Hiding screw holes...

[Budgetneil]

Hi there,
I've recently taken the scratchplate off my Epi Thunderbird for a nosey what's underneath and have decided I quite like it that way. The only problem is the screw holes - the finish is a dark sunburst so the pale wood of the holes stand out more than I'd like.

Does anyone know of a good way to completely hide the holes or at least disguise them a bit?

Yours hopefully...
Neil

[KingBollock]

You could put the screws back in and if they stand out too much you could colour them the same colour as the finish with felt tip pens or a black permanent marker. It would be cheap, free if you already have the pens, and easily reversible if you don't like it. I'm sure there are better ideas, especially if you're prepared to make it permanent.

[HowieBass]

I wonder if a dark brown wax shoe polish pushed into the holes would work? You can always get a screw back into it if you want to put the scratchplate back on and the polish shouldn't damage the finish.

[yorks5stringer]

Dark Felt Tip the holes, no-one will see them once you are on stage...

[Grangur]

You can buy wax sticks of wood filler. These come in a variety of different shades. I saw a small set of sticks yesterday in Homebase near the varnish.

To use the wax you kneed ot in your fingers to warm it and make it soft. Then when its like putty you push it into the holes. In the hole it sets and goes hard.

if you later want to re-fit a pick guard then the wax is removable.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Grangur

[Roland Rock]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1394957596' post='2396988']
You can buy wax sticks of wood filler. These come in a variety of different shades. I saw a small set of sticks yesterday in Homebase near the varnish.

To use the wax you kneed ot in your fingers to warm it and make it soft. Then when its like putty you push it into the holes. In the hole it sets and goes hard.

if you later want to re-fit a pick guard then the wax is removable.
[/quote]

Yeah, this. Also you can mix the wax from the different-coloured sticks to make the correct colour

[Budgetneil]

Many thanks for all the suggestions. The wax sticks sound just the job.

[uncle psychosis]

I'd just put the screws back in! You could always get some black screws if silver ones stand out too much.

[Gazza 2905]

Get the Bass Doc to make you a new perspex pickguard.
Best of both worlds then!

[lemmywinks]

I bought one of the cheap touch up kits (you can get them in Poundland) which consists of a some wedge marker pens and wax sticks in various shades of brown to black. I used it to cover multiple scuffs in an old Aria (open grain stained black) but I guess it would work for making screw holes less obvious too.

With some careful blending with my finger it turned my bass from a beaten up old workhorse into a nice almost new looking instrument in about 15 minutes, definitely worth a look.