chipped

[john_the_bass]

afternoon all,
last week i added a set of half flats to my MIJ precision which were of a sufficiently higher tension to warrant a tweak on the truss rod - which of course involved taking the neck off to get to the screw at the end of the neck and give it a turn.

refitting the neck, i knocked off a tiny corner of lacquer and paint around the neck pocket which is a bit gutting as it was almost mint (for a 23 year old bass).

anybody know how to fix or patch it in - ideally, i'd like it to be an invisible repair if there's such a thing - it's a tiny chip from the very thin layer of lacquer and paint and is showing the bare wood so whilst it's small, it does stand out a bit.

JA

[Guest subaudio]

Hi JA

I heard somewhere that clear nail varnish can be used to cover dings in Laquer?

I took one of my basses to a bass shop to have a similar repair done a while back and was told I had left it a bit long to get an invisible repair done as the wood had become discoloured due to being open to the elements, this was on a clear finish though so I cant see a paint finish being too badly effected, the repair was pretty damn good though all the same, so maybe paint in the same colour and then varnish?

I beleive a similar thing is done in the motor trade called "Rembranting"

[john_the_bass]

cheers for that, i'll have a word with my local luthier

John

[acidbass]

[quote name='subaudio' post='1585' date='May 18 2007, 04:49 PM']I heard somewhere that clear nail varnish can be used to cover dings in Laquer?[/quote]

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='1593' date='May 18 2007, 04:52 PM']cheers for that, i'll have a word with my local luthier[/quote]

Or perhaps your local girlfriend?

[Kiwi]

I've had this exact problem and I used superglue to seal and build up the finish again in layers until it stood proud of the surrounding finish. Then I used a nail buffing pad like this one

using one end to abrade back the finish and the other to polish the sanding marks off. I was stunned at how good the results were. I could only tell where the superglue finished and the lacquer started by holding it up to reflective light.

Most standard and metallic bass finishes are based on automotive paint ranges, so if you can get a test pot of a near match you could probably do a reasonable job. The match doesn't have to be perfect for a small ding but if you have a choice its probably better to err on the side of a lighter shade. The only thing I would add is that if the body wood is porous, you might have to look at sealing it with a touch of something before putting the colour layer down. Then build the transparent finish back up with super glue.

[Muppet]

I agree with Steve - Apply some matching (car) paint with a toothpick or a matchstick and then let it dry thoroughly. This could be up to a couple of days, then superglue works, but again, wait until it's fully hardened.

[john_the_bass]

cheers chaps. I'm really quite crap when it comes to this sort of thing, so i might trust it to the hands of a pro.
FYI, the chip looks like this.

[Kiwi]

Thats a bit different innit? Not a lot of exposed wood though, which is a good thing. Probably best thing to do is gently sand it off and put some black automotive touch-up paint on it. You can get touch-up pots on Ebay for a few quid.

[john_the_bass]

yeah it pinged off putting the neck back on after a truss rod tweak. shame really cos it was in such good nick up until that happened.
Oh well, these things happen I suppose. I'd like to have it repaired and see how closely back to original it can go, but I don't think it'll be perfect now.

There is a reason why there are people you can pay to set your guitars up!