How To Repair Lacquer Guitar Finish

Mutual Terminate Issues

Lacquer Checking / Crazing

This is an extremely common, somewhat expected condition on older instruments with lacquer finishes. Checking will vary according to the extremes the musical instrument has been through. Every bit an instruments wood expands and contracts with moisture content stress is placed on the finish.

white lines in finish where stretching has occured

Heavy finish checking /crazing

The lacquer itself is put thru allot of stress equally this takes place and the stop may develop checking/crazing is a outcome of this movement. Checking looks similar very fine finish cracks running in all directions.
Farthermost and sudden temperature changes can also cause finish checking, regardless of the instruments age.

Can I avert checking?
If you travel with your instrument and it is subject to astringent temperature changes, you should permit it to acclimatize to room temperature before opening the case. When instruments are shipped to me they are left unopened until I am sure the contents accept had the opportunity to warm/cool to room temperature slowly.

Y'all should besides insure you are properly humidifying your instruments to avert sever dryness. Encounter my humidity commodity for more than information.

Can you repair finish checks? Because checking is a common occurrence on vintage instruments most should avoid refinishing as it is likely to happen again. An boosted deterrent would be the negative event on value.

Yellowing Stop

Instruments finished in nitrocellulose lacquer not just tend to craze with greater ease than the newest catalyzed finishes but they also xanthous with age. An instruments finish can consist of a colour coat and clear top coat or simply a clear glaze.

With age this clear summit glaze begins to plow yellow. That means a white guitar may eventually turn yellow and, since blueish and xanthous make green, older blue instruments can eventually plough green. This phenomenon is a simple fact of life and a natural occurrence with aging lacquer.

While it's truthful that UV rays may advance the process (only superlative nether a pickguard), zero tin can be washed to stop nitrocellulose from yellowing. In fact, like crazing, it is a common and expected occurrence.

Tin you sand off the clear coat to remove the yellowing? As uncomplicated every bit that may sound the reply is no. Trying to sand off merely the top clear glaze and not damage the colour is a lesson in futility.

That being said, when I was young I attempted to sand off a refinish color to reveal the original finish on a vintage Fender Strat. What I found after days spent removing small-scale amounts of finish was that the original coat had been sanded thru in areas as information technology was prepped for the refinish. Futility merely a do it yourself er would effort!

Soft, Gooey Finish

Lacquer is the near common stop used on vintage instruments and while information technology has great properties for touch up it tin can be damaged with certain solvents.

Lacquer is a solvent based finish and tin can be damaged by contact with acetone and lacquer thinner. Information technology can also be damaged with prolonged contact with water and denatured booze.

One reaction that many are unaware of is lacquers nasty reaction to prolonged contact with vinyl. Vinyl will soften lacquer to a point that information technology will curl upwardly under your fingers. Refinishing of the effected surface area is necessary.

Peeling Pigment (Delaminating)

Different manufacturers take had issues with de-laminating finish at different times. De-lamination occurs when the top coat can not attach to the underlying sizing or sealer. Much like the white Contrivance'southward we see driving around with large patches of exposed gray primer, the summit coat let's loose and fries off with piddling effort.

Because this is an adhesion consequence, overspraying without stripping to bare wood often results in a repeat. The surface must exist re-prepared for refinishing.

Cloudy White Finish

finish appears white instead of clear

Terminate clouding on peghead
of Alvarez guitar.

Clouding refers to a milky white coloring that makes the articulate glaze far less transparent and foggy.

I take only witnessed this miracle on cheap poly finished instruments.

Due to the fourth dimension and toll involved to strip and refinish one of these instruments it is a condition nigh are forced to live with. Because the clouding is in the terminate, buffing and polishing take no effect.

This is not commonly seen when the instrument is new but develops over time. While I accept ideas as to the cause I do not know for certain.