"Popped" lacquer on peghead

[LARRY KLOSE]

My newly acquired Steve Andersen archtop has small areas around several of the tuning peg grommets where the lacquer has lifted, close to the grommet.  See picture.  Can I float a little acetone under there with a tiny brush to get it to lay down or should I wait until I can take everything apart and do something else?  See Picture.  Notice the white areas around some of the grommets.  

Tuners are Schaller mini's, nitro lacquer.

Cause? I don't know.  Maybe because it came from the Atlanta area to drier Arizona?  I keep the house humidified but it's usually around 40%.  It's hard to get more here, even with a whole house humidifier.

Larry

[Mark A. Kane]

Butyl Cellosolve is your friend. The acetone will evaporate long before it softens the lacquer enough. The BC will soften the lacquer slowly. It may take several applications, but the lacquer will lay back down. You then have some wet-sanding and buffing to do. I typically use a brush or toothpick to apply it for small repairs. Frank has an article on Frets.com (if I'm not mistaken) referring to BC. I think it's a weather-checked headstock that he sprayed with BC. 

[Greg Mirken]

I think dryness is indeed a factor. If you notice the lifted areas are all on the side of the post where the string tension is pulling. Shrinkage loosened the nuts up enough that the tension is causing the edge of the washers to dig into the lacquer.

If you are careful and a bit lucky this can be fixed without any sanding or buffing. Here's how I do it: Remove the tuners completely. If the finish is not raised in a blister you can see or feel, a drop of thin CA applied to the edge of the tuner hole will wick under the lacquer, fuse it, and eliminate the white areas.

If the finish is actually bubbled up you can do the same trick using slow evaporating lacquer retarder to soften the finish so it will lay back down.

[LARRY KLOSE]

This happened after the first time I restrung the guitar after getting it here.  So should I tighten up the retaining nuts on the remaining tuners before it happens there?  If so, sould I de-tune first?

Larry

[Russell Vance]

Hi Larry,

If this is  a new instrument I suggest the maker would like to be involved in the problem. The way we would view this is it is a fault as it can be reasonable expected that a guitar will not have this problem straight out of the box regardless of where your geographical location is.

Consequently, it's a warranty job if the guitar is new and it gives the maker  the chance to address his finishing and QA schedules to correct this obvious problem.

If it's not a new guitar it's a fairly common problem when tuner bores and ferrules are not a snug fit and the tuner leans over under string tension.  The pressure on the finish lifts it from the substrate and the white ring is generally "airspace" between the finish and the front of the peghead.   I prefer wicked in super glue to fill the gap - starting with thin to get a good penetration and then going to medium to fill the gap.  

I guess laying the lacquer back down by softening it with BC is also good but the problem is the separation of the lacquer from the wood and you are going to have to get it to stick with subsequent superglue application anyway.  Use both systems ideally - but I usually just reach for the little white bottle and a pipette.

Now, warning: if you are wicking superglue just beware that it will run down the tuner bores and out onto the back of the peghead if you do not tape up the bore exit with shiny packing tape of something similar.

As I said, if it's a new instrument, it's not your problem it's the makers problem and he should have the instrument back for repair.

Regards, 

Rusty.

[LARRY KLOSE]

It's 11+ years old and it's had several owners, so the problem is mine.  

The lacquer lift didn't show when I got it but it had Tomastik flat wounds on it which have low tension (and no acoustic presence).  I put XL jazz lights on it which upped the sound quotient immensely--and probably have more tension.  I'll take my time with it and deal with it when I next change strings.  I don't want to be taking it apart unnecessarily.

I did gently tighten the ferrules as they were a little loose, probably because of the change in climate--so that's probably the problem.  It's been around several blocks.  Moves I can document are Seattle (where it was made and where one dealer site has it used, in its "sold" column, same serial no.), Georgia and now, Arizona.  Maybe a dealer somewhere in the South had it, too.

It's interesting that this 11 year old guitar came to me in near mint condition, except for a top crack, courtesy of FedEx (another thread, sometime).  No fret wear, only a little polish on the crowns, and few other dings or flaws.  The Seattle dealer had it with a black Kent Armstrong Handmade PAF (probably as it came from the builder) but it came to me with a Gold covered humbucker.  In Seattle it had the original Cedar Creek Case but now it's a TKL.  Somebody in the ownership chain did some hot rodding and switching around.  It just has no evidence of much playing.  I intend to change that... .  It plays as well as a couple of other Andersen's I've played (which is very good, indeed) so there's no problem there and it sounds great with the right strings.

Off to explore its sounds, acoustic and electric.  I'm new to the electric side of things so I may have some pickup questions, later.

Larry 

[Russell Vance]

Just "run-in".......well travelled and and everything has settled with little wear - nice place to be Larry, Enjoy.

The finish has probably separated over time and was just sitting there waiting for a bit of motivation to lift - its cosmetic and its more important that the ferrules are tight -

I have thought a bit more and suggest that the superglue is the definite #1 choice - softening the lacquer or running new lacquer into the void will just cause problems when pressure is applied to the ferrules to bed them back down - you ideally need a hard surface there as nitro gives quite a bit when it is thick. As is witnessed by the machine head indents on the thick "rubber" nitro that Gibson often uses.

R.

Rusty.

[Alex Glasser]

that problem is almost always caused by the tuners nut and washer not being tight enough.  when the guitar sits under string tension, the washer digs in to the lacquer or whatever finish it may be, poly does it too, and causes that problem.  it doesn't have anything to do with weather

[Alex Glasser]

sorry, didn't finish writing, so to fix it you need to remove the tuners and put cello solve on it, see what happens and then do touchup or refinish if needed.  This is only if you are concerned about the problem.  it is only aesthetic.  this is a really good reason to always check that tuners are tightly secured

[Alex Glasser]

sorry again, i didn't read everyone else's comments that say what i wrote.  good call everyone else.  its unfortunately really common.  take care everyone