Painting prep questions

[sixx_ gunner]

While I am very familiar with painting prep on cars/motorcycles, my guitar is another matter. I have my '06 DK2 going to a guy for a Eriee Dress type paint job. Not worried so much about that part, more about the disassembly & re assembly.

I have replaced the volume pot with a CTS 500k and installed the Duncan Distortion bridge pickup. Watching me do this was like watching the grass grow! I wanted to be careful and the anixety of possibly screwing my guitar up didn't help.:think:

I am looking for some tips to make this painless.
What have you done to make this easy to take everything out, remove the neck, bridge & etc so it goes all back easily?
I am worried about:
1- tension when I put the neck scews back in place
2- pickup/pots/jack cleaning & re soldering or replacement
3- string/bridge height after assembly

I planned on making a wiring diagram and even taking pics to make sure I got it all back right.

What other tips can you guys recommend?
Anything I can do to make this good guitar even better at this stage? copper shielding or whatever..

OH, what is the general consensus about the two Duncan Designed single pickups being replaced with......

mainly playing '80's stuff.....like most here.

[atdguitars]

Have a tech or luthier do the tear down and assembly. Save yourself some headaches and alot of anxiety. Besides if your putting money into a good paint job then its worth the money for a good pro setup when its all said and done. It might as well play as good as it looks

[Matt_B]

Over the past few years I've had (3) guitars custom painted and in each instance, I've broken then down myself then paid someone else to reassemble/set them up. Reassembling a complete guitar is easy because everything will fit right back together.

When I take a guitar apart for paint, I put each group of parts (e.g. tuners, tuner screws, volume pot, output jack, etc.) in its own little plastic bag. That makes keep track of all the parts easy when it gets reassembled.

[Model1VH2]

+1 on using plastic bags for parts.

When removing your wiring, you may want to take some masking tape and label each wire as it's being removed to help eliminate any confusion when wiring everything back up.
In addition to drawing out a wiring schematic, you may also want to snap a few pics of the wiring (as well as anything else you are unsure of) before disassembly.

Taking pictures before disassembly may also help to make note of your bridge/trem setup and other things that may help with reassembly as well.

Also take care when removing the neck as not to disturb the placement of any shims that may be there. You may even want to temporarily tape the shim(s) down to help keep thier
proper placement and to help prevent them from getting lost while painting, prepping, etc ...

Hope that helps.

[sully]

Taking pictures before disassembly may also help to make note of your bridge/trem setup and other things that may help with reassembly as well.

This helps with wiring, too.

sully

[sixx_ gunner]

thanks for your tips!

Will get this apart soon.

[rjohnstone]

Like the other guys said.
I Photograph the fully assembled guitar and wiring and then bag and tag all the parts.
I then put ALL the parts bags for a guitar into it's own plastic bin and then label the bin.
Makes reassembly time a breeze.