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Hi All

I don't do a lot of repairs and I'm not going to do much on this guitar as the owner wishes to do the work himself. He's a good friend that lives about 100 miles from me so I haven't seen the guitar just the pictures below. Part of the head stock binding is missing and there is a dime sized ding in the side near the pre-amp hole. I would like your suggestions on how to go about fixing both. I'm curious about what finish Yamaha used on this and how you would go about touching that up after repair to the dime sized dent. I understand that the dent has pushed EIR fibers out on the inside but that no wood is actually missing.
I was thinking that removal of the rest of the head stock binding might be the way to go and replace the entire binding with a new piece. Please let me know your thoughts. On the dent I was thinking push the fibers back up and place a small patch under them. I have no idea how to touch up or repair the finish and would like to hear your suggestions. Thanks

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Question # 1 Value of Guitar ? If its not of huge Value , yes just replace the binding on the headstock completely . If its doable a small cleat glued and clamped in place at the dent to level it and some touch up on the finish . Witness lines will probably be visable . All that said based on lower value of guitar .

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couldn't you weld plastic bindings together? That's the nice thing about them anyhow.

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Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I think it's possible and that may be the the solution he goes with but the color probably wouldn't be easy to match. Thanks

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Looks like the new price on this guitar is about $499. He picked it up for $50. So certainly worth spending some time on. I don't know the general condition of the guitar as I have only seen the 2 pictures in my first post.

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Then determine if new binding will hurt the value . based on what u are saying yes its worth some tlc then

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

The proper repair on the headstock would be to patch in a piece of binding and touch up the finish including using the proper tint to get a color match. Taking off the rest of the binding would just make more finish damage to repair. It sounds like this repair may be beyond the capability of those involved.

Yea, matching tint is next to impossible.. I always either get it too light or too dark. But I guess as long as the customer know that... it's fine.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

On the headstock I would just fix the missing part of the binding. Matching the color will be the hardest part but it can be done using an airbrush and tinted lacquer. After the repair I would tape off the binding and match it as close as you can to the surrounding binding.

I agree that replacing the entire binding on the headstock would be a pretty large job since you will probably have to refinish the complete headstock.


As for the dent, I would remove the finish that is cracked and get back to where you have good adhesion. Once the wood is exposed in the dent I would then use some distilled water on a small piece of rag and a soldering gun to try and expand the wood back out to try and get the dent leveled with the surrounding finish. You can probably drop fill the finish back in, when it is dry just wet sand flush and rub it out.

I have repaired a number of dents like that and have had pretty good luck with this method. Just don't touch the wood with the soldering iron, Just get it close enough to the wet rag to create steam. It may take 2 or 3 applications but you can probably bring the wood back to level.