The most basic step of a great paint job is the quality of prep work (sanding and priming) before shooting the paint. Then the techniques of shooting the paint (eg. criss-cross to minimise overspray) and finally the drying time given before final sanding and buffing.
Assuming you have good equipment (proper spray gun and compressor instead of canned paints), plenty of experience and a dust free environment (spray booth).
All these subtle stuff separates a great paint job from a good one.
What you want is a thin, even and hard finish. The gloss shine and whatsoever will then come naturally.
To the threadstarter: I recommend you selling your burst epiphone and purchasing a black one instead of refinishing unless the guitar has sentimental value.
Reasons
1. Refinishing takes around 3 months. Do you have a spare guitar in the meantime?
2. Refinishing prices in Singapore is around half the price of your epi. It's not worth it no matter how you see it. And those prices are already extremely cheap for some reason. A professional paint job in the states is like 500-600 USD.
3. One day you'll be looking at higher end guitars and be wondering why you spent the money refinishing your epi when you could have channelled those funds to fuel your new guitar purchase. :wink:
My $0.02 worth.