When a guitar tech ‘relics’ your guitar…

robgilmo

@ICBM Where are you based? I had you down for an amp tech.

ICBM

robgilmo said:

@ICBM Where are you based? I had you down for an amp tech.

Central Scotland.

I am mostly an amp tech, but mainly because there are more guitar techs! As a guitar tech I’m at the ‘engineer’ end of the range rather than the ‘luthier’ end - I don’t do refrets, finish work or many wood repairs, I concentrate on electrics, pickups, setting up, trem systems etc. I do do fret dressing though, and routing.

nonesuch

ICBM said:
The fingerboard is quite easy, a little solvent and some careful scraping along the direction of the wood grain followed by a polish will take care of it.

When you say solvent, would nail polish remover be suitable? Is that the kind of thing you mean?

And should I polish it with anything in particular?

Thanks again for your advice.

MLten80

ouch. I did a similar bodge repair on my old tele with glittery nail varnish (cheers love, lol) & slowly building up drops of glue... then fine sanded & polish... looked obvious but better than that .. 
 gutted  for you pal.. the guy is clearly from the md ph1llips school of repair
 some basic rubbing alcohol & a cotton wool bud & some patience will get rid of what glue a light scrape (as mentioned) leaves 

has he scratched up/not polished the reseated frets either? or is it my eyes & shit phone? 

ICBM

Yes, nail polish remover is worth a try - just enough to soften it so you can scrape it off with a razor blade without having to dig in, then polish with micro-mesh or something similar.

nonesuch

ICBM said:

Yes, nail polish remover is worth a try - just enough to soften it so you can scrape it off with a razor blade without having to dig in, then polish with micro-mesh or something similar.

Brilliant thanks, I'll try this at the weekend.

nonesuch

MLten80 said:

has he scratched up/not polished the reseated frets either? or is it my eyes & shit phone? 

Yes, I only noticed that today when I took the strings off. I'm trying not to get annoyed by it, but that's easier said than done 

Kittyfrisk

As @ICBM says, nail polish remover should work to soften superglue.
BUT, take very great care, or it will damage any binding, dots or other plastics it comes into contact with.
Also use it very sparingly, as if it were to wick under the fret & affect the glue there, it could cause it to unseat.
I'd stick with small amounts of acetone/varnish remover applied with a cotton bud, gentle scraping & don't rush anything.

MLten80

some great advice in this sub forum as usual

yeah, don't fret (soz) about the frets, 10mins & some wire wool should get the minor marks out & get them shiny again!
 (I'd tape up the board tho, unlike that guy)

nonesuch

@Kittyfrisk ; Thanks - I'm learning a lot here!

Kittyfrisk

nonesuch said:

@Kittyfrisk ; Thanks - I'm learning a lot here!

No worries, we all are, even if we don't always want to 

nonesuch

MLten80 said:

yeah, don't fret (soz) about the frets, 10mins & some wire wool should get the minor marks out & get them shiny again!
 (I'd tape up the board tho, unlike that guy)

Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better about this now. I've still got no idea why there seems to be more glue on the fretboard than under the frets 

I see on his website he's busy doing a fret dress on a 1960s Strat, so at least I haven't got that to worry about 

robgilmo

ICBM said:

robgilmo said:

@ICBM Where are you based? I had you down for an amp tech.

Central Scotland.

I am mostly an amp tech, but mainly because there are more guitar techs! As  guitar tech I’m at the ‘engineer’ end of the range rather than the ‘luthier’ end - I don’t do refrets, finish work or many wood repairs, I concentrate on electrics, pickups, setting up, trem systems etc. I do do fret dressing though, and routing.

Couldn't be any further away from here (Suffolk), both my amps need a good service the Deuce especially. If you are ever down this way and find your self stuck for something to do....

Kittyfrisk

nonesuch said:

MLten80 said:

yeah, don't fret (soz) about the frets, 10mins & some wire wool should get the minor marks out & get them shiny again!
 (I'd tape up the board tho, unlike that guy)

Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better about this now. I've still got no idea why there seems to be more glue on the fretboard than under the frets 

I see on his website he's busy doing a fret dress on a 1960s Strat, so at least I haven't got that to worry about 

"I've still got no idea why there seems to be more glue on the fretboard than under the frets " 
Because he seems to be a self deluding amateur (sorry amateurs) chancer that has more self belief than talent.

Put it down to experience & better luck next time (ask here for recommendations first).

LastMantra

Looks like he has wiped the glue so at least it should be pretty thin. 

Will probably disappear in time with playing if you are not able to remove it all.

nonesuch

Just to give an update, I've taken some of the advice here and used a scalpel blade to remove most of the glue. I scraped it along the fretboard very, very lightly, hardly applying any pressure at all, and it's been very successful. I didn't have to use any solvent, which I'm kind of relived about. There's some little areas I can see a tiny bit of residue, but I think it's only me that would be able to tell.

Next job is to look at the marks on the frets...

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Kittyfrisk

Excellent news, well done 
There are loads of sites with advice on fret dressing, eg
https://www.guitarrepairbench.com/electric-guitar-repairs/polish-frets/

skunkwerx

Hold up... so the tech fucked your guitar up and STILL charged you for the labour of it?! 


The following story has a comical element but its all true. 

I had a ford focus once and had the wheels powder coated black. 
I didnt fancy using chemical or dedicated wheel cleaner on them because they're either acidic or alkaline or just unnecessarily strong and I feared they would ruin the powder coating. 

So about a month after I had them done I was late for a funeral and the car looked like ass.. It was a fast n furious kind of funeral and the cars would be right next to the grave... so I felt like I should at least clean it... 

So on the way I pulled into a hand car wash. No word of a lie, the place was called 'CHAV hand car wash'.. in Chadwell Heath. 

I immediately regretted my decision but specifically said to the bloke 'DO NOT spray wheel cleaner on my wheels' just spray the car down with water and shampoo it and dry it.  

What did he do? 

Sprayed fucking acid all over the wheels and left me 5 minutes sat in the baking sun while he dried the car in front off. 

Anyway I left, got to the funeral and the wheels were no longer black. They were hazed, like a milky kind of effect over the top of them that buffed out with hard rubbing, but as soon as water or anything moist touched them (ie when you next washed them), the haze would just reappear. 

So the next day I went back to Chav hand fucking car wash and asked to see the manager... the guy I'd asked clearly didnt speak English much, and he said hilariously 'you want job?' . 

I said I do not want a job, I want the 'boss'. He understood that and got the manager. 

The manager came over, couldnt mistake him, he was an actual chav. About early 20's, Dressed like one, spoke like one etc. 

He kicked off 'fucking this, fucking that, you're fucking paying for this' at the bloke who'd cleaned the car the day before. 

I almost laughed. The poor bloke's a hand car washer, I doubt he's gonna have several hundred quid ready to spray my wheels. 

So I asked about their insurance etc, while the bloke who did the damage frantically tried buffing the damage out.. without any success.. by this point the paint/powder coating was ruined. 

The manager promised he would have the wheels fixed and would contact me as soon as possible to arrange it. 

A week went by. Nothing. I drove past, they were still operational so I wrote to them recorder delivs, demanding it be sorted, copied in the consumer rights peoples etc. 

Another week went by, nothing. The letter had been signed for though. 

So I drove back. The place was a ghost town. Fuckers had shut up shop and disappeared. 

robgilmo

skunkwerx said:

Hold up... so the tech fucked your guitar up and STILL charged you for the labour of it?! 


The following story has a comical element but its all true. 

I had a ford focus once and had the wheels powder coated black. 
I didnt fancy using chemical or dedicated wheel cleaner on them because they're either acidic or alkaline or just unnecessarily strong and I feared they would ruin the powder coating. 

So about a month after I had them done I was late for a funeral and the car looked like ass.. It was a fast n furious kind of funeral and the cars would be right next to the grave... so I felt like I should at least clean it... 

So on the way I pulled into a hand car wash. No word of a lie, the place was called 'CHAV hand car wash'.. in Chadwell Heath. 

I immediately regretted my decision but specifically said to the bloke 'DO NOT spray wheel cleaner on my wheels' just spray the car down with water and shampoo it and dry it.  

What did he do? 

Sprayed fucking acid all over the wheels and left me 5 minutes sat in the baking sun while he dried the car in front off. 

Anyway I left, got to the funeral and the wheels were no longer black. They were hazed, like a milky kind of effect over the top of them that buffed out with hard rubbing, but as soon as water or anything moist touched them (ie when you next washed them), the haze would just reappear. 

So the next day I went back to Chav hand fucking car wash and asked to see the manager... the guy I'd asked clearly didnt speak English much, and he said hilariously 'you want job?' . 

I said I do not want a job, I want the 'boss'. He understood that and got the manager. 

The manager came over, couldnt mistake him, he was an actual chav. About early 20's, Dressed like one, spoke like one etc. 

He kicked off 'fucking this, fucking that, you're fucking paying for this' at the bloke who'd cleaned the car the day before. 

I almost laughed. The poor bloke's a hand car washer, I doubt he's gonna have several hundred quid ready to spray my wheels. 

So I asked about their insurance etc, while the bloke who did the damage frantically tried buffing the damage out.. without any success.. by this point the paint/powder coating was ruined. 

The manager promised he would have the wheels fixed and would contact me as soon as possible to arrange it. 

A week went by. Nothing. I drove past, they were still operational so I wrote to them recorder delivs, demanding it be sorted, copied in the consumer rights peoples etc. 

Another week went by, nothing. The letter had been signed for though. 

So I drove back. The place was a ghost town. Fuckers had shut up shop and disappeared. 

In fairness mate, no one powder coats aluminium. And powder coat cant really be buffed.

skunkwerx

robgilmo said:

skunkwerx said:

Hold up... so the tech fucked your guitar up and STILL charged you for the labour of it?! 


The following story has a comical element but its all true. 

I had a ford focus once and had the wheels powder coated black. 
I didnt fancy using chemical or dedicated wheel cleaner on them because they're either acidic or alkaline or just unnecessarily strong and I feared they would ruin the powder coating. 

So about a month after I had them done I was late for a funeral and the car looked like ass.. It was a fast n furious kind of funeral and the cars would be right next to the grave... so I felt like I should at least clean it... 

So on the way I pulled into a hand car wash. No word of a lie, the place was called 'CHAV hand car wash'.. in Chadwell Heath. 

I immediately regretted my decision but specifically said to the bloke 'DO NOT spray wheel cleaner on my wheels' just spray the car down with water and shampoo it and dry it.  

What did he do? 

Sprayed fucking acid all over the wheels and left me 5 minutes sat in the baking sun while he dried the car in front off. 

Anyway I left, got to the funeral and the wheels were no longer black. They were hazed, like a milky kind of effect over the top of them that buffed out with hard rubbing, but as soon as water or anything moist touched them (ie when you next washed them), the haze would just reappear. 

So the next day I went back to Chav hand fucking car wash and asked to see the manager... the guy I'd asked clearly didnt speak English much, and he said hilariously 'you want job?' . 

I said I do not want a job, I want the 'boss'. He understood that and got the manager. 

The manager came over, couldnt mistake him, he was an actual chav. About early 20's, Dressed like one, spoke like one etc. 

He kicked off 'fucking this, fucking that, you're fucking paying for this' at the bloke who'd cleaned the car the day before. 

I almost laughed. The poor bloke's a hand car washer, I doubt he's gonna have several hundred quid ready to spray my wheels. 

So I asked about their insurance etc, while the bloke who did the damage frantically tried buffing the damage out.. without any success.. by this point the paint/powder coating was ruined. 

The manager promised he would have the wheels fixed and would contact me as soon as possible to arrange it. 

A week went by. Nothing. I drove past, they were still operational so I wrote to them recorder delivs, demanding it be sorted, copied in the consumer rights peoples etc. 

Another week went by, nothing. The letter had been signed for though. 

So I drove back. The place was a ghost town. Fuckers had shut up shop and disappeared. 

In fairness mate, no one powder coats aluminium. And powder coat cant really be buffed.

Whats up with every re-spray shop powder coating alloy wheels then.