My wife and I wanted to be able to play Guitar Hero cooperatively, so for Mother's Day, I bought her an extra copy of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. That version of the game is still new enough that they can take advantage of people like me, who are just crazy enough to buy two copies of a game for the extra controller. We were happy to be jamming together, but I thought it would be nice if we could tell the two guitars apart. Plus, they are such a bland white color. So, I got it into my head to paint one of them-- mine specifically, since I didn't want to risk messing up my wife's new controller. She'd probably beat me over the head with it!
Please understand that this was an unusual impulse for me. Though I'd assembled and painted a few plastic model kits as a kid, I'm not typically a "modder", nor am I particularly "artistic." I don't own an airbrush or anything. So, initially I'd considered just dying my guitar a different color. But, then I realized that I kinda liked the Rising Sun finish for the X-Plorer in the game, and that seemed like such a simple design, that maybe I could do it with some spray paint and masking tape. As it turned out, I was right. While the end result was not perfect, I am still proud of what I accomplished. The paint job turned out nice enough, and it was easy to do in a few hours, even for a complete beginner like me. Now my wife wants me to paint hers, too.
First, let me toss in the standard disclaimer. Disassembling or painting your guitar controller runs the risk of rendering it inoperable. There are delicate wires that can be broken, and small parts that can be broken or lost. You should know your own technical limits, and understand that if anything does go wrong, the only person liable is you, and you're gonna be out nearly $100. That said, this guitar is a modder's dream. It is extremely easy to take apart and reassemble. For this project, I used two phillips screwdrivers; a medium one for the screws that hold the housing together, and a smaller one for the screws anchoring the components inside. I used Testor's red model spray paint to make sure it stuck to the plastic, but it could probably be done just as well with cheaper paint. I also used some glossy clear coat spray paint to protect the finish. I used masking tape to create the edges of the design.
I also made use of a digital camera. When I was growing up, my father taught me how to rebuild drum brakes on cars, and one critical step was to take a Polaroid of how it looked before you started. This is a good idea for any potentially complex project; you always want a visual record of what it should look like when you're done. A digital camera is the modern Polaroid, in that it can take cheap, fast, and disposable photos.
Here is my guitar before I got started, along with a digital photo of the finish I wanted to emulate. I initially planned to use "Low Tack Artist Tape", purchased at a local arts and crafts store. Unfortunately, I found that it didn't stick to lumpy parts of the guitar very well at all. I ended up using standard masking tape, but that kind of tape isn't ideal, either. It tends to leave tacky bits on your guitar, and if any of the tacky bits happened to touch paint, you end up with some smudging, which is my main complaint with my final paint job. Next time, I intend to try "painter's tape", which I believe is a little tackier than artist tape, and available in hardware stores.
At first I planned to mask the entire guitar and paint it without any disassembly. If I'd thought a little harder about it, I'd have realized just how difficult it would be to mask the whammy bar or the strum paddle. In this case, it was a simple case of trial and error. I tried to mask everything, until I learned of my error.
My masking attempt defeated, I next took out a screwdriver and removed the back panel of the controller. It seemed very simple to take the guitar apart, since everything was held together by screws. All of the components were mounted to the front face of the guitar, which was unfortunate, because that's the part I wanted to paint. This meant all of the working parts had to be taken out. Using a smaller screwdriver, the two connectors and the PC board for the face buttons were pretty straightforward to remove, but I had to be careful with the whammy bar assembly, because nothing was anchoring it in place, and it contained the most moving parts, some of which were small and easy to lose or break. To remove the strumming paddle, I only had to undo four of the screws (one in each corner) which mounted it to the housing. The other screws I left in place.
To remove the arm of the guitar, I had to unscrew the back half of the arm first, and then undo the four screws mounting it to the face of the guitar. After it was loose, I put the arm back together, and I was able to pull the arm and all of the internals free, keeping it all together and handling it carefully, so as not to break any of the small wires.
Here is the entire guitar taken apart. The next step was to remove all of the rubber pads from the back of Guide button, D-Pad, Start and Select buttons, and then remove the buttons themselves. All of them were sitting loosely in the housing, except for the D-Pad, which I had to gently pry apart. I also pulled out the clear plastic sleeve that serves as the guitar's "ring of light". The only remaining screws held the pick guard in place. I decided I didn't want to paint that, so I removed it as well.
Once the face of the guitar was completely free, I cleaned it and began taping over the parts I wanted to leave white. I used my photo as a guide, but since I didn't have any sort of hobby knife, my sunbeams all tended to be the width of the masking tape. I decided that was an acceptable trade-off. I also taped around the entire edge of the guitar face, so that only the front and the beveled edge would be painted.
I took it outside, laid down a drop cloth, and spray painted my guitar face bright red. I only gave it one light coat of paint. This left some speckling around the edges, an effect which I liked, and I was also trying to reduce the chance of paint seeping under the tape.
After letting the guitar dry for a few hours (and it probably could've stood to dry a little longer, but I was impatient), I removed the masking tape. Aside from a little seepage in a couple places, and some of the tack smudging I mentioned earlier, I thought it was looking pretty sharp. It looked like my project was going to be a success, so long as it worked when I put it all back together!
A couple of hours later, I painted on some quick drying clear coat, with the idea that it would help prevent my hand from wearing the paint off while playing.
I put everything back together, like I was assembling a puzzle, referring to my original photo when necessary. The most challenging part was the whammy bar assembly, which had fallen apart while I was removing it. Fortunately everything only fits one way, and I was able to get it back together. In a truly clumsy beginner move, though, I managed to strip a couple of the screws during reassembly, which means this guitar will probably never be coming apart again.
Here is the completed guitar with everything back in its place. I tried it out and it worked fine, I could proudly rock out on my Rising Sun Special X-Plorer. Now, if only I could figure out how to beat Free Bird on Expert!
