How wood I prepare a guitar top to paint, which does have a satin finish, no gloss! I need to sand the top?

How wood I prepare a guitar top to paint, which does have a Satin finish, but not high gloss! I need to sand the top don't I or how do I prepare the Top surface of the guitar to paint it... I have a few tubes of oil paint... think I'm gonna paint later... I am looking for ideas on what to paint...a picture or design or rainbow streaks..got any idea on that too??How wood I prepare a guitar top to paint, which does have a satin finish, no gloss! I need to sand the top?
Start with 100-200 grit sandpaper, then sand again with 400-600 grit to smooth it out. You don't have to take it all the way down to the wood, but you might need to primer it before just painting over the old paint because it probably won't stick or it will bubble later on down the road. For best reults, sand all the way to the wood, clean it, paint it 3-4 layers, and then add some clear-coat 4-5 layers depending on how 'deep' you want the paint to look. Make sure you use some tacking cloth between layers of paint to remove any nasties and impurities. For the final coats, you shuld let them stand for about 6-12 hours between applications and spray VERY LIGHTLY. If you hose it all up on the last few steps, you'll either have to live with it or re-do the whole darn thing! Good luck with the painting.





RE:designs; draw them out on paper FIRST!!! Make sure you practice actual painting on a mock-up surface before trying it on the real thing especially if it's your first time. Practice makes perfect. Get yourself some of the blue painter's masking tape, and use an Xacto knife to cut out sharp lines and edges for the designs. If adding shadowing or layering designs, make sure you use dark first, then go lighter until you are on the last layer where it shoud be glints of white or bright colors. As mentioned before, let things stand between coats/desgins to dry and use tacking cloth to rid yourself of the nasties. If the paint runs DON'T FIX IT!!! Wipe up as much as you can, and sand it off AFTER it dries (You can use paint thinner too, but you ave to be very careful and only use it on a q-tip so you don't go smudging up everything around it. Hope this all helps!!!