Woodworking Talk banner

refinish an acoustic guitar?

3K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  B Coll 
#1 ·
I bought a classical guitar yesterday from an antique store. I never heard of Giannini before but it had an interesting shape so I took a gamble. Dropped $200 then showed it to someone who immediately recognized it and said it's worth like $1500. I found two online that sold for 1800 but another for 450. Either way, I think I made a good choice.

The guitar has a lot of dings in the finish and was wondering if that can be fixed somehow? Can you touch up lacquer to blend in the defects?
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#2 ·
Yes, Giannini guitars are well known as being good instruments. How does it sound now? If it sounds good then I'd leave the dings alone and call it character.

But to answer your question, yes, dings can be repaired. You can drip lacquer into each ding, let it cure (and shrink), then wet sand it with a block to ensure it stays flat, and then polish to suit. You're almost always going to end up with these areas showing as a different sheen than the rest of the top, though, unless you polish the entire top. Even then they may show.

Sometimes this takes several weeks and multiple applications of the dripped lacquer to get it all proper.

David
 
#4 ·
Pictures would be helpful so we can assess how bad the dings are.
There should be one showing the dings in my post.

It sounds great, the bass has a good depth to it. It's quite comfortable to play as well. There's a repair shop in town I'm going to talk to on monday, he wasn't in today. Figured since he specializes in guitar repair it'd be worth asking. Not just on the finish but I have a concern over where it appears there might be some separation between the neck and body. I've worked on electrics before, but given the delicate nature of an acoustic and its age, I might want to leave this one to a pro.

Whether I attempt to repair the finish or not, I'm quite happy with my rare find. The fact it might be worth more than my larrivee is just a bonus.
 
#5 ·
Nice find! That kind of stuff never happens to me. I was in an antique store a while back and my wife spotted a guitar case. As I went to open it, the shop keeper said: “if you’re hoping to find a pre-war Martin in there, you’re going to be disappointed.”

Anyway, I’d either live with it as is, or give it to a pro. I’d be inclined to have them level sand it, drop fill the dings and re-shoot the whole top.
 
#6 ·
“if you’re hoping to find a pre-war Martin in there, you’re going to be disappointed.”
lol

I didn't get it to the shop yesterday as planned, it was raining too much and I didn't want to carry it outside.

The case somewhat works, but being an old chip case, the lid and locks don't seem to line up very well anymore. Just barely enough to get half the locks closed. Thinking that might be a better project for me to do, build a new case. Any suggestions on building a form-fitted case? All the examples I've found online build a generic rectangular case
 
#7 ·
Talked with the repair shop. He suggested using a piece of mylar to slide inbetween the fingerboard and neck to help clear out old glue and to reglue it myself. Otherwise, the whole neck would have to come off and separated. And he said due to heating the fingerboard to get the glue apart, often it'll bend and typically be replaced with a new piece. An estimate to reglue the neck was around $250, which is more than I spent on the guitar. I'll take his suggestion and try to clamp it down to secure it better, and I probably won't bother with the finish.
 
#9 ·
Actually lacquer is one of the easiest finishes to touch up. Old dry lacquer will melt and rejuvenate itself by putting lacquer thinner on it. You could take a small artist paint brush and just dab a little thinner on the spots and just let it sit and melt. Don't touch it, just wet it and leave it alone. After this is done if the spot still shows you can lightly sand it with fine sandpaper and spray the spots with lacquer. What you can do is spray it and sand it over and over until the spot is gone. Then hand rub the entire surface with 0000 steel wool and if the sheen is too dull rub it with rubbing compound like you use on a car. Unless something has stained the wood through the spot it should completely disappear.
 
#10 ·
Here's a repair I made to my Guild F-512 in 2015 the way Steve describes above. The lighting isn't identical but you can see where I made the repair if you know where to look. Now 8 years later I have to really look hard to find it.

Before
Automotive lighting Dishware Wood Serveware Circle

After
Brown Amber Orange Wood Rectangle
 
#11 ·
How did you apply a single drop of lacquer, an eye dropper?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top