I've spent a long time debating about the colour and finish of my Epiphone Les Paul. I searched the web long and hard to see whether the colour will eventually fade and start looking like a '59 Les Paul, the short answer is...no. The modern poly-eurethene lacquer they use to coat these guitar is highly fade resistant. In most other circumstances that would be a great thing, that over time it will still be the same colour as when it was new....But not with guitars, we want faded, worn, battle scarred axes and the lacquer just won't allow it.
After the first six months of owning her I hated the plastic look of the guitar and the way it looked like a boiled sweet, so I went at it with an orbital sander after seeing a thread on the MyLesPaul forums. I took off just enough so that it was left with a nice satin sheen as can be seen in the picture below.
But a year or so has past since then and after sunbathing her and putting her in front of a UV bulb for many hours I gave up the ghost and admitted that she was never going to fade. One quote I read said the quickest way to fade it was; "about 40,000 hours, eight inches away from the sun's surface".
So three days ago I started wondering what lay beneath that generic sunburst finish, well curiosity got the better of me and I went mental with the sandpaper again and here is the result.
Before
- Before.JPG (170.49 KiB) Viewed 12554 times
- After.JPG (172.36 KiB) Viewed 12554 times
). It not only fades traditional lacquer, but also degrades nearly all synthetic materials.
