Spending my idle time repairing guitars for free. What else are friends for.
 
Today, it was a 1950's Gibson acoustic. Struts unglued, cracks all over the place. Bent tuning pegs. Bridge separated from the body almost a quarter inch in some places. Major signs of abuse and failed attempts at past repairs that only made things worse.
 
Got my big hammer out and put the rig back into commission. Owner said it was the perfect guitar to take out in the woods on a girl scouts adventure. Pack it into the rough backwoods. Sing Kumbaya in the firelight and not worry about getting a scratch.
 
Friend of mine several years ago bought a beautiful macho truck for his freight hauling business. Almost blinded by the designer chrome work he had custom made. He took it back to his shop. First thing he did was take out a sledge hammer and swing a dent into the bumper. He said, "Now, that's over with".
 
I'd mentioned on the Gibson thread about a friends mother who was the master wood carver with Gibson until she was in her 80's. One of her last works was an acoustic Hummingbird she did for her son. Beautiful beautiful axe in every way. He had to handle it with kids gloves for a month until the finish was completely dry.
 
The guy was always in terror about the first scratch. Then his kid plowed into it one day with his tricycle. The guy was philosophic about it and said he felt somewhat relieved getting on the other side of the dreaded event.
 
As cool as road worn gear is, some of us still prefer the pristine state of a new instrument. With this goes the lurking, subliminal paranoia that some horrific event is going to put a gash in the finish.
 
Anyone else share this sentiment. Any words of wisdom what you did to cope with the big ugly ding on your new sunburst strat?
 
John

Kudos to you John.
 
I painted one guitar for a friend. Botched to hell and back.
 
Never again.
 
 

Bapu,
 
Not to feel bad about painting failures. Was able to hang out once with a master craftsman in refinishing and repainting guitars.
 
After the tortures of prep work, progressive lower grit sanding after chemical paint removal, priming the body and resanding, the subtle stuff started. Oil free air compressor sprayer (over 2000 bucks just in the sprayer). Room with a crude hepa filter to reduce dust particulates in the air down to so many microns. Controlled exhaust fan to balance with the filter capacity. Temperature adjusted for fast but not too fast curing. Humidity had to be within certain limits or painting was postponed.
 
If all the stars aligned, he put on his lint free space suit and went forward with the task. Took many light coats meaning a lot of time between drying cycles.
 
All I can do is drag a Walmart paint brush over the finish with some generic acrylic slop. My painting attempts probably look way worse than yours. Considering what is required to do it right, we can't be too hard on ourselves.
 
John

You gotta dip a guit in the paint/enamel if you want that fancy shmancy factory coating.
 
 

...for hardbody electrics anyway.
 
Dipping an acoustic is not advisable.
 

Hey Beep, can we dip people too or should they be sprayed? 

Tuff actin' Tinactin?

My last 5 guitars, 3 American Strats and 2 Les Paul's were used instruments. All but the newest Gibson already had its first ding when I acquired them. I am being cautious not to ding this newest 2013 LP, but it plays live again on Sunday, so it could happen soon.

The ding that upset me the most was in my 4003 Rick a couple of years ago. After the gig, while starting to take down equipment, the Sound Guy started to pull on one of the mic cables, which appearently, somehow got wrapped around my guitar stand; the Ricky went over face first. It was a loud crash, followed by thundering bass resonating strings. I was terrified to pick it up and look at the face. When I finally did, I couldn't find a single ding or scratch on the front of the Bass. Later, I found a small ding in the back of the neck, fortunately high up on the back where you don't play that much.

It's weird but dings in Strats don't bother me much, unless it's the neck. In fact, it almost seems weird if the Strat doesn't have a ding. Dings in LP's still seem to bother me, especially on the face of the body or the neck, not so much the back.

michaelhanson
My last 5 guitars, 3 American Strats and 2 Les Paul's were used instruments. All but the newest Gibson already had its first ding when I acquired them. I am being cautious not to ding this newest 2013 LP, but it plays live again on Sunday, so it could happen soon.

The ding that upset me the most was in my 4003 Rick a couple of years ago. After the gig, while starting to take down equipment, the Sound Guy started to pull on one of the mic cables, which appearently, somehow got wrapped around my guitar stand; the Ricky went over face first. It was a loud crash, followed by thundering bass resonating strings. I was terrified to pick it up and look at the face. When I finally did, I couldn't find a single ding or scratch on the front of the Bass. Later, I found a small ding in the back of the neck, fortunately high up on the back where you don't play that much.

The most scary guit droppy moment for me was when I was jamming with my REALLY old band (I was like 16/17 at the time) in the basement of the bass players house... with a bare concrete floor.
 
I was still playing my old SAGA II ES-335 copy. Loved that thing.
 
So anyway between songs we were just doing the usual stuff you do between songs and KERPLONK! The guit strap decided to just... stop working. Full on faceplant right onto the bare concrete.
 
Picked her up and she was fine but man oh man... I think I touched proverbial cloth that day.

My first custom I was SOOOOO careful with, then it broke a string and, somehow, the end bounced off of the face of the guitar leaving a nice little hole!  I was so bummed...  (Supposedly, my luthier, who currently has the guitar waiting for me to get back on my feet financially, has fixed it - we'll see!)
 
For cars, I've been buying used ones pre-scratched then I don't have to care as I park in very tight public parking garages.