How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

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Zork
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How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by Zork » Thu May 13, 2021 8:26 am

I got this Les Paul that I bought on a flea market a long time ago:

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One of the previous owners put a pair of DiMarzio Super Distortions in and drilled holes for coil splitting. As you can see, this wasn't done very carefully:

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I could live with it for a long time, but meanwhile the holes are bothering me a lot. How would you fix it?

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LVC
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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by LVC » Thu May 13, 2021 8:38 am

Dowel, then this?
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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by DrQuasar » Thu May 13, 2021 11:00 am

If I were doing it for my own guitar I would dowel it and color it in with a sharpie or black acrylic paint if I wanted a permanent fix.

If I just wanted a quick fix I might use a small black sticker and just cover it up.

My PBass fell off it's strap one time (which is why I don't trust the bottle-cap/grolsch style strap locks) while I was coiling cables and landed on blacktop, tearing out a huge chunk from the bottom. I eventually filled it with wood-putty, shaped it to blend in, and colored it black with a sharpie and it turned out good enough you don't notice it when playing. That happened in '97 and the repair has held up great. Haven't even needed to touch up the sharpie. So, wood putty might work but I think doweling is easier for a round hole.

Of course, I would also accept the fact that it will not be an invisible fix, just preferable to a hole. If I wanted an invisible fix, I'd take it to a professional as I don't have the patience, skill, or tools for that kind of work.

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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by jvin248 » Thu May 13, 2021 11:32 am

.

Small thin wood patch on the inside with a dowel cut to fit a drill hole you run through both the top and the patch.
Sand and paint matching color.
Drop fill CA adhesive (super glue) into the top
Scrape level with the edge of a razor blade
Sand from 400 up to 1500 grit sandpaper and then polish.

.

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cestlamort
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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by cestlamort » Thu May 13, 2021 3:30 pm

Black nail polish can be a great trick for dings in black guitars. Here, there's more involved, of course.
Or lean into it and poke a couple Christmas lights through.

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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by Skarrgus » Thu May 13, 2021 4:02 pm

You try this - https://youtu.be/bQ5BMrk_-GU?t=42
You'd have to line the inside under th holes with tape or something, of course

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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by Zork » Thu May 13, 2021 4:26 pm

Wow, thank you guys for the many replies and ideas. The problem I see with doweling and drop filling is that the upper hole has this rather large area around it where some chunks are completely ripped out of the top. So that would leave me with too big of an area to go with the sharpie and superglue trick I suppose - or not? I have never seen this trick on such a large surface. I was thinking about nail polish too, but I'm afraid it's gonna be too soft. The black ca glue looks very promising, though. Do you think it can be polished to match the gloss of the finish?

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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by Skarrgus » Thu May 13, 2021 7:12 pm

Zork wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 4:26 pm
Do you think it can be polished to match the gloss of the finish?
I don't see why it couldn't. I've only ever take it to about 800 grit to match ebony and Richlite myself, though.
If there's a clear coat on the guitar, it might be better to leave the black sitting just shy of the surface, and then once that's dries, hitting it with a drop of clear CA or nail polish to better match the rest of the finish

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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by LVC » Fri May 14, 2021 1:42 am

Zork wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 4:26 pm
Wow, thank you guys for the many replies and ideas. The problem I see with doweling and drop filling is that the upper hole has this rather large area around it where some chunks are completely ripped out of the top. So that would leave me with too big of an area to go with the sharpie and superglue trick I suppose - or not?
Apparently superglue drop filling does work on slightly larger damaged areas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj346vrq5h4
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Re: How to repair holes in a guitar top without refinish?

Post by Sweetfinger » Tue May 18, 2021 4:19 am

I've used CA glue and markers to do quite large fills and repair covers.
On this guitar, I'd dowel and then fill in the chipped out areas with ebony dust and thin CA glue, and I'd try some tests with some different markers to see which black matched the finish best and work to that in layers.
Sharpie looks bluish. There's a "professional" Sharpie, or some version that is more "black", and there are many other brands of marker.
ALWAYS test your marker with CA glue. Some of the dyes in various Sharpies and other brands react with CA and can turn weird colors, like green turns orange, yellow turns red, stuff like that, and you never know if there's some component in a black or brown, whatever, that will shift that way. Discover your surprise on scrap wood or a piece of paper, not on the guitar.
This is actually a job that a pro could do and make look almost invisible. The holes could be filled, then just the top of the guitar could be feathered or oversprayed with black, then clearcoated.

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