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Guitar fell straight down on the headstock when it was hanging up at the refinishers. Shit really does happen! Grain is pretty much shattered around the adjustment nut. Thinking I’ll replace the entire broken area with a completely new piece of mahogany. Scarf it in between the volute and 3rd fret. Probably even a 3 piece lamination to mimic the neck. This one was not the clients fault so the expectations for looking close to original a…

Hi friends, I just stumbled upon a 1966 P-Bass, nearly completely original. The owner bought it in 1971 and it had already been stripped of its original finish. That was a thing back then. You can guess that 55 years of gigging had the wood absorb much of the owner’s DNA and sweat. Maybe a few beers as well. Surface was quite tacky as you can expect. I cleaned it with naphta and StewMac’c brand-new cleaner (quite a great product I'd say…

Hello again folks, how is everyone! So I'm curious about what people here think about re-tops, who's done them, and what sorta ballpark rates you've charged for past completed jobs. I've got a bit of a wild one here, so strap in if you've got a couple minutes for story time! Back in 2012, I traded an HD28V of mine for a cool 1966 D-35 that needed some work. Basically, the body and neck of the guitar were fine apart from…

I am restoring an old Supertone with a thickened and heavily alligatored finish. The finish softens quickly with acetone, and it looks like it has had an overspray. I would like to keep the staining on the oak back and sides, and to preserve the decal on the headstock. The top I would like to strip and sand. The questions are: 1. What more do I need to know about the finish? 2. How should I remove the finish or at least thin/smooth…

I have repaired numerous top crack on this instrument built by a customer at a guitar building camp. The bridge was off and warped. That has been addressed. After gluing with hide glue and splining the crack these top two did not closed as much as I would have liked. The bigger is about 1/32 at the widest and the other about 1/64. The crack is tight at the bottom. If I can help it I would like to fill it rather than spline it as I have…

Hi -- I am planning to have a maple Thinline Tele top painted by an automotive paint shop. They've made a glossy and a matt sample for me and it looks great. I wonder if anyone has any experience with this, and specifically: - if I bind the top first, will the paint stand very proud above the binding once I scrape the paint off the binding? - the matt looks terrific, but it looks like it will burnish and get shiny in spots or line…

Hey guys, Up until now I've always tried to blend any repairs into the surrounding area when it comes to finishing and avoid refinishing as much as possible. However, im yet to be fully satisfied with the results or hit the elusive "invisible repair" So my question is, for this headstock fix in the image, would you simplly refinish over the splines or consider refinishing the whole neck to avoid the blending battle? For what its worth, its…

Hey all, I have a Guild JF30 in my shop that needs some sizeable touchups. The goal is to get this looking better, not necessarily perfect. I'm not particularly good at refinish work and this guitar has some rather sizeable dings. Any general suggestions on getting this to look better? There are four major locations that I'm concerned with. The headstock, the back of the neck, the ding in the lower bout of the guitar, and the mark in the…

Hello everyone! I'm having quite a lot of issues with a Jackson Warrior I'm refinishing in 2K Spraymax. After a week, it is still not completely cured and it dents whenever I do the "fingernail-test". This is already the second time this happened. My process is: Sanded the body completely to bare wood, up to 320 grit. Filled with Z-Poxy, let cure for 24h. Sanded back to 400 grit Sprayed 1K primer, let dry for ~2 hours Sprayed 2x 1k color coats…

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…

I received this Ibanez GSR105EX for free as part of an internet deal, but I am completely put off by the splotchiness of the finish. It is listed as having a Mahogany Oil finish. Any suggestions for how to even out the color, or maybe use an ebonizer? And would an ebonizer even work with the Mahogany Oil that is already there? I'm not wanting to do a complete refinish, just hoping I can scuff and wipe on a darker finish.

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??

I have a customer who has a Peavey T-40 bass body that he wants stripped and refinished. Does anyone here take in work like that? I'm in northern VA but any VA/MD location would work if I could pass along your details. Cheers.

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…

Hello everyone, A customer brought in a guitar he's built for a refinish (he ask for urethane gloss). It have a curly redwood top, oiled with 'something' (he said 'red oil'). Problem is the top is so impregnated with oil that any sandpaper clogh and become useless in just 2-3 soft pass, and the top is barely under 4.5mm thick. Any idea?

Hello! Brand new member here following the recommendation of Rick at Gluboost. He suggested that I reach out to this group to get help with my restoration project. I'm actually looking to restore vintage dining chairs (6) that have chips on their black lacquer finish. Rick confirmed that Gluboost should be a good option for refinishing the chairs but I'm having the hardest using the product to get the results I want (sad photos attached…