Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Paul please educate me,

There is a 360/12 FG that I have my eye on locally. I looked at it again today to take another look at the blem I noticed when I first saw the guitar. The blem is on the neck at just above the nut on the low E string side.

The salesman confirmed that it got there from hanging from the hanger from the wall. Some sort of reaction with the finish to the wall hanger (I have heard of this -- in fact my daughters guitar stand has a prominent warning about just such a thing with certain finishes).

I am being told that It could be buffed out. True?

Also, the back is not smooth with two birds eyes in the wood finish that have a slight pit to each of them. Would these potentially cause any finish/wood issues down the road? Is it anything to be concerned with.

Thanks,

Rick

Hey, Rick:

If the blemish has eaten into the color of the neck/headstock area (which on a FG guitar is usually one of the darkest areas of the FG), and you can see bare maple, you're out of luck in merely buffing it out, as the finish will need to be touched up. If there's only a small crater or dull spot, and the color is undisturbed, you could take it out with some #2000 wet or dry sandpaper, used wet with Windex, followed by a fine polishing compound and then Scratch-X and Zymol to bring the gloss back to factory appearance.

Regarding the birds-eyes: The Jazzbo that I've just completed has two such tiny birds-eyes in the back which required minor filling before sealer, color, and topcoat were applied. I consider these to be "beauty marks". As long as these are small--less than 1/8" diameter, hopefully--and were properly filled before the finish was applied, you should experience no problems over time. Just treat the guitar and its finish well and it'll be OK.

Paul,

Thanks for the quick response.

The two birds eyes are slightly less than 1/8" total area, each having a slight pit to them. They do not appear to have been filled prior to finishing as they have a slight crater affect to them. However, they are nearly filled up with the clear coat but not just quite.

Interestingly, they are at the same lat/long of outer edges of the back like a book marked set. They could have been not better matched up than if someone had tried to design them in!

Regards,

Rick

Sounds like a bookmatched set, which mine are also.

When that guitar left the factory, the two birdseyes were level and the finish was mirror-flat, or it would not have passed QC. However, over weeks and months, the finish continues to shrink, which leads to the tiny craters you observe. It is possible to remove those craters, but then the whole guitar might as well be color-sanded and re-buffed, which requires disassembly, yadda yadda. So I'd leave 'em as they are.