Not reccomended. Wood has hard and soft grain and this will cause a ripple effect. Better paint stripper if you want to get bare wood.

Getting to the bare wood is seldom satisfactory as for painted guitars they usually dont use that nice of wood anyways.

If your just going to paint it again sand and feather it stating with 80 grit for anything like chips you want feathered out. You may have to fill any deep pits, then sand out again until the thing is tottaly smooth.

Most important> Remember that any blemish at all on the prepped surface will show after it is painted.

Hey Chad,
First and foremost, -please- put the sandblaster down and step away from the guitar. As Wilfred already mentioned the density of wood varys in a guitar body and if you try to sand blast I doubt you'd ever get the body properly sanded for a decent finish afterwards. Sanding is an art form when it comes to any kind of woodworking and one that is well worth learning.

Now not to debate Wilfred, but just from my own expereince, I would recommend against using the paint strippers. They're caustic and -very- messy and at least as far as the brand I used (sorry forget the name...Valspar maybe?) it didn't even work all that well.

If your planning to refinish with a "block" color and not a sundburst or stain, then I would go with Wilfred's suggestion of just roughing in the existing finish, filling any dents or deep scratches and using that as your base coat. If you are going for a complete refinish, then as much work as it is, I would just go with simple sanding, course grit sandpaper until your down to the bare wood and good old fasion elbow grease.

When it comes to a decent guitar finish, I've probably tried every "short cut" in the book and I can tell you first hand that most of them don't work. Time, patience and sanding...lots of sanding...an inherent love of sanding...a passion for sanding...did I mention there was sanding involved? It's not "hard" persay, but it is quite time consuming and requires a lot of work. Oh, yea...there's a lot of sanding too.

Good Luck!
Bright Blessings,
Jim

WHOA, WHOA!!! That's a bit extreme, man!
I would suggest the sanding, prep, and everything else that has already been mentioned. BUT... if you really do have a time constraint, than there is only ONE way to sand-blast it.

LOW PRESSURE AND WALNUT SHELLS

That's the only way you aren't going to damage the guitar, and you still have to take the time and go VERY SLOW AND STEADY!

I'm not saying that this route is any better though, just less time involved (though more money)

Walnut shells?

Yeah, best thing to use on any delicate surface when using a sandblaster. Only downside is the time it takes, since it emoves surface imperfections/rust/corrosion/whatever slower than a snail walking from one end 'o of a barn to another. Oh, yeah, there's the price also, approximately $50 a gallon of them, so for a 5+ gallon hopper, that would cost well over $200!
I still say it's the best way, shells are safe with just about anything, you name it!

Hi Greg,
If I'm remembering correctly crushed peanut shells are also used. Does that sound familiar to you or am I just passing gas?

To Tom: to sandblast the wood you need to use something not quite as hard as sand. Even a pressure washer will dig softer areas of wood out (also will remove hide and meat)

Kevin

I was gonna mention the walnut shells but somebody beat me to it. Anyway, if you go with sandpaper I recommend 3M Sandblaster paper. it costs a bit more but will cut your time drastically and lasts longer than regular sandpaper. There are other name brands on the market that are the equivalant.

Kevin

Hi Chad,
Well I just wanted to throw this in, I just "Soda" blasted one of my remodel jobs and it was cool to watch. The house had so much mold growing everywhere it was the only recourse. The soda is "Baking Soda" and it is allot less abrasive than sand BUT it tok allot of wood off anyway, for me that was ok but you definitly do not wany to sand blast or any other blast.
You have recieved allot of good info, my 2 cents is that if you want the finish it takes elbow grease pure and simple, even strippers are not labor free. Well worth it though in the end, you will have something to be proud of. I am doing 2 strats over this winter, one will be Daphne blue with a maple neck and the second is shell pink with a rosewood neck, both will have great pickups and vintage aged hardware.
Good luck
DR

"Soda Blasting" never heard of that. Is it as effective as bleach?

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Actually the use of bleach is somewhat misleading in that it kills the surface mold but acts to feed the roots with the dampness that they require to live.So if it will be an area that you won't be able to get to again then it will grow worse after it is closed up and you will end up with more mold than you had last time.
Now if it is just a surface thing like bathromms walls or shower grout than that will work well.
The mold we had was growing into the sheating on the underside of the roof, and it was producing pods of spores, damndest thing I ever saw.
I have had the home gutted to the bare bones and had a heater running the entire time to dry the air, and we clean up like we were moving in the next day just so we get all the spores.
I spray foamed the walls to take the oxygen away and reallt seal it well.
It should do the job.
DR

The last time I experienced soda blasting was when my friend shook up a bottle of Pepsi really vigorously and took the lid off in my direction. I really got a blasting! ;)

Andy