New Member First Post - Acetone?

[Barry Crump]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, and have to say first of all that I'm an amateur guitarist and guitar repairman rather than a 'real' luthier. I am based in the UK and specialise in taking broken and abused electric guitars, and making them play better than they ever did.

Also, I have to say thanks to Frank for the fantastic site. Frets.com, together with a copy of Dan Erlewine's book, persuaded me to start poking round my own guitars a few years back and I've never looked back.

Anyway, my question is regarding acetone. It might sound cavalier, but I thought I might save a lot of time when gluing loose fret ends if I could be slightly less careful with the glue, and just use a masking tape to protect the surrounding area, and clean up any excess that I miss with Acetone. Acetone is fine on rosewood, but will it attack a nitro/poly finish on the back of the neck, or the finish on a maple fretboard? Thought this was one thing I didn't want to learn by trying it!

Thanks,

Barry

[FRANK]

ITS GONA EAT NITRO RIGHT OFF, POLY IT WILL NOT HURT YOU CAN WIPE DOWN POLY GUITARS WITH ACETONE TO REMOVE STICKERS .i WOULD KEEP IT AWAY FROM A MAPLE FINGER BOARD UN LESS YOU KNOW ITS POLY TESTING BEHIND A TUNER THAT YOU HAVE REMOVED TO ASSESS THE SPOT THAT DOSE NOT SHOW WHEN THE TUNER IS ON AND TEST THERE TRY THIS IF IT MELTS ITS NITRO IF NOT TRY AGAIN AND IF NOTHING THEN IT IS PROBABLY POLY U GLUE DOWN WITH WOOD GLUE TIGHT BOND CLAMP IT DOWN FOR A FEW

[Barry Crump]

Thanks for the response. This should be a real time saver when I'm working on cheaper guitars with a Poly finish and Rosewood fingerboard (eg. I've got a Epiphone Studio in at the moment). These are just the guitars that need to be done quickly and on a budget.

I also have Music Man Axis in with the same problem (a few sticky out fret ends, where someone decided to 'hammer down' some high frets rather than get a fret dress!). I'll test the finish with a bit of acetone under a tuner (or perhaps even on the heel if I have the neck off).

I've found if you know you can easily fix a mistake, you are a lot less likely to make the mistake in the first place.