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I messed up on one thing. I was going to laser my logo onto the backstrip. However in my absentmindness, I hit "cut" rather than engrave and I cut almost all the way through (with burn marks showing through on the other side) the back. I removed and replaced the backstrip, and re-engraved but I'm trying to figure out what to do about the laser throughs...

Should I inlay something over it? what should it be? and how would I wrap the purfling around it?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Looks like you are coming along nicely.

Show us a picture of the back with the laser burn so we can come up with ideas of how to hide it. Is this for a customer, for your self or to sell in the future?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I'll have a pic later. But only a few dots of black shows through. I can't get a pic now because the back is being glued to the side right now...

It was initially a build to sell but a customer has decided to buy it, so it needs to be good.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Well...likely any repair would have more easily been tackled with the back unattached.

If you have a customer in line for this you need to make sure whatever repair you make satisfies his/her expectations.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

You might be able to rout out and replace the back strip to get rid of the burn marks. I have routed in back strip channels on finished instruments and it isn't too difficult if you are familiar with using a router and have a steady hand.You would only have to make the rout partial depth of the back.

I'll have to see.

I think I might just decide to leave it alone. It's only a few dots and it doesn't look horribly out of place, so could be explained as natural inclusions. A few coat of epoxy will fill any imperfections.



This is the laser burn...

I just fear that anything I do to fix it will only make it worse, and routers have a really nasty habit of slipping at the worst possible moment. One wrong move, slip, and the whole guitar is trash. I have a deadline of December 1 (actually probably a week before that) so I can't afford to lose this guitar because of a router slip.

I also accidentally spilled water on the back... it should sand out.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

A router can't slip if you set up a channel. You have to fix that right IMO.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I would sand out the water stains and then with an artists brush carefully use a dark stain to stain the center strip a dark brown or black, hiding the burns and leaving the fine white lines as contrasting elements.

I'm in the camp of routering it out and replacing it. I, personally, wouldn't sell that to a customer knowing it could have been fixed easily. ( plus it would bug me every time I looked at the guitar again
)

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Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

The more I build the less they bug me

Having worked repairing shipping damage on expensive furniture that was then sold as first quality, I've learned that sometimes it is better to simply disguise a problem than to remake something (if it can be done in a way that is reasonably structurally sound and will hold up to normal use). Mohawk offers a wood colored bondo that finds it's way into many a crushed corner, and hundreds of colorants to match the color and sheen of finishes.
If staining the strip dark would not be acceptable then pushing the individual burn marks below the surface (with a pin or tiny punch) and filling the depressions with a color matching wood putty might work. Again, if well done, it wouldn't hurt a thing and wouldn't be noticed.

I rather do as little as possible to fix or disguise the problem. Routing out the back strip just gives another opportunity to mess it up in a major way.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

In that case and with your pressing need to get it finished I would be going with Clay S.'s (who has a lot of relevant experience) suggestion to dye it, probably dark brown. I would have masked off the purflings first to make sure you don't get any on that, but his suggestion to do it by hand with a fine brush is probably better - if the stain gets under the tape, your probably in deep trouble.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I think if you can make your own barrel nuts then you should be able to do this easily. It's not that hard. Having said that I would agree it doesn't look too unnatural as it is.

I'm going to leave it alone.

It's really hard to tell something is amiss if I wasn't looking at it, and it really just looks like a slight stain in the wood. That can be explained as natural inclusions.

I'm not incapable of routing the entire backstrip out and putting a new one in its place, I'm concerned about risks. If something slips for any reason, the entire project is toast. The risk is too great for what amounts to a small stain in the backstrip. Trying to fix my mistake, and fixing the mistake made while fixing the mistake will be far more headache than leaving it alone.

If I could have my mill follow the curve of the guitar in the Z axis, I could easily set it up and indicate it so that it runs absolutely true.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Pushing the small black dots below the surface and filling the tiny depressions with a light colored wood putty would make the area draw the eye less and should be a low risk fix. Rather than sell it as an "inclusion" (which is less than the truth) I would rather the customer not see it and never question me about it.
My father once told me the first rule of being a good salesman is to -never- lie to the customer (but you don't have to tell them if they don't ask).

What Clay said. It's one thing to choose not to fix it because you fear failure, it's something else entirely to lie to your customer and call it an inclusion. Might work on the day of sale, but it won't be long til he notices these 'inclusions' are directly behind the obviously overcut laser logo.