I dinged my Gibson ES-335 - How to Fix?

[ptchristopher3]

Hi Green’

Likewise, I lack talent with the sticks. Drop fills with lacquer and CA were and are my possibilities.

Chris

[Lobomov]

Dings like that are just part of the deal with a used guitars. Sure you can always run into some dude fretting over it, but in my experience guitars drop to around half of list price when you walk out of the store, but a couple of dings don't mean nothing

99% of the loss comes from walking out of the store with it.

[salmonlust]

When buying a used guitar I wouldn't look twice on a ding like that.
It's just one of the things that makes a used guitar cheaper than a brand new one.

[archtopeddy]

For what it's worth, here's the StewMac vid fixing a dent using steam. Since he's doing it on an unfinished guitar body, it's not clear to me if you can do this on a guitar that's already been finished.

Fixing a guitar dent by steaming it out | stewmac.com

[wintermoon]

You're not going to be able to swell out lacquer, but you can if the wood itself is dinged.

[archtopeddy]

You're not going to be able to swell out lacquer, but you can if the wood itself is dinged.

Thanks for clarifying that Wintermoon.

[Greentone]

Not going to work on poly, I don't believe

[wintermoon]

Personally I'd never dream of taking an iron to a guitar to swell out a ding. No matter how experienced you are it could be a disaster. Over the yrs I've gotten pretty good at swelling dings in raw wood or lightly finished wood provided the fibers weren't badly broken.
But again, I'm not putting an iron to a guitar.

[grahambop]

I manage to put dings in my 175 regularly. Dents, chips off the lacquer, etc. The first time I was all 'OMG panic! how will I ever fix this?'

After about 3 more dings I couldn't care less. It's got character now.