVO)))]

You guys suck.