Dealing With Guitar Dings, Scratches, Bumps, Bruises, Etc.

[Marty Grass]

Maybe you guys don't want stories, but here's a brief one.

I used to practice in this room that had a ceiling fan. I pulled my guitar up to get the strap off of me. Thunk!! The fan put a dent in the headstock. I was devastated.

The next day I did the same thing. It didn't bother me as much that there was a second ding. But my stupidity did. And that was the last time that happened.

[Bluedawg]

I try to keep my nice things nice as long as possible ....

It helps that I don't gig out much .... for better or worse

When I had more gigs ... my Heritage Sweet 16 was gigged quite a bit ... and it shows .... there's a big worn spot on the pickguard .. and there are several dents and marks all over the body

I suspect that if I had been using one of my Gibbies on the gigs it would have experienced the same wear and tear

[John A.]

well yeah, any valuable possession should be taken care of, but wear and tear through usage are unavoidable. Part of the reason why we pay extra in many cases for lacquer finishes is because those finishes are designed to age attractively and to be repaired. So yeah, a headstock break is a nightmare but, like people, age lends character to an instrument.

Nowadays, we think of nitro lacquer in those terms, but it was first used because it was cheaper, easier to apply, and allowed for more colors and better gloss than the alternatives. It's kind of interesting that its chief deficits (poor durability and color stability compared to more modern finishes) have become virtues in the guitar world.

John

[wintermoon]

Maybe you guys don't want stories, but here's a brief one.

I used to practice in this room that had a ceiling fan. I pulled my guitar up to get the strap off of me. Thunk!! The fan put a dent in the headstock. I was devastated.

The next day I did the same thing. It didn't bother me as much that there was a second ding. But my stupidity did. And that was the last time that happened.

hah! same thing happened to me about 5 yrs ago w/my trusty old 60s L-5.
playing in a tiny club and the bandleader calls to me come up to the bandstand as we're beginning the next set.
rather hurridly, I scamper up to the bandstand and as I'm lifting the guitar over my head to flip the strap over I said "just give me second to tune up" and caught the headstock in the ceiling fan [thwack, thwack, thwack!]

the bandleader said, "if you didn't need to tune up, you probably do now"

couldn't even bear to look @ the damage until I got home, but got lucky, just some minor chipping of the laquer along the top edge of the peghead, no biggie...

[vinlander]

Reminds me a painful event when younger after just a couple months playing my brand new 1992 Les Paul Standard, one day in my friend's basement where we just finished rehearsing and walked in an area of the basement where the ceiling was lower...I still had my LP around the neck and stupidly decided it was NOW the right place to take it off and of course not by detaching the strap. Passing it over my head, the headstock went straight into the spiky stucco ceiling which crumbled on my shoulder. Luckily the damage was minimal to both the guitar and the ceiling, a very small dent.

[gspirro1]

I have a Hamer Monaco that was custom made for me. Not long after I had it, my wife was practicing her belly dancing nearby, when one of her finger cymbals flew off and put a nice 1/2" gash in the guitar's top! She was devastated and so apologetic! But I thought it was a pretty cool accident. I still have the guitar. She's no longer my wife...but we're still very good friends! 😁

[jazzimprov]

When I bought my Jim Hall Sadowsky, I mentioned about being careful with it. Roger Sadowsky then offered to take it in the back room and bang it up a bit for me........

:-)

[citizenk74]

Some of my favorite guitars have arrived with structural damage (and a substantial discount). My '69 Les Paul fretless wonder had the typical Gibson neck break- not severed, but badly compromised. Some clamps, some Elmer's and patience, and it was once again a working guitar. Played it for many years strung 15-60 and it was more tuning-stable than many of my band-mates intact Deluxes, Strata, and so forth. The guitar is still working - it is now my grandson's metal machine. A '55-78 Les Paul Special "re-issue (more of a re-mix) came with the same problem and solution. I eventually sprang for a pro-fix - splines and a re-fin that left it better than new - the broken area showed signs of dry-rot, replaced with healthy mahogany. I eventually gave it to a close friend, who eventually traded it to another friend, who the re-sold it to me. After several years of stage use, I lent it to another friend or a recording project. That was over a decade ago. Haven't seen him or the guitar since. I wish him well. Hope the guitar is OK and in use.

[Groyniad]

the whole cleaning thing is immense for us

how many reality t.v. programs are there now about horders and anal retentives?

how big a part of your relationship with your partner or flat mates (or with yourself if you live alone) has to do with how tidy/clean you like to have things?

one of the basic ways of going mad is either to become obsessed with keeping everything spotless or to cease to care a jot about how dirty everything is

when i was gigging 6 times a week and more i tried v. hard to remember to wipe down the strings after the first set and at the end of the gig (because it cost so much to keep replacing strings that had gone all rusty because of my sweaty hands - yuck) - i usually failed

now that almost every ounce of energy goes into looking after my kids (they are little and i am a house-dad) i practice a lot (when they're asleep) and i clean my guitar a lot too

in the way of these things: the thing most likely to damage the finish on my guitar is me trying to clean it and make it look nice

[GNAPPI]

I had a horror last week though. I was playing in my bare feet, set my Tal Farlow in the stand and walked away. The guitar cable caught inbetween my big toe and the guitar started falling. I grabbed it just in time to prevent a BooBoo. for some reason I hadn't put it into the stand with the swivelling lock on the neck, never again nor will I play barefooted :-)

[fumblefingers]

i only buy new. homes, cars, guitars. i am intolerant of someone else's neglect, stupidity, and coordination issues.

that said, i have a few dings on my guitars that are post 2004. those that are post 2008 have none - and - i play them.

i've become very careful, and no one who wants to live touches Lucille, baby. but then i buy high-end guitars. dings and scratches are resale reducers.

when selling, can you claim it to be "excellent, good, fair", etc? Where do you want to be when selling a high-end instrument?

[vinnyv1k]

I walk out to my car today and their is a pencil eraser sized paint chip on my door down to bare metal. Needless to say the paint chip mobile repair van is coming to my work tomorrow. I wish I wasn't so friggin anal about things. Bugs me the way that I am but a leopard can't change his spots. I have 2 sons. One is the opposite of me and one is just like me. The son that is like me is even worse than me. He is always upset. Very hard to have perfect things for very long. Type B people are way happier people.

[eddy b.]

My guitars never look new for very long, they all have a heavy used look to them, chips dents, rust, fret wear etc. I don't really plan on ever selling any of them so their value is only in relation to their ability to perform a specific task for a specific gig. That being said everything I own looks kind of beat up my car, my bicycle, my clothes... Maybe it's me.

[2bornot2bop]

I agree, if you're selling it the finish condition matters, and if dinged the guitar takes a hit. I recently had a buyer hooked on buying a Blue Super Eagle. He had his wallet out and ready to pull the trigger. Then he asked to have the f-hole tag photographed and forwarded to him. It had fallen off who knows when. Then my buyer lost interest.

Buyers are fickle, and some very finicky. I'm getting out and I'm slowly getting down to one guitar, which thankfully already has dings

[Sam Sherry]

“I have very little connection to the actual instrument. . . . I just sort of try and separate myself from it; it’s a piece of wood—I can get another guitar. It’s not my dog or my wife.”

-- Jim Hall

[stringmaster]

HaHa--After my headstock break from my Gibson getting knocked off of the stand, I swore to never use stands that aren't secured at the headstock--so I got a couple of the heavy duty Hercules stands, and proceeded to bang my guitar into the headstock clamp when I flipped around on stage. Can't win!

[jazzimprov]

I am seeing this more on my D'angelico (newer version (Black)) than any other guitar.

I thought I was using a good cloth for this (for guitars) or just a clean T-shirt on occasion...

tried Virtuoso cleaner and that helped a bit but anyway to clean up those marks or is it permanent?

[lammie200]

Guitar Scratch Remover Polish – GuitarScratchRemover by Eternashine

I used this stuff before. It worked.

[Thumpalumpacus]

If it's finished in poly, Novus #2 should work.

[Flat]

Lammie and Thump have excellent suggestions, imho.

I'd suggest also ditching the old t-shirt routine and buying a some micro-fiber cloths. The t-shirt is probably okay, but the microfibers are soft and seem good at pulling oils and grease off of my guitars. If your D'Angelico is prone to scratches, this might be worth considering.

I buy them from Amazon--their house brand. Cheap, good cleaning cloths. There's finer stuff out there. These are semi-disposable. I use them on guitars, computers, etc. A bag lasts me a couple years.

[lammie200]

Also, black will always show scratches and swirls more than any other color or finish. It is kinda like the same thing with cars and dirt. Black cars show dirt more than white cars.

[lukmanohnz]

This stuff was recommended by my teacher. It worked really well on some finish sleeks on the back of my Eastman caused by a poorly fitting gig bag. (I’ve since upgraded to a Mono M80 gig bag.)

[pauln]

If you are positive the finish is poly, you may use plastic headlight restoration creme;
just be aware that it works by very slowly melting the topmost molecular layers.

[deacon Mark]

Black finishes scratch just looking at them in light.

[jazzimprov]

"Black finishes scratch just looking at them in light."

......ain't that the truth....

it is poly -and will try the sugestions...Thanks All!!