How to Wrap a Guitar: Installing a Skin on the Body Front

The Guitar Fabric's Guitar Skin Wraps

Our skins are made from high-quality vinyl, featuring excellent stretchability and high-quality image. They also have a protective film layer. We advise removing the protective layer once the skin is installed. The protective layer not only protects your guitar skin, it also:

- protects your vinyl during transportation and prior to installation.
- facilitates the installation process, especially when wrapping the front and sides of your guitar body. Although stretching with the protective film can be a bit more challenging at times, it also minimises the shrinkage effect.

Work Environment & Required Tools

Ensure you have a clean environment for installing your guitar skin. Use a smooth surface to prevent any damage to your guitar body or skin; a towel, for instance, will suffice. Keep in mind that wood is fragile, so handle your guitar body with caution.

You'll also need a few common household tools, which you may already have or can easily find in a shop in the UK.

The use of these various tools during the installation of a guitar skin on the front of a guitar body is discussed in the following sections.

Body Preparation

Preparing the body for skin installation depends on the initial state of your guitar body, which typically falls into two categories:

You install your guitar skin on an existing electric guitar: When installing your guitar skin on an existing electric guitar, it is advisable to remove all hardware parts and work on a blank body for the best results. If your guitar has a bolt-on neck, it's recommended to remove it. In the case of a glued neck, the installation process is quite similar, just simpler to execute without the neck. Nevertheless, it is still possible to install the skin without removing hardware or the neck. The method for installing a guitar skin on a complete electric guitar without removing parts and the neck will be discussed in a separate article.

You install your guitar skin on a raw guitar body: When installing your guitar skin on a raw guitar body, whether you are using a guitar kit or have a second-hand body without any finishing, some initial preparation may be necessary. Typically, on a raw guitar body, we recommend the following:
- Sand your body to P400.
- Apply one grain filler coat if you have an open-pore wood body, such as mahogany or ash, and sand it to P600.
- 1 Spray Aerosol of sealer lacquer paint or varnish coat is then sufficient to create a clean surface for installing your guitar skin.

Whether you start with a raw body or begin with an existing electric guitar, the objective is to achieve a smooth body. This ensures that your skin adheres well to the guitar during installation and helps avoid imperfections (such as scratches on the guitar body that may still be visible after installing the skin).

Guitar Sticker Placement: Position Your Skin

As advertised on our product pages, the size of our guitar skin enables you to install it in various ways. When installing the skin on the front only, you have flexibility in your guitar sticker placement. Place the vinyl on your guitar body and assess the optimal installation orientation. If you also intend to cover the headstock, consider positioning it in a way that provides sufficient surface area on one side of the skin for your guitar headstock.

Once you have determined the desired installation orientation, place your skin on your working surface, and position your guitar body on top. Trace the contour of the body onto the protective film layer using a felt-tip pen. Keep in mind that this contour will be removed later when you peel off the protective layer. This step helps guide the precise application of the skin onto the guitar body, ensuring an accurate and well-fitted installation.

The Various Guitar Skin Cutting Options

The cutting process, whilst still relatively easy, is often considered the most challenging part of the installation. Unlike the installation phase, where adjustments can be made, cutting requires careful precision, and multiple attempts may not be feasible. Our product development team has extensively tested various methods to offer our users the most optimal and user-friendly solution. Here are the existing options:

• Use of a scalpel or razor:
  • After installing the guitar skin, place your body on its front and cut on the table following the contour.
  • Adjust by cutting on your body.
  • Whilst this method is simple and yields good results, the main drawback is that adjusting the cut may slightly damage your guitar body.
• Use a knifeless tape:
  • This special tape contains a wire. First, use the tape to outline the contour of the front of the body.
  • Install your guitar wrap on your guitar body.
  • Remove the wire inside the tape to cut the contour.
  • Although effective once mastered, this method requires purchasing a specific product and mastering your skills. Our product development team needed about eight tests to fully master it, so we don't recommend it, especially for those unfamiliar with knifeless tape.
• Use tapes with a scalpel:
  • Before installing your guitar vinyl, apply some resistant tape around the border of the guitar body front to protect it during cutting.
  • Put on your skin and then add another tape to guide you during the cut with a razor blade.
  • Cut and remove the various tapes.
  • This is our preferred method, providing perfect results. It is considered the easiest way that anyone can successfully use the first time a guitar skin is applied.

In the next section, we will focus on what The Guitar Fabric experts have identified as the best solution for installing a guitar skin using tapes and a razor or scalpel.

Installing the Tape to Protect the Cut

In the final steps of installing a guitar vinyl, the last task is to cut the skin to fit the front of the guitar body, and there are various methods for this, as discussed earlier. Our preferred method involves protecting the guitar body with tape before making the cut. From our tests, we found that electrical cable tape, readily available in most shops in the UK, works well for this purpose. We recommend applying two layers of electrical tape to achieve optimal protection during the cutting process. To install the tape, we find it effective to place the body between your legs and slowly follow the contour of the side of the body as closely as possible to the edge of the front of the body. This ensures a clean and precise protective layer for the cutting stage.

Installing the Guitar Skin on the Front of the Body

Place the skin on the body to align it with the contour you have drawn. Peel back a portion of the adhesive layer and fold it over, leaving only the section ready to adhere to the back of the guitar body.

Following the contour you've drawn, begin installing the skin from the bottom and gradually move towards the centre. Use a squeegee (maroufle) to eliminate any bubbles that may appear. If bubbles do form, don't hesitate to lift the vinyl until reaching the location of the bubbles and readjust it. Our guitar vinyls feature a robust adhesive, allowing you to remove and reapply them several times without compromising adhesiveness.

Once you've reached the first section of the adhesive removal, continue to smooth out the skin whilst slowly peeling off the remaining adhesive. If you don't have a squeegee, you can use a plastic card, like a credit card, wrapped in a cloth to avoid damaging the skin.

Perform a final check to ensure that no bubbles appear on the surface of the body during the guitar wrap application. The most effective way is to scrutinise the surface closely from an angle that reveals any imperfections.

Removing the Protective Layer

As discussed further in the next section, we advise the following:

• If you plan to use a hair dryer later to set the guitar skin, remove the protective layer now.
• If you plan to use a heat gun later, remove the protective layer after applying heat to affix the skin to the guitar body.

In this case, assuming you are using a hair dryer, it is best to remove the protective layer now. The protective layer is securely attached. The most effective method is to peel it off from the side. Roll your finger along various sides of the guitar skin until the plastic film detaches.

Use Hair Dryer or Heat Gun to Fix Your Guitar Skin

Use a hair dryer or a heat gun on the front of the guitar whilst passing your maroufle over the skin. This will help the skin adhere better and fully merge with the guitar. Apply the hair dryer to the sides of the body as well, allowing the skin to conform to the shape of the guitar. Ensure that the skin is installed sufficiently on the sides so that you can later apply another tape, as demonstrated in the next section, to assist you during the cutting process.

Using a hair dryer will take a bit more time for the guitar skin to fully conform to the guitar body. You might need to stretch the skin a bit on the guitar side. Don't worry—our guitar skin is easily stretchable, and the temperature of a hair dryer is not strong enough to cause tearing.

If you are using a heat gun, as mentioned in the previous section, it is advisable to keep the protective film layer, especially if it is your first time installing a guitar skin. A heat gun is significantly more powerful, and if you apply too much heat too closely or for too long at the same spot without the added protection of the film layer, it might cause the skin to tear off. A heat gun generates intense heat, and prolonged exposure without the protective film layer can potentially melt the skin.

Even if you follow our guidance and don't set the heat gun to full power, it will still be easier and faster to conform the skin to the contour of the body's edge. Below is a comparison when applying heat in a similar way to a guitar skin using a heat gun and using a hair dryer.

Finally we advise to cut the side of the guitar vinyl for convenience.

Whether you have used a hair dryer or a heat gun to conform to the contour, at this stage, you should have something like this.

Installing Tape for Cutting Accuracy

The next step is to install a tape that will guide us during the cut to ensure a straight line. As during the installation of the tape to avoid cutting on the body, the best position for us is to place the gui