Magic in a Can!
photos courtesy of John Gleneicki
by Ryan Ackerman
posted 2006-05-20
Painting a guitar with a spray can? It doesn't seem very professional, it doesn't even sound like it would work. Now I've heard that Eddie Van Halen painted his own guitar with plain old bicycle paint, so why cant anyone do it? I've been bored with look of some of my guitars lately, so I thought "why not?" So I decided to take a deeper look into the concept.
John with some guitars and one of those cans of magic...
I googled the idea and was surprised at what I found. At the top of the list was a link to the website -- paintyourownguitar.com. I figured, hmmm... paint your own guitar, that's exactly what I'm looking for... When the web page popped up I was pleased to find a ton of information about painting your own guitar in the archived news letters and links throughout the site.
John Gleneicki takes painting a guitar with a spray can to the next level with his How To Paint Your Own Guitar books and upcoming DVDs. These feature what you need to know and what steps it takes to create a factory finished guitar. John tells you step-by-step how to turn a $200 guitar into a $1000 expression of originality, with many simple design, masking and spraying techniques that John eloquently covers in each step with enough detail that even a novice can handle in addition to plenty of images and video clips.
I sent John some questions about some of his experinces, and he graciously replied.
John with his first guitar @19
Ryan - About how long ago did you start painting guitars?
John - I started when I was 19 - the year was 1983 and I was just out of high school.
Ryan - How did you come up with this idea of painting your own guitar? What inspired you?
John - I was a big EVH fan as were most guys playing guitar at the time. Through his articles in the guitar mags, he talked about building his own guitars and painting them. Up until then, I had owned just two guitars; my first being a SIlvertone guitar - not really a copy of anything, and a Lero Les Paul copy which I bought off my older brother for $30. Neither of these guitars satisfied my desire for originality, so I thought I'd give making and painting my own guitar a try. Since my background is art, I thought, "hey - the painting part can't be THAT difficult." I soon came to learn that it's difficult, if you don't know how to do it properly. That first guitar I painted was one ugly piece of junk.
Ryan - Is their any story behind this design?
John - Well, it's a fancy JG under a warped checkerboard. I thought it was cool at the time. It quickly became UNCOOL.
A custom airbrush job, an American beauty.
Ryan - Is this a hobby or is it something you do professionally?
John - It began as a hobby, back in 1983, but it eventually turned into something that I did professionally - probably around 1988. I originally began just wanting to make guitars for myself and paint them up with some custom designs. But soon enough, other guitarists were seeing my guitars and so they wanted me to paint their guitar - or make them a guitar. Making and painting guitars was a way for me to make decent money, and at the same time, do something I really enjoyed. I was okay with that.
These days, I just focus on the painting and finishing portions of it. I do custom airbrush work for ESP on occasion, and I'd probably explore that a little more if I didn't have so many other ventures going on at the same time.
Ryan - How many guitars have you painted?
John - I'd say, probably close to 500.
