Hello from Michigan. Interesting coincidence. This technique worked like a charm on two guitars of mine. I practiced on my old classical. Then repaired my favorite Taylor. Thanks again for sharing your expertise.
i'm able to refine my technique every time i watch one of your videos. if i were able to access your shop in my area i'd just bring my instrument to you. thanks again.
Learning this trick has brought a lot of return business. I haven’t been successful though with Yairi, and Gibson’s.. thinking it’s the nitro but not positive
By the way, I gotta ask some tips for repairing a chip off the finish of the backside of my guitar. The finish kinda flicked off when it slid down a concrete floor. It's about a size of a fingernail and I can see the raw wood in it. I could have glued the chipped off piece back in to seal it but I couldn't find it. Is there any filling technique that I could do to fix it?
+OBrienGuitars Thanks for taking the time to reply Brien. It's a Yamaha F310, I think the finish is a laminated top and back acoustic. The part that's chipped off is as big as a fingernail and as thick as a credit card. I could see the raw wood underneath it. You could picture it as a huge puzzle with one missing piece. If only I could find it, I could just glue it back. But it's been lost for over 3 weeks now. I guess it's totally gone. Any tips?
I tried this method on a an old 1977 Kiso Suzuki guitar (Martin D35 clone) with a PU finish, and the CA glue let some dark spots on the drop fill zone, like if it burnt the lacquer. Did you ever experienced that issue/reaction? Thanks for the answer Robert.
Kind of late I know, but if he would have just sanded and cleaned it up a little, it would have looked better. The CA glue is clear and you can see it was applied over dirt. also I would have found a little piece of wood or some sawdust for that hole in the binding. Not trying to cut your boy down, he is 10 times the Luthier than I'll ever be.
Is there a way to repair a dirty-ish, discolored crack (like this one) to a more invisible state? Diligently tweaking the colors, etc. If so, I'd love to see you do a video on that one day. Keep it in mind. And thanks for all the vids regardless, they are priceless.
excellent video, would you consider doing one on identifying different finishes? i've done a lot of patch repairs like this, but now i'm wondering how many i should have used lacquer for rather than CA.
dear Robert, thanks for all of your hard work and sharing I have a question - Can shellac finish be applied onto (or over, whichever makes sense) CA glue?
Thanh Huynh Thank you for watching my videos. I am glad you are finding them useful. Yes, shellac can be applied over or under CA glue. I usually do a shellac seal coat and then apply CA glue to the area I am trying to repair. Once level you can applly more shellac over that. Hope this helps.
Hello. My Gibson accoustic with a nitro finish has a remarkable damage due to a cheap guitar stand that melted an area around a cm long on the back neck . There are no luthiers in my city working with nitrocellulose finishes. What would you suggest? For me, levelling the surface is more important than the visual look because you feel the milimeter deep hole during playing and it really annoys.
Since it's been almost 4 years since this video has been released, can you list the proper Maguiars polishes that you use now? Not sure I can find exactly what you have in this video, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!
You spoke briefly about a catalysed finIsh versus a lacquer finish. Is there a way of discerning what kind of finish an acoustic guitar has just by looking at it or does one have to try to contact the manufacturer (which could be impossible given that so many of them no longer exist.) Have you posted any videos showing minor repairs to a lacquer finish?
All I know is that lacquer gets really sticky when it warms up , for example when you play a gig for an hour or so, you can put your fingerprint into the neck finish. Catalysed finish should not do this, but I'm no expert.
my guitar has a crack on the neck it not that big but it big enough to feel it it's really bothering me can i use this method to like patch to the point where i cant feel it ?
great tip. love the razor blade trick :) ..why would anyone not want to refinish their guitar? it seems re-varnishing would be the best fix..am I wrong? I've got a few damaged string instruments coming my way and I really wanted to preserve their wethered look so this is PERFECT for that. really appreciative.
This way can make the surface smooth ! Great! you use CA glue to replace missing wood, could you have another method to recover to orginal color of surface also? it will be perfect.
alfre wong Yes, There are techniques for coloring wood to match the old patina but that wasn't the focus of this video and the client didn't want to do that due to cost.
Can I ask about the mando looking guitar on in your room on the wall behind you during the introduction, That for playing like a piccolo guitar or what is that? As always love the videos Mr OBrien.
Great stuff.....I have a question, i've got an old Epiphone model 6830 bolt on neck, with the all to common problem of the neck pushing back on the rosette and it raising up, Is there a way to fix this or should I just retire this one to it's case ? I mainly have this for sentimental values, it was my Dads.........Thanks any advise will be helpful.......Thanks
There is a way to fix it but I probably would have a professional luthier that deals with kind of stuff on a daily basis take a look under the hood to see if it is salvageable.
Thanks for this video Robert. When I’ve done this with cracks before I can get to a great smooth finish, but I’ve noticed it seems to darken the spruce top along the crack line. Is there any way to avoid that?
you're doing it so cool that it seems everybody can do it! thanks for sharing this. i have Ramirez(CG) sadly i found a crack just along side the neck on the finishing. it's not a deep crack i guess it doesn't reach into the wood part. how can i repair it? is it ok if i fallow this method of yours without damaging the finishing?
Robert, greetings from Brazil! I´ve seen some of your vids and wanted to ask if u know where to buy these pipets here in Brazil, i found a bunch online but they dont have the narrow long tips. Thank very much for these awesome lessons! Im sure the 2nd Guitar show here will be amazing!
I own a guitar with a similar crack. Is there a video showing how you repaired the crack itself before moving on to the finish repair? Thanks! Awesome video man!
+Jason Keating Try these ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cxwLGbVui8k.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q6782J_zJLs.html
Great video! I've got a guitar with a crack in the same location. I can't fit a cleat under the crack due to the close proximity of the kerfing. Is it acceptable just to use the kerfing as a "cleat"?
Hi sorry for my english, I'm french. I would like to know when you have sand down the wood, what do you use to varnish (japan) the wood where you sand down. To have the same color and aspect of the rest of the guitar ? is that only the clear plastic polish and cleaner ?
many so called spray paints are lacquer based and will work well on guitars. If you want to spray over an existing already finished guitar you may have adhesion issues so precautions should be taken.
I have a fairly new natural finish (Maple), Epiphone EJ-200 that got a cut fiber dent in the soundboard. This was caused when a stage hand bumped into the hard case cover and a latch tongue impacted into the lower, rear bout of the guitar while I was putting it back into the case. Would it be a good idea to use the hot iron and damp towel method, to raise the dent prior to patching the finish?
Thanks for showing this process, used it on my 1969 Höffner 12 string to fill some damages on the top (only had superglue, but it worked pretty good). But I have a Gibson classic guitar, about the same age, which was left in the case for too long and got too dry , with a crack at about the same place but right next to the kerfing so I can't use cleats. As the crack on the guitar in the video looks very similar I wonder how you fixed it. Just gluing and clamping? What, if any, reinforcement would be appropriate to keep it from cracking again. Once the crack is fixed your video for fixing the outside is a great help, thank you ! BTW I am from the Netherlands
It is difficult to cleat a crack that is right p next to the kerfing. Usually the CA glue trick is enough. Also keep the guitar humidified. Greetings from Colorado!
Very informative and helpful, you are really good at what you and generous with your knowledge. And great skill. I heard someone here mention doing the same repair with PVA glue. CA is not anything common here in New Zealand. I use a lot of what's called Selley's Aquadhere - it's a polyaliphatic cross linking PVA. Would that work if I followed your demo and just apply it water-diluted first, followed by thicker applications? Thanks.
I would probably just use a hide glue or fish glue if I didn't have access to CA glue. Thanks for watching my videos. Glad you are finding them useful.
I noticed that the finish on the back & sides of the guitar appears to be delaminating. I have a customer's guitar (a Tacoma DM18) doing the same thing. The top is okay, but the back & sides are peeling like a bad sunburn.
if CA were not available, would you use hot hide glue for this type of repair?? Im glad you made the distinguish about poly and lacquer finishes using CA for repair and drop fills.
Thanks for Ur reply,didnt know what else I could possibly say , Let a fan hold my guitar for pics and she dropped it! Kaput!LOL! The edge molding came off first then the inner binding,duct tape great for an ER temp solution, found a repair man in the Bronx NYC who has the parts to sell me. Thanks again "The Songster"
@@OBrienGuitars Thanks for your videos * the clear coat of my guitar on the top after the process no matter how much super glue applied at the end when I use the razor and sand paper and polished the finish to have the glossy result, I look closely is that restored part and is sunk in front of the rest, not perfectly flat. Is there any way to achieve a repair that is perfectly flat compared to the rest of the finish? That does not remain that piece sunk? But totally flat? Thank you
@@butcher_0392 You need to build up that area with the glue and be careful when sanding to use a hard block. If not you will sand a low area into the finish.
Before sanding down the filled area, should one not mask off the surrounding good area and then use a much smaller size sanding block and paper? In this demo, were you not unneccessarily scratching a large area of good existing finish during the sanding process?
taab7 I'm guessing her did that so it would match the rest of the guitar and so it wouldn't look like a patch job. As you can see after he buffed and polished it the guitar looked incredible
Does this method work for both lacquer and polyurethane finishes? I’ve done quite a few of these before on polyurethane but never tried on lacquer. I’ve got a Martin with a crack on my workbench now and just want to confirm that it is the correct method before beginning the repair.
I just dropped my 12 string guitar and i have the same crack on the lower body like that guitar My question wich other glue can you use for it i live in the netherlands and have other sorts of glue here.
To repair the wood you can use hide glue, fish glue or yellow glue. The advantage of the CA glue is that you can use it to repair the crack in the wood and the finish.
Hello Robert. I just came across your channel watching this seven year old video and now I have subscribed just to see how things are done by a professional luthier. I am not one but just a guitar nerd. I do have a personal question about my Martin 1971 D35. I am the original owner and it’s in remarkable shape and I want to keep it that way. Are there any particular cleaners and polishers that she would recommend. I have used Martin’s cleaner and polishing, Gibson polish and even car polish but I want to make sure that I’m not doing the wrong thing. Thank you very much
I am an amateur but I have a couple of inexpensive guitars that need dents/dinks taking out ofthem.I would like to attempt to do this myself and will be studying video's like yours as I go along: I have one question-how do you know when to move from one grit of paper to another?
+beanoalbum1966 Be careful that you do not make the defect worse. This is easy to do so proceed with caution. You move to the next paper to remove the marks from the previous grit paper.
Great Tip Robert Thanks, Can you help me? i tried to install the strap button on mi daughter brand new acoustic guitar but i installed it in the side of the guitar close to the neck so when she tried it for the first time the wood gave up and now i have a hole on the guitar the size of the strap button, that was a few weeks ago and i lost the little piece of wood that came off i was wondering if you can recommend a way to fill this hole and repair the black finish. hope you can help me. thanks in advance. Regards Charly A. Juarez Mexico.
Well, I suppose some would find that exceptable, but the discoloration would drive me nuts.I know that without refinishing the whole surface, not much else can be done, but that's just me. I guess that's the perfectionist in me. BTW, I use crazy glue instead of CA glue. Works well.
DEAR Robert 2 things you know the part of that top that was brownish sort of oxydizwd or roted dont you want to try to scrape down the the whiter wood is it ok to leave it that way ? now i tryed some thing that worked great for me! i took# 1500 sand paper and rubbed a small amount of compound on it then whith circular motions rubbed it till it burnished to a high gloss on shellac took elbow grease and time but it worked like a charm could see my reflection and ialso want to ask lets say you tune the b string to pitch and you play D on the third fret and its a little off can that be fixed? how and why dose that happen even on new guitars?
Bruce, there are always several ways to do things. The best course of action is one that you and your client agree on. This client didn't want to spend much for the repair. Once the structural issue was addressed the cosmetic issue wasn't much concern for him. So, I took the approach I did in the video. It was the least invasive and least expensive.
What you are experiencing on the 3rd fret of the B string is due to compensation, or should I say the lack of it. The builder or factory that made your guitar probably didn't add compensation to the overall scale length and this could be why your guitar plays out of tune. If this is the case it gets worse the higher up the fretboard you go. As someone famous once said, "there's no money above the 5th fret anyway." haha
Nice video. Not trying to be ugly, but couldn’t you have cleaned the dirt out before sealing it in permanently with super glue? Or perhaps clean and lightly stain it to make it less visible? Just curious as to why you didn’t do this? You obviously took your time and put a good effort into this repair. Just wondering why you would leave out this crucial step? Was it at the request of the customer? Would it have caused more damage? Thanks for any input.
In hindsight, it probably would have been better to clean the area before proceeding with the finish repair. A lot of what you see in the video is wood oxidation too and not dirt. Many times I would do things differently if the client would let me. Most are on a tight budget so I am limited as to how much work I can do on the instrument.
Most types of glue will be darker when repairing a crack. The exceptions are fish and hide glue. They are less noticeable if done right.The moral of the story here is to take care of your instrument so it doesn't get cracks that need to be repaired.
+Dirt Farmer If it isn't deeper than the finish just level and buff the area. Make sure it is nitro and not a polyester or urethane that builds in layers. Also be careful if there are color coats. Good luck.
So are you saying to use nitrocellulose to level it? It is on a 2005 Eric Johnson Artist Series strat that is off white in color. I think the color is next to the wood then a clear of nitrocellulose is applied on top but I really don't know.Thank you.
+OBrienGuitars Question along with Dirt Farmer's question; I have an Ibanez solidbody electric with wood stain finish and the clearcoat has a chip. The woodstain is not affected. The chip has left some white cracklines around the inner part of the chip. From what I have read, the claercoad for all Japan models are Polyester. I was all ready to try the superglue method until I just read your comment " Make sure it is nitro and not a polyester or urethane that builds in layers" .....Why? Should I not try this on my Ibanez with Polyester clear coat? I was hoping the thin CA would fill in the white cracks in the chip....whats wrong with CA on Polyester?
+mojo321100 It will probably work. Keep in mind I have not seen pics and it is very hard to offer advice without seeing something. Recently someone sent me pics of a guitar that had a polyester satin finish on it and the CA glue damaged this type finish. I had never seen this happen on polyester so anything is possible. Proceed at your own risk.
+Dirt Farmer I don't know. You said it was a scratch in the clear coat that didn't go to the color coat underneath, so if this is truly the case and the finish is indeed nitro then just level it with wet sandpaper and buff to a gloss. Don't grow through to the color coat and make sure it is nitro.
