I'm no expert, but I would think you would want to paint before you solder. The pics on the Bottlehead site have the S.E.X. amp nude. No pait. And it looks good. I paited my Foreplay top plate and transformer with black hammerite. I love it. As far as modding your Tosh ... be very, very careful with the small pins on the ribbon cable. That's were my problems occured.