Hello- I have an all black telecaster (back of the neck and all) and when I got it a looooong time ago, it had a bunch of scratches on it. If you tip it to the light you can see that someone probably wrote on it with some wierd marker or perhaps has stickers on it. The scratches look like what happened when the took the stuff off- if you look closely you can still see some design- maybe a pentacle or an anarchy symbol or something.
Anyway, these scratches appear all over the front of the guitar as a fine 'haze' -
The finish is pretty thick- there is a small chip ion the headstock so I can see that it is about 1/16 of an inch thick at that part of the guitar. It's not a 'see-thru' finish- it's jet black.
How can I polish the scratches out of this guitar's finish?
Character is one thing, but having a ton of scratches sucks lol
Nice guitar I bet it sounds as great as it looks. Everyone has their own way of doing things right or wrong, this one is mine.
There was once I had a guitar that had about the same problem, what I did was used this creamy liquid finishing compound that a friend of mine used after he did a custom paint on someone expensive car. It was made by 3M company.
It's real creamy and doesn't have any grit, kind of smooth like hand lotion. They use it like I said to go over a newly painted Hot Rod. What I did was put just a drop on a clean white towel and gently rubbed it in watching very carefully. Then I let it dry and wiped the powder off. It took two times and the marks were gone.
Now this is a use at your own risk. You don't need to press real hard. maybe someone else will have another type of product to use.
I'm only explaining what I did once and in worked for me.
Joe
super fine car finishing compound is the way to go.
I was thinking of trying out some CD scratch remover. That would be completely different since it fills the scratches rather than buffs them down. I'll let you know how it works.
As someone who has spent some time trying to restore old car finishes, the stuff you probably want is usually called "polishing compound" and comes in a hockey puck shaped tin just like good car wax. "Rubbing compound" is similar but more abrasive for deeper damage, and would be followed by polishing compound on a car. This is sometimes known as a hand rubbed finish, and gives a car a really high gloss. I would try it first on a less obvious spot, like the back of the guitar, just in case there was a bad reaction between the compound and the paint. Also, compound works by removing layers of paint, rub too much and you won't have any paint left. It also will remove the thin clear coat that is added as a glossy finish over thinly painted modern cars, I don't know if this is done on guitars.
NOTE: DON'T USE POLISHING COMPOUND! Sorry about the bad advice Voodude.
See thisfor the results of someone who tried it. It scratched the finish. Read about his excellent results with something else!
This approach makes sense to me since Leo Fender used to get his paint from auto body shops ("Fiesta Red" was also "Porsche Orange"). By this logic, a little carnuba wax would be the best final finish and would probably hide a lot of fine scratches.
I should say I've never tried this on a guitar, but I think I might. BUT, I wouldn't do this to a laquer finished guitar!! Now that I think about it, "rotten stone" is used to restore old wood finishes in a way very similar to what is done on cars. Might be worth a try on a guitar. Just don't do it to a '62 Jazzmaster, okay?
Good to know- I'll go get some today and give it a try.
I'll post pics on the site when I get it all completed.
forrok_star- yes it has a very nice tone- the toggle switches allow for some very large tonal differences- each one is an on/off switch, and the Humbucker switch allows you to split the coils, so you can get a 3 single or an HSS type sound. Turning on the Humbucker by itself (the other two pickups off) seems to have the highest 'output' (to my ear it sounds louder and more forceful) which is strange but I guess the other 2 pups tend to mellow out the growl when they are on. I've always wondered if it had active pickups or something because of that, but there is no battery pack so I guess its just one of those things I'll figure out when I get into the more 'geeky' side of electronics for music and sound (I'm just learning to play at this point so all of that will come later)
Anyway, thanks all- I'll let you know how it goes!
