i have a slight ding in one of my necks. honestly, i hardly know its there anymore. thing is i know its there and that bothers me just knowing. ive heard that these type of dings can be steamed out at home. anybody
ever dont this before and to what results?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I agree, that is minor. It's unlikely it will affect the structure or tone of your instrument.

i figure ya gotta pick and choose your dings nevin. i would leave this one alone unless you do a solid rebuild.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Is it a chip in the lacquer or a dent in the wood? Or both?

Cheers - C

its in both ceri. i thought about wood filler but what a waste for just a couple of tooth pick tips full of filler just to throw the rest away.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

OK, well in a way that's good, if you want to use the steam method, because you'll be sanding and retouching the lacquer in that spot. Don't think about filler: that will just look crap. However...:

One of the two primary reasons for the existence of lacquer is to inhibit moisture from entering and leaving the wood, so this won't work with lacquer on. You'll need to carefully sand the lacquer off to bare wood in this spot, probably with around a P180 paper, finishing afterwards with P300. Once the wood is naked you can get at it with the steam and lift out that dent.

Here are some photos I took on a build thread about a year ago. First, a dent, in this case in a damaged body. Center of the photo to the left of the trem cavity:


Next. You damp a piece of kitchen paper or a Jay cloth or similar. Place it carefully over the dent and then heat it with an ordinary clothes iron, set to just below steam iron temperature. The moisture in the cloth is heated, turned to steam and directed downwards into the wood:


The brown paper is there to assist in directing the steam downward into the wood - it helps but it isn't vital. The moisture causes the fibres of the wood to expand and the dent magically disappears. It may take two or three repetitions to achieve this, but it will work with even quite big dents, like the one in the first photo.

Then you refinish with eight or ten very thin layers of lacquer. Unless your neck is vintage or a vintage re-issue it will almost certainly have a polyurethane lacquer on it. You can buy clear polyurethane in an aerosol very easily: Plasti-Kote make a good one. Don't confuse polyurethane with polyester. Two different things.

Alternatively you can buy a small tin of furniture maker's polyurethane lacquer (varnish) from any hardware store worth its salt and apply it in many thin coats with a brush. The end result is the same.

Give a week or so for that lacquer to fully cure and then knock it back gently with P600 wet-and-dry paper. Then move on to P1000, P1500 and P2000. If you like a satin finish you can leave it there: otherwise buff to a gloss with automotive swirl remover or household metal polish.

Job done.

It has taken me nearly as long to type this as to do the deal. Simple stuff.

Cheers - C

thank you ceri.
a tad nervous about sanding on this very comfortable neck.
i'll have to think this through first. so would there be a different feeling in the old finish thats around the newly applied finish thats on top of the repair?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Nah: you're only sanding off and then replacing the lacquer. Don't sand the wood.

That's up to how well you do the lacquering and sanding. Not at all hard to make the join absolutely invisible.

Though as always some photos would help to make a judgement from thousands of miles away...

Cheers - C

soto be clear, im only sanding a small area of the neck to do the repair and not the whole neck right?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Good grief no, not the whole neck!

Just an inch or so area around where the ding is. So afterwards the new lacquer will essentially feather in to the old.

'Bout as easy as a chip repair gets. Kiddie stuff.

Good luck - C

lol ok thats what i was thinking.
i was gonna say "dude cant i just do an inch or so and blend
it all together?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Got a couple neck dings in a couple guitars and they are somewhat aggro.

But so is the concept of trying to repair them and possibly ending up with something more fub duck than what was originally there.

"It gives the instrument character."

Riiight...?