The Hub

I watched the Guild F-20 video (https://dev2.loothgroup.com/groups/repair-and-restoration/forum/topic/cracker-x-braces-on-guild-f20/#post-60310) with great interest since I've been working on a Gibson L-3 with a similar problem. A little back story - The original repair request was to address a small pickguard crack on the sound hole side. After peeking inside, I saw 5 loose brace ends on the treble side. Still a pretty standard repair…

I was asked to turn this Fender American Natural Strat into a hard-tail. It would have taken a good while to finish this plug without LED Coatings. I used SM Colortone H2O base grain filler colored with MIxol Ochre; sanded it flat an hour later, then put on a finish with LED Clear Gloss colored with Colortone Stains (Straw, Light Yellow, and a touch of Med. Brown). The entire finish took 25 minutes. THen I glued it in with Epoxy colored…

23 yo acoustic in for touch ups. EIRW, nitro. Has a couple of spots on the sides that look like this. In good general shape. What’s going on here? No texture, its under the finish.

We’re Hiring: Experienced Luthier Mike Lull’s Guitar Works is looking for an experienced Luthier to join our team. We’re seeking someone with strong hands-on experience in instrument repair and restoration who’s ready to work in a collaborative, high-quality shop environment. Our demand for our acoustic repair and restoration services as well as our own line of guitars/basses is growing year over year and we’re looking to add to the tea…

Hey! I have been working on repairing a d-18 that had a large hole in the side. I glued in a backer, cleaned up the edges and after a few attempts got a patch glued in and leveled. I have been testing finish on some scrap but am getting lost in the woods. In my tests I am doing most of the color in the grain fill. Does anyone have tips on how to start touching this up? Thanks!

Hey all, I am really enjoying digging through the looth group. I have not yet watched all the ding kings vids or read all the amazing comments and articles here, but I've been appreciating some of the loothing for dollars stuff, seeing other people's intake sheets, discussions about dealing with customers, and it led me to this question: How do people deal with customer expectations, liability, and the inevitable accidents that can happ…

This may have been covered in any number of vids by Big Daddy Proper or Paw Paw Erlewine, but I wondered how flay everyone goes when it comes to fretboard prep and refrets. For example, I currently have an old 70s SG needing a refret, Ive begun to flatten the board. I have some low spots in the middle of some frets in "cowboy-zone", but the actual fret slots are all being touched by the leveling bar, and thus, level. This is usually whe…

This 60's Gibson LG0 mahogany came in with a little bit of the finish scraped off just to the right of the bridge as you can see. I'm curious if anybody has any tips on how to touch this up? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

After installing purfling and bindings I noticed a black dot on one of the maple lines— and right at the florentine point! It’s not sanding out. Bummer. As I get close to finish prep does anyone have recommendations on acrylic touch up paint SKUs that work well with maple? These maple purflings happen to be from Gurian Instruments, for what that’s worth. Also, if anyone has an idea of what this dot is and how it got there I’d love to he…

This is just a rant against the Stew-mac touchup pens. Ive just never had them functionally work, without creating more of an issue than there was in the first place. Through an "act of god" I chipped a small bit of freshly buffed and polished laquer off the headstock of a Taylor that I refinished. The guitar had that nasty bubbling around the tuners and CA glue didn't fix the issue, so I stripped the front of the headstock and airbrush…

The neck on this Epiphone Les Paul was repaired by the local Guitar Center, but they left it ragged and the customer asked me to fix the finish. It appears to be very thick poly (not lacquer) and the crack has some glue left over from the repair. I would love to be able to just fill and finish the cracks, but I'm afraid it will be near impossible to match, so I'm inclined to strip and refinish the whole neck. Advice??

Hey y'all, I've got a mid budget lefty acoustic in the shop for some work and one of the bridge wings is starting to pull up. I know some people are content to just squeeze some glue under and reclamp, but from what I can see underneath it the finish goes back a long way before we even start to touch the wood, if ever. So I'm leaning towards pulling it to be safe, but just making sure I'm not being overzealous before deciding on that co…

Hi there looths, Hoping you guys can help me identify what uv resin or other compatible finish can be used to finish this crack? I'm comfortable true-ing up the material and gluing, however I've only really done nitro or polyurethane finish touch up. Thanks, Aleks

Customer brought in his D35 which he bought new 6 months ago from a local shop in here in Toronto. The way he describes it— the finish on the back of the neck began to ripple, and in one spot bubbled and chipped off about the size of a quarter. Where the lacquer has chipped off, there’s still sealer and pore fill underneath. I’ve heard about finish adhesion issues on Martins of various eras. The rest of the neck finish is starting to ri…

I just opened a repair shop and the first repair was to remove a broken 1/8" hex wrench ball end from the truss rod nut of a Turner RB4 Renaissance Bass. I read of all sorts of theories on how to extract/remove. None of them had recorded actual attempts of the theories. There's probably others on here but I haven't found them. The ball end was loose and mangled at the rear of the nut sleeve. I tried fairly benign methods first. Heat…

I have this 1970’s guild that had the finish burned from the cradle of a guitar stand. I am having issues with the border of the repair darkening. I sanded back the damaged area and the surrounding finish which was gummy. I used water based pore filler as a starter, a few sealer coats, and then clear coats (one of the coats with some dyes). Any suggestions at how to get this looking better?

Being new here, thought I would post an introduction. My name is Paul McGill Mcgillguitars.com I have been making guitars since 1976. I have lived and worked in Nashville since 1985 when I relocated here to work in the repair/restoration shop at Gruhn guitars. 410 Broadway, now a novelty shop. I was there a short time before commiting full time to guitar making as I had done prior to moving here. My main influence as a guitar maker was Ro…

Hi everyone. I have begun to incorporate more rattle can toner work in my touch up and cosmetic repairs. I have been using Mohawk toners so far and I am now trying out a different one of their toner products that is new to me. I use Mohawk Ultra Flo Ultra Bond for my clear coats. I thought it might be helpful to have a dedicated thread to the topic of rattle can toner as it pertains to touch up. Particularly headstock breaks that incorp…