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Hello everyone. I'm finishing up a Tele that has a myrtle drop top which is going to be colored with garnet shellac and then clear coated with lacquer. During the routing of ledges for purfling, a small slip occurred   
This required a patch. The patch is pretty well matched in terms of grain, but I don't know the best way to try and hide the joint between the patch and the rest of the top. See attached picture. The patch is about where the strap button will be (if you have trouble seeing it - it looks like a highway billboard to me

I haven't tried any fixes yet, as I don't want to mess up the opportunity to do one fix by doing another incompatible fix first.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

sunburst

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

That, or don't worry about it (it's a tele, for crying out loud!). Just kidding about the tele part, I love them.

Who is the guitar for? Seriously, I don't think it looks that awful, but if you can't live with it, follow John's merciless advice!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

[QUOTE=John Mayes] sunburst[/QUOTE]

Nnnnnnooooooooooo    

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

You could double the purfling...Tomas38879.4428587963

Guitar is a favor for a friend. He's getting it cheap, but the point is for me to learn, so I hate to send it out the door this way.

I'm hoping to come up with a way to dye or paint the joint, or something. Sawdust doesn't work well on light wood, does it?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

No, sawdust is not going to work. How about an inlay?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Maybe a hint of burst around the edge is possible. (Not a sunburst fan here, you can tell). We were going to go fairly heavy on the garnet shellac anyway.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim,

If you can easily route off the binding (I know the original routing caused the ding ) and put a wood inlay in there then re-bind. I put a ding in the lower bout edge of a guitar-bouzouki. As it was for a young rising traditional Irish player I did this after the top of a pint of Guiness :

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Personally, I would put a feint sunburst on it. Sunbursts can look really awesome. Stick with warm colors that are consistant with the natural color of the myrtle and I think it will be great.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I probably shouldn't post this but....

Your patch looks pretty good. You may consider not doing anything with it except burst the edges with garnet....

But,

I can't tell how you did the fix but if you taper it gradually and use hide glue it will usually be less noticeable.

Kind of like this:

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

[QUOTE=Joe Beaver] I probably shouldn't post this but....

Your patch looks pretty good. You may consider not doing anything with it except burst the edges with garnet....

But,

I can't tell how you did the fix but if you taper it gradually and use hide glue it will usually be less noticeable.

Kind of like this:

[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the lesson. My patch is just a butt joint against the edge of the cut.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

If it were me, I think I'd choose one of these three options (the word "sunburst" just isn't part of my vocabulary):

1. Decide I'd already done a good repair and leave it as is. I suspect that it will be less obvious under finish.

2. Do some kind of creative inlay that includes, but is not limited to, that area.

3. Rout off the binding and purfling and alter the shape of the guitar. Just cut that part off and create a new outline, either just in that one area or around the whole body. Obviously not an option if you're attached to it being a tele, although I think you could alter it subtly enough in that area, if you wanted to, that it would still look like a tele. But maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and make this one into something new and unique, and then make a new tele for your friend if he really wants a tele.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Thanks everyone. It looks like the line may be able to take and hold a little filler putty - enough to cut down the contrast by 1/2 at least. I'm banking on it looking OK under the darker shellac color coats at that point.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Looks like the patch is done fairly well except what I believe what you're seeing is a small break to the edge of the pieces, or a small gap between them.

If you could tighten them up it may eliminate the visual. You matched the grain well though!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Jim, I honestly think you'll be fine under shellac, especially if it's garnet. Put a coat down and see. Shellac is very easy to sand off if it's a problem. One thing you can do is sort of an "antiquing" type of finish. Where the shellac is thicker/darker along the edges. Sort of burst-like but single colored and hand rubbed. I know that will cover it up as you can get garnet shellac almost totally opaque brown. Good luck.

The easiest way to hide it is to turn up the amp and bang the edge against it in a attempt to play with the feedback...oh wait, that was a 70's flashback :)

Actually does the surface have to be perfectly flat? If not you could ease that surface towards the edge that would soften the edge and look like it was part of the design...

I dont know the telecaster stylistically enough to know if that would fly but it doesnt look like the ding is that deep and otherwise could be sanded out.

[QUOTE=Shawn]
I dont know the telecaster stylistically enough to know if that would fly but it doesnt look like the ding is that deep and otherwise could be sanded out.[/QUOTE]

Shawn - It's not a ding, it's a patch replacing a trim router bite. It's a join line the full depth of the adjacent purflings.

Speaking of purflings - have any of you used the small plastic purfling strips that Stew-mac has in stock now? I found that they absorbed Weld-on 16 like crazy and swelled, and the black ones almost seemed like they were going to disintegrate - lot's of black crud all over everything. Cleaned up OK, though.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu