The maple neck is not smooth at the last dot, the lacquer over the dot seems to be chipping, there's a small pocket of air underneath the dot (shows as a small whiter area in the black dot), I think I could chip the lacquer completely off over the dot if I wanted. How bad/ usual is this? A manufacturing defect or normal wear?

2009 Custom shop 69 NOS with a custom order 9,5 radius one-piece maple neck

Can you please post some pictures of the whole guitar, and the detailed issue ?

Thanks.

I know that would help, but for now I have none. And not the possibility take them. The axe is not exactly mine.

Hi Stratum: I've seen this a few times before. Clearly, the lacquer hasn't adhered properly to the plastic of the dot material in a certain point and there develops a milky white patch in that position. Probably the thing to do is leave it alone unless/until the lacquer finally chips open in that spot, and then do a little "drop fill" repair after cleaning the surface beneath well with naphtha and denatured spirits to help with better adhesion in the future.

Or if the sight of that off-white blip in the lacquer is just too offensive you could do the repair straight away. The neck will either be finished in urethane or maybe nitro if it is a vintage reissue. Find out which and use a drop of the appropriate lacquer for the repair.

Meanwhile, this intrigues me:

If that guitar is "not exactly" yours then I strongly suggest you leave its lacquer alone! I had this very issue on one of my maple fingerboard dots a few years ago and I would not have appreciated someone chipping my varnish for me!

Cheers - C

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If the axe isn't yours ...I would leave it be.Ceri is pretty much dead on with the repair.Lacquer is actually much easier to fix than poly is.Lacquer actually kind of melts back into itself.You could probably just chip that small piece off clean it like Ceri said and lightly sand and feather it out between the two frets and get an aerosol can and touch it up or do the drop repair as he said.Just make sure to tape off everything nicely.If your neck is not tinted and its not that old and worn,you could probably redo in between the frets that are effected very easily as opposed to doing the entire neck.Do you know know if neck is lacquer or poly and if it is satin or gloss?.The one problem as I said before is lacquer gets extremely brittle over time.I would not want anyone doing anything to any of my axes except play them and give them back to me in the condition I lent them out.....but I don't lend gear so I don't have this problem
Good luck

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

Thank you for your great input. So, the neck should normally wear smoothly without chipping occuring in the dot points? That's quite a job you're suggesting, better leave it to a pro. It's a vintage neck and guessing a nitro finnish.



"if i wanted" = I do not want to do it, but wanted to describe the condition of the neck to you
"it isn't mine" = I don't own it and it isn't here, that's why no pictures. I'm just interested in the issue and considered buying it