Up early working on the Bernie Marsden...

Lewguitar

Old Know It All
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
3,539
Location
Paonia Colorado
Guitar had a 1/2" crush/dent on the top side that the prevuous owner filled with some dark hard stuff. Couldn't live with it.

Wasn't a chip. The wood was still there. Just crushed into the bottom of the dent. So I had to swell it out with steam.

Last night I steamed the dent level with a moist paper towel and a soldering iron and let it dry.

Then I scraped it flat with several new single edge razor blades. They're cheap so use them when they're brand new and sharp. I buy a box of 100.

Blended a little stain and Super Glue (regular, not gap filling) and then filled it it with 3 or 4 applications, letting it shrink and dry before adding additional drops.

When the Super Glue surface was higher than the rest of the finish I stopped and let it dry over night.

Then got up this morning, made some coffee and using a fresh new razor blade scraped the finish level, sanded it with 1500 finishing paper and then buffed it to a nice shine that eventually blended right in with the original finish using Semi Chrome Polish and a cotton cloth.

Semi Chrome Polish is what Jerry Rosa uses to buff out lacquer on vintage 40's and 50's Martins and Gibsons.

A tube of SemiChrome lasts for years and is great for removing hairline scratches, rubbing out a finish by hand or polishing logos off of your pickups.

The dent looks better. Couldn't make it disappear because of whatever he filled it with. Didn't want to tear up the finish more by picking it out.

Edit: Sorry...the photos have disappeared!
 
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A tube of SemiChrome lasts for years and is great for removing hairline scratches, rubbing out a finish by hand or polishing logos off of your pickups.
Sometimes ya' let things slide, other times you say it's just not good enough. Glad you're happy with the result.

Great to know about SemiChrome polishing off the logos. I have a SD Pearly bridge that I'm thinking of putting into the neck of one of the SE245. The SD logo is already moderately annoying and upside down it absolutely's gotta go. By the way, in flipping the pickup do I need to change the wiring / magnet or are humbuckers good to flip like they are?
 
Sometimes ya' let things slide, other times you say it's just not good enough. Glad you're happy with the result.

Great to know about SemiChrome polishing off the logos. I have a SD Pearly bridge that I'm thinking of putting into the neck of one of the SE245. The SD logo is already moderately annoying and upside down it absolutely's gotta go. By the way, in flipping the pickup do I need to change the wiring / magnet or are humbuckers good to flip like they are?
Brasso, a metal polish, works very well for removing those pesky logos.

SemiChrome will too but it's an even finer polish and you can use it to buff a lacquer finish to a high gloss by hand. Great stuff!
 
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