sun bleaching...

[berlinbetty]

  We've talked about making parts darker (I'm still eager to try the shoe polish on the neck trick), but now I'm looking to lighten up a guitar body.  I recently purchased a Squire butterscotch telecaster but, like a lot of other people on here, I can never leave well enough alone.  It has a really nice grain on it, but it's a tad darker than what I'd like.  Has anyone had any experience with a similar situation?  Has anyone tried sun bleaching?  I'm thinking that might be my only option without refinishing the thing...

[serial]

Depending on what the color coat is, that could be relatively simple or very difficult!

[Firefly]

Haha, I suppose it would also depend what country your in!

I worked as a printer for a while and we used UV light boxes to dry the inks, it would also make them a tad lighter but then that could well have just been the diffrence from dry ink to wet ink. Your paints might react in a diffrent way and instead of bleaching the colour might crack the finish but I am not expert in this.

I would also be carefull you don't dry out the wood to much as I have heard storys about guitar bodys cracking after being kept in dry environments.

Interesting idear though!!

[Firefly]

Another thought, is it poly or nitro lacquer as the poly might well protect it and reflect the UV radiation that would otherwise bleach the paint.

I suppose the only way to really know if it'll work is to give it a go!

[berlinbetty]

  Well, it's a natural finish (no paints) and considering it's a Squier, it's almost definitely a poly finish.  They call it butterscotch, but it's darker than the "vintage" butterscotch teles.

[CaptainCrunch]

That poly ain't going nowhere, and ain't doing nothin'

You could leave that guitar on the surface of Mercury and the color wouldn't fade.

[pullover]

I'm gonna raise the bullshit flag, it would melt on the surface of Mercury.    Seriously though, my 94 Jazzmaster is poly, and when I pulled the pickguard I was surprised to see a dark shadow where the guard was. Don't underestimate the power of the sun.

[fullerplast]

Don't underestimate the power of the sun.

All this talk reminds me of that awesome Spinal Tap hit,

The Sun Never Sweats...

[zhivago]

Don't underestimate the power of the sun.

All this talk reminds me of that awesome Spinal Tap hit,

The Sun Never Sweats...

a true classic...up there  with the Mona Lisa!!

[pullover]

Derek: "The album was basically just saying that the empire was a good idea, that subjugating foreign peoples—there was nothing wrong with that."

[CaptainCrunch]

I'll call your bullshit flag..the guitar would burn. The finish would be just fine.

I've seen fading on poly finishes before, but the stuff on Affinity's is just from a whole different galaxy.
It's tough, thick, and has no intentions of going  a n y w h e r e.

I've used crap that almost melted my fingernails off that couldn't touch those finishes. Stuff with long scary names.

Of course, all the advice in the world is no replacement for empirical research-keep it on a stand in front of a window for 6 months and pop the guard off. See if something happens.

[berlinbetty]

  Frankly, the darker finish is actually starting to grow on me.  I'm going to try shoe-polishing the neck this weekend and see how that turns out.  Maybe it'll help as there won't be such a contrast between the dark body and light neck.  I'm doing a general "light relicing" on the whole thing.  If it turns out good, I'll post some before and after pics.  If it doesn't, I'll probably never speak of it again...