Black Coating on the Neck

My classicals have lighter wood or Ebony necks, so apart from a resin finish I've no idea what it might be. It's probably something you could[?i] restore yourself, but after 20 years your guitar must be sounding awesome so I'd be inclined to put it in for professional treatment just to be on the safe side.

A :-)

OMG the neck !

You have really played the heck out of the guitar.The fretboard is looking scalloped :shock:

As Alan says , it would be best to proceed to a qualified repair shop.

Tell us later how this antique was restored to new life. :)

Rahul

Well, it was also a cheap beginner's model, so I don't know how much wear is due to my playing and how much is due to the low quality of the coating. :)
I know I should replace it with a better one, and I probably will, but I'd also like to restore this one and keep it, because I'm very fond of it.

Thank you very much for your replies. I'll go to a professional repair shop.

One of my guitars (a cheapo) has the same thing - it's a lighter wood that's been stained or painted to look darker, and the stain is starting to rub off where it gets most use

Here's what I would do if I wasn't too worried about the guitar being mint.

Take a sanding block and sand down a couple of the frets up at the body end of the guitar. Pick ones that aren't reachable or aren't played. Save up all the sawdust you make.

Get yourself some ultra thin superglue like the kind for model airplanes.
Tape up the frets where you want to fill the divots.
Fill the divots with the dust you gathered until they are just even.
Put in a couple of drops of the ultra thin super glue.

The super glue will wick into the sawdust and create a rock hard semi permanent patch.

Once it's dry you can sand it so it's even. Use as little superglue as you can to get the whole patch wet. Try not to spill or overfill. The sanding is a bear.

It really isn't that hard but if you feel at all uncomfortable messing with your guitar, take it to an expert.

Don't use regular superglue.

If all you are interested in is coloring the fretboard black again, I'd just use a Sharpie Black Permanent marker.

Ive used blackboard paint on a couple of cheapie accoustics in the past , bought from model shop spreads smooth enough and couple of layers would be very hardwaring.
Its probably so hardwaring as it usually has to take lots of stick from chalk and blackboard erasers on a daily basis.

Make sure you mask the frets well and get rid of all previous colouring with fine grade wet and dry first , then one thin coat and leave for few days before adding next coat , dont rush it as the first coat will take a while to seal the wood.

I think that guitar is just coming in.

Don't do a thing to it. :D

I agree with bish....

if the playability is not affected by the wearing on the fretboard, i'd just leave it the way it is....

Anything you do (assuming you have no experience with guitar restoration) will be a bit of a hack job. And like you said, if it's a cheap beginners model it will probably cost you more to professionally restore it than a new/similar/replacement guitar would cost.

Guitars like this are reflections of the time you've put into your instrument.....

Just my AU$0.02

Peace

J

I think the finish has merely worn thru. leave it alone. it has character.

however, I had a cheapie guitar given to me and it was incredibly dirty. I took 000 steelwool and cleaned the fretboard; frets and all. a load of black dirt came off and the fret board looked great; especially after I rubbed a bit of lemon oil into it.

Thanks for your replies, guys.
I thought about it, and I'll let it as it is. There's no need to mess with it as long as it plays normally.
(On the other hand, I recently saw a beautiful Spanish guitar in a music shop and told Santa about it. Who knows... :D)

I just read something about the less expensive guitars made.
less expensive an unattractive woods were used on inexpensive guitars.
all parts of the body were stained to hide boring grain and make the guitars look like the expensive ones.

so in time finishes do wear off.

if it bothers you repaint or stain.
but Id leave it as is.

I'd leave it just the way it is, it shows that the guitar has good karma!

Three of my guitars are beginning to look like that and I've actually gotten compliments on then!

Also, the only Strats that I've found that were really great looked like that!

Just tell everyone that it got that way from all those years spent in intense study with (fill in your favorate guitar hero) while they were recording (fill in your favorate album by them), and that they couldn't have done it without you or your genius contributions! 8)