Everything You Need to Know About Guitar Decals

You can decorate your favorite guitar by simply pasting a new decal on it, as well as picking up the most original stickers, applying beautiful stickers and logos for the direction of the music, the name of the group or the trademark of the music brand.

Guitar decals are one of the easiest ways to redesign your favorite instrument without serious financial investment. The biggest plus is that guitar stickers will change your instrument forever: You can always, if you wish, again improve the appearance of the guitar by slightly updating the previous set of bright stickers or giving the instrument its original look by completely removing them.

The stickers not only look beautiful on the guitar, but also help to hide a number of imperfections on the instrument from prying eyes, for example, all scratches and chips. They will also allow you to give your guitar an original look, make it more exclusive and unique. Typically, this kind of musical instrument product is made of high quality material that can last for years.

If you have long been burning with the desire to decorate your instrument with a stylish and creative sticker, then you should know that there are different types of stickers, and they can be glued only in strictly defined places.

• On the neck of the guitar. These are stickers that act as fret markers, as well as stickers-pictures that are glued to all frets of the guitar neck. They can be represented by lightning, Celtic cross, skull, stars or letters.These very practical products will allow you to qualitatively decorate your guitar, giving it a casual touch of individuality.
• On a guitar deck. Most often, products in the form of autographs of famous musicians and eminent guitarists prevail here.
• On the headstock. The logos of various guitar brands are used here. Glowing stickers are very popular.
• On a pickguard for an electric guitar. They differ in their original appearance and a huge choice of designs.
• Acoustic guitar pickguard. Vinyl pickguard decals for acoustics are also quite in demand due to their creative appearance and a wealth of choice.
• On the hole (socket) of the classical guitar. These decals are most often made from vinyl material and printed with quality ink. This sticker will calmly last almost as long as the guitar itself. Even after years of use, it will not fade, and the drawing will not be erased.

Now let's look at how to glue different types of stickers.

These are usually colored or one-tone stickers, they consist of 3 layers: the first is a backing (it usually has a usual pattern like squares or rhombuses), the second is the original sticker itself, and the third is a layer of protection. The upper thin film is necessary for high-quality protection of the existing image from possible damage. It is also designed to make it more convenient to apply the selected image to the neck or body of the guitar being designed.

First, the selected products must be gently smoothed with your fingers. In this case, it is worthwhile to proceed carefully to completely squeeze out the air bubbles on the surface. If you leave them, the product will not adhere well to the surface of the tool and will come off rather quickly.

As soon as the protective film is well smoothed, you can proceed to the procedure for moving the image. Very carefully, starting from one of the corners, you need to peel off a thin transparent film from its substrate. The product itself must go away together with the protection.

Now proceed to transfer the sticker to the previously selected tool element. First you need to make sure that the surface of the guitar is really well cleaned (it is recommended to degrease it in advance). To do this, you can purchase special wipes to quickly and efficiently remove even the most difficult dirt, and then you can remove the fat with an alcohol solution. But at the same time, it is better not to be too zealous, so as not to dry out the wood from which the guitar is made: in this way it can seriously deteriorate.

Apply the sticker with its translucent layer to the surface of the guitar, and then carefully smooth the surface. Then you will need to wait quite a bit of time (2 minutes will be quite enough). After this stage, you can safely start removing the protective layer of the product. We take it at any corner, and then smoothly delete it so that the image itself remains on the tool.

The principle of sticking these products resembles the same way in which all ordinary adhesive images are applied, but after the degreasing process and complete cleaning of the instrument surfaces, you will also need some ordinary water. It is worth noting that decals can be glued on both varnished surfaces and cleaned wood.

The decal is placed in water for 20-25 seconds: this is necessary so that the product can come off the paper base. Next, you need to carefully transfer the selected sticker to a predetermined element of the guitar. After that, the surface is soaked from excess liquid.

Now, as carefully as possible, you need to smooth out the glued product in order to squeeze out all the air bubbles and achieve 100% contact between the sticker and the tool. After all the manipulations, you need to give the decal time to dry well. After a couple of days, you can easily varnish the decal if you applied it to clean wood.

Finally, let's look at some worthy sticker design options.

You can often find a stylishly designed guitar, completely decorated with bright stickers.

The dragon decor is one of the most popular, so it is often used by both beginners and professionals.

Stickers can be used very modestly. But on certain instruments it looks especially stylish and catchy.