Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi fellas I am a new member here, and have a restauration question I hope some of you more experienced luthiers can help me with.

How to take off tape from a guitar , without damaging the laquer finish ?

This tape was put on 30+ years ago by a previous owner, apparently to secure areas of loose binding. It has since hardened and dried out. I am only showing one spot, but is all over the guitar, frontside and backside.

I tried lighter fluid , but it wont penetrate through the plastic. When I scratch some off the tape away with my fingernail if comes off in very small fragments , lacquer stays intact underneath. But it goes slow, that does not work either.

Any experience and / or good ideas ?

Have you tried a cleaner like Goop or Fast Orange?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

maybe a little heat from a heat gun might soften the glue. I do this on new tape. No idea about old tape.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Thanks for the rapid responses !

I am in Europe but could look for a comparable cleaner to Fast Orange ?

Heat gun would scare me a bit... I dont want to risk damaging the finish or binding (it is an 80 year old guitar !)

I suspect a scraper would be the best alternative. There's little chance that you can get that tape off without the finish underneath being damaged, since the tape adhesive has probably already degraded it anyway.
If you can peel all the tape off, a white vinyl eraser works nicely for getting the remaining adhesive off.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Rodger I agree adhesive tape on an antique guitar is a nightmare to the finish. Is it really bothering you a bunch? You could call it Mojo and be proud of your guitar. Just an idea but I love my antique guitars war wounds. It's part of their history


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>Is it really bothering you a bunch?

Yes, theres lots of tape all around and it all has to come off to do necessary repairs to loose bindings and separating top

If you don't want to use a heat gun, try a hair dryer.

BOB

A plastic scraper blade made out of an old plastic hotel key card or gift card or credit card filed down on one long edge to a sharp edge will help loosen it after it heats up and not gouge the finish. Gradually heat the tape until you are able to lift an edge with the scraper and slowly work it through. Protect the surrounding area with corrugated cardboard while heating if concerned but you don't need a lot of heat to get the old tape to loosen. I've also read that a vinegar soaked paper towel laid on top of the old packing tape for ~10 minutes and then rubbed on the tape will soften it but haven't tried it.

Thanks Tarhead I will try both those techniques

I have scratched off about a 1 inch length with my fingernail and that took colose to an hour, so I really need to find something to speed up a little

On the bright side, the finish stayed intact underneath so far

If you can find a Teflon type of bar stock, you can grind a sharp edge then buff it down a bit. It works well for scrapping.

Teflon I ll try that

I already worn through my fingernails by now and there s lots of tape to go still

Took me an hour and a half to go from here

... To here ! But the lacquer stays OK underneath so far.

Coolness!

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Nice work

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"