Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Nice bass, Les!

Un-LES you've done this before, your chances of success are not very good, and there's nothing worse than a bodged cosmetic repair that requires a total refin. Just warning you, should you ever decide to sell or trade it off. Buyers and dealers are accustomed to seeing chips, but a badly-repaired chip puts everyone off.

I'd start out with the Tru-Tone dyes that StewMac sells, and cut them with denatured alcohol to spray through an airbrush. (This is the only thing I use an airbrush for, incidentally, and mine is a nice Iwata with ALL METAL parts including the housings.)

There are at least five tricks of the trade associated with this repair, and it would be a chapter in a book, so I really can't go into any more detail than I did up above.

Thanks, Paul...I really don't want to undertake this myself, for precisely the reasons you mention. Back when I was in Nashville, I had some great touch-up work done on an Ovation Custom Legend-virtually undetectable, although that was a black finish. Given the thriving music scene in Austin, it is strange that I can't get anyone to tackle this so far. I will just be patient and eventually I am bound to run across some zen finish master out in the hill country.

I saw an article in Guitar Player where Dan Erlewine touched up a sunburst with nail polish... mixing a few colors together till he got a good match. I would have to wonder if the nail polish is colorfast though...I'd imagine they use the cheapest colorants possible, and red is the most fugitive color, to boot.

There is a tiny touch up on my 73 Fretless using nail polish. Had to look hard to find it.....

Tiny is the key word there, and if it's really tiny, it can be made to be absolutely invisible except under magnification.

Sooner or later, Dan Erlewine's name had to come up in this space...

He's been around a long time. His connection to StewMac has taken them and him to great success, and some of the tools that they promote under his name are wonderful additions to any luthier's or repair person's tool box or shop. Before the 'Net and StewMac's marketing efforts, this stuff was hard to find, and only available from diverse sources, especially to the guitar guy who lived in West Podunk.

Dan claims to be neither a luthier nor a finisher. His term, and his persona, is "repairman".

Nail polish used on a guitar is hardly a professional finish repair these days (don't know how long ago you saw this, Jo), and your comment about red is spot-on. I think Dan was probably showing how to touch up without spending a lot of money on specialized paints and spray equipment.

Doesen't Dan have a brother or cousin, Mark, in Austin that builds guitars? I believe he built a headless guitar for Johnny Winter. Maybe he does repairs.

I found a link: Erlewine Giutars.

"Repair" displayed rather prominently on the home page.

Erlewine's shop (which is affiliated with StewMac) is in Athens, Ohio, whereas "Erlewine Guitars" is in Austin, TX. I don't know if the cousin or brother runs the Austin shop.

I pass that shop every day.

Yes, I think Mark is the brother. However, an inquiry to Erlewine Guitars in Austin indicates that he doesn't do finish work anymore, at least to people like me sporting strange fireglow basses!