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FINISH REPAIR This guy’s in trouble. This is Rowan, who lives down the street from me. He’s not supposed to be playing that Gibson, and he knows it. That’s his big brother’s pride and joy. Rowan’s in trouble: he put a chip in the guitar. So he came to see me... Erick Coleman, April 16, 2009 |
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| Using a lego block as a flatpick? What were you thinking?! Rowan’s older brother is very protective of his guitar. He knows every little chip in this finish, except for the one that Rowan just put there while flatpicking with a lego. Rowan wants to know if I can hide the damage. I've decided to help him with his life of crime, and see if I can fix this without anybody knowing. |
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That’s a pretty noticeable chip he’s got there! Clean through the lacquer down to the bare wood. It's smack dab in the middle of the sunburst, so it’ll require a good color match to get an invisible repair. |
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| I’m using something new on this one: touchup pens. I’ve been looking for the perfect chance to try out this set of ColorTone pens, and that time is now! |
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It’s a set of five: one clear lacquer pen and four markers in our most popular stain colors. These are the classic Gibson sunburst tones, plus cherry red. You simply color the bare wood to match using the markers, then drop fill some clear lacquer. |
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Let’s get going, before Big Brother’s back in town. Here’s a quick test of the vintage amber pen on a scrap of unfinished spruce: it’s a dead-on match to the center of this classic Gibson sunburst. |
 ColorTone Touchup Markers |
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All I need to do is tint the bare wood with the marker to match the surrounding color. In this case, a little touch did the trick; I could get a darker tone with more passes of the marker. I’m going to touch up the finish with the clear lacquer pen now. With unstained wood I can apply the lacquer pen straight to the repair, but I’ve put Vintage Amber on this spot. I don’t want to wipe the tip of my lacquer pen on the amber, so I’m going to do a drop fill with the pen. I’m pumping out a little bit of lacquer into the bottom of an upside-down shot glass. This creates a tiny pool of lacquer to dip the tip. |
 Preservation Polish |
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After dipping the pen tip, I’m holding it just above the area to be filled. The lacquer drops from the tip of the pen without any of the stain migrating up to the tip!
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 3M Flexible Polishing Papers |
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Big Brother will never know what happened. At least, that’s what Rowan thinks. He doesn’t know I've signed up his bro’ for a Trade Secrets subscription. Right about now, I think they'll be having a little brotherly chat... |
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Problem-solving products for this kind of work: |
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To reply to this email, please use this web page: stewmac.com/email Our customer service representatives are available to serve you 9am-6pm weekdays EST. Call 800-848-2273 today.  Stewart-MacDonald - Everything for building and repairing stringed instruments! © 2006 Stewart-MacDonald, 21 N. Shafer Street, Box 900, Athens, Ohio 45701 Toll-free: 800-848-2273 Website: www.stewmac.comE-mail: www.stewmac.com/emailYou are receiving this e-mail because you have a stewmac.com Trade Secrets subscription. If you wish to unsubscribe or change your e-mail address, please click here. |
