Official Luthiers Forum!

Always a sucker for spending to much time and dollars buying and fixing up damaged guitars. I recently came across a LP deluxe.
It was originally a burst which someone had spray bombed black with enamel and then it appeared to have been gone over with 80 grit for some reason, perhaps in an attempt to reverse the damage?
I have pretty much completed the refin-I've always wanted a gold top.
Anyways-the sanding did damage to the profile in the usual places on the back edges a little on the fron, and of course the binding was over done too.
This was enough to live with and I got it leveled out somewhat successfully.
But heres the problem-
the headstock had been sanded down on a few edges into the fibre layer-
I thought about trying to paint it with black paint and clear coat it-I could just hit the damaged areas and although it would be seen it would be better than the rough flat look of the fibre.
In the pictures I have given it a light buff with 1500

I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas from maybe coming across this before.
Thanks in advance.
Bill

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

Well, I'd sand off the fibre stuff and put down a thin piece of Ebony.
Veneer may work too.
You'd lose the logo though.

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Unfortunately there isn't nothing much that can be done with it the way it is. Once the fiber is roughed up and it turns gray like that it will never look black, now matter how finely you sand it or clear coat it.
This is how I usually fix it : Sand the entire face to remove whatever clear coat is left on there and wipe it down with lacquer thinner to remove any residue. Tape off the neck, sides of the headstock and back. Using clear packing tape cover the Gibson Logo and then using a new #11 Exacto blade, score as closely as possible to the gibson logo and remove the excess tape leaving only the logo covered.
Shoot 2 to 3 light coats of black lacquer over the face of the headstock and let it dry for about a 1/2 hr. CAREFULLY with the exacto knife lift the tape away and uncover the logo. Let it dry another hour. Lightly wet sand with 800 grit paper around the logo to remove the paint ridge that built up along the edge of the tape. Get yourself a LP Model water slide decal off of Ebay and apply the decal in the usual manner. Let decal dry for 24 hrs.
Clear coat the face of the headstock. First couple of passes with the clear will be very light coats to prevent the solvents in the paint from messing up the decal. 3 light coats is plenty with about 20 minute dring time between each coat. After that spray several coats of clear, let dry, wet sand, repeat, etc, etc. What you want is to build up the clear/ sand/ spray, etc, etc so the clear will bury the decal and you won't see the decal outline. I have done this millions of times with excellent results

I fix these quite often and do not have any issues doing them with clear lacquer. Most of them have the big circle chips around the tuners but the damage is the same. You will not do it with a rattle can lacquer though.....solvents are not strong enough to get the job done and spray is generally poorly atomized and to dry. You need a lacquer m ix that will wet out and redissolve the lacquer underneath. I prep these with 600 wet.

Here is an example on a job from a while back where i replaced the inlay.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks to all for the advice.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious