troubadour Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 My recently acquired Precision is nicely naturally road worn and I'm looking forward to that continuing. Except in one respect which I really do not want to get any worse. There are a couple of areas of significant lacquer loss down to the bare wood accompanied by some long cracks and I fear I'm in danger of losing most of the original decal. Please can anyone advise how I could best repair this? I'm not looking to get it back to mint condition, just to fix it up well to prevent any further deterioration. Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Get the headstock blown over with some clearcoat poly. That will stop everything in it's tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubadour Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 Thanks for that. I had heard that poly over nitro wasn’t such a good idea though. Ideally I’d like to be able to fix this myself, maybe build the lost areas back up and then protect it from further damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 If it was mine, I would make sure I had compatible varnish and thinners by testing on a hidden area, maybe under a tuner, make sure there's no reaction between old and new. Then apply thinned varnish to the cracks, gaps and especially under the decal where it's lifting, pushing the decal down flat onto the wet surface underneath until it sticks. When dry, build up layers as required, finishing with a coat or three over the whole area. Patience will be required! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 1 hour ago, troubadour said: Thanks for that. I had heard that poly over nitro wasn’t such a good idea though. Ideally I’d like to be able to fix this myself, maybe build the lost areas back up and then protect it from further damage. Ah! I didn't know it was nitro. Wouldn't really know what to do with nitro. As for building up the wood and cracks, make a fine dust of matchsticks (or maple if you have some the same colour as the neck) and make up a paste of wood and superglue to fill the area. Then sand flat. Then lacquer (with whatever you use over poly) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 I'll happily send you a headstock- sized piece of Maple Veneer to form the filler (when sanded). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 By the look of it quite a bit of lacquer has lifted too. I assume that it's nitrocellulouse. You can carefully use a small brush (i.e. artist's watercolour brush) to build up where the lacquer has flaked off. It will take many coats to do so. That might wick under the lifted lacquer and help to stabilise it. Nitrocellulouse will blend in with the existing lacquer - the solvents will slightly dissolve it. Obviously take necessary precautions if using nitrocellulouse - it's nasty stuff to breathe in! You'll also want some cellulose thinners for cleaning your brush. I had some lacquer chipped around the frets of the guitar I built and had to do similar. It's very time consuming. The lacquer needs to be built up slowly to allow the solvents to evaporate - 2 or 3 coats a day and then leave it for 24 hours. Scrape back any excess with a razor blade and repeat. I used rattle cans to lacquer my guitar, so sprayed a little into the cap so I could brush it on. Finally you'll need to sand it flat - I used micromesh pads then Meguillar's ultimate compound to polish it up. If worst comes to the worst and you end up with something resembling a dog's dinner, you can always strip it back, get a new decal (Rothcoe and Frost) and refinish it properly 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubadour Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 9 hours ago, yorks5stringer said: I'll happily send you a headstock- sized piece of Maple Veneer to form the filler (when sanded). Very kind of you, thank you. I’m hoping to complete the repair without the addition of any new wood. Much appreciated though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubadour Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 41 minutes ago, Norris said: By the look of it quite a bit of lacquer has lifted too. I assume that it's nitrocellulouse . . . Excellent advice thank you very much. I will definitely give this a try and post the results here. Dog’s dinner or not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 1 hour ago, troubadour said: Very kind of you, thank you. I’m hoping to complete the repair without the addition of any new wood. Much appreciated though. I'd highly recommend adding in the wood dust. It will make for a much better looking repair... and is easier to build up that lacquer (although never having worked with nitro, I can only speak in terms of poly). When lacquered, a block with wet and dry and through the grades and a polish will make for a very good looking repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manton Customs Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 (edited) What @Norris said, (provided it is definitely Nitro) would be the fix. How come it's Nitro, is it a vintage P bass? I don't think you're in much danger of losing the decal though, unless there is an underlying finish adhesion issue or you keep whacking it into things . So the option to just leave it as mojo is there. If you do decide to fix it- Wood dust on Maple doesn't really work, Maple is too pale and the wood dust will darken when glued/finished, so the filled areas will actually be more obvious. I can't actually see an application for it here anyway either. Also if you buy Nitro sold for spraying equipment it will speed things up, as the aerosols have a lot of thinners in them, so most of what you put down evaporates. The spraying type comes with a higher solid content and is supposed to be thinned to spray. Where you buy it from will depend on how thick it is. I have some here which supposed to be thinned 50/50....it's very thick and treacly which makes it good for drop filling. That's what this technique is called by the way, so if you want to do some googling of "drop filling lacquer" you may find some more helpful info. Anyway, you could perhaps buy a bottle of the spraying variety for the drop filling the larger areas and an aerosol for the final over coats if you don't have spray equipment. It may also be good to start with the thinner stuff so you can wick it in there as Norris described. You should definitely be able to solidify it, but it'll probably not look perfect. Edited March 13, 2018 by Manton Customs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 By the colour of the headstock i would say it isn't a vintage bass so what i would do, if it was my bass, i would simply sand the entire headstock smooth, aply a new exact reprodution decal and coat the hedstock with some layers of new laquer. It would be the easiest and fastest solution at only the small cost of the decal and a can of laquer. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 21 hours ago, Manton Customs said: How come it's Nitro, is it a vintage P bass? This ^ Are you sure it's nitro? It looks more like poly to me. Same solutions if it is poly but probably gives you more options of lacquer products you could use. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubadour Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 53 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said: Are you sure it's nitro? Do you know, I’m not now! The bass is a Highway One with it’s famed “satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish”. I think I may have incorrectly interpreted this as applying to the neck as well as the body. Shows the benefit of sounding things out on this forum first. Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 1 hour ago, troubadour said: Do you know, I’m not now! The bass is a Highway One with it’s famed “satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish”. I think I may have incorrectly interpreted this as applying to the neck as well as the body. Shows the benefit of sounding things out on this forum first. Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to reply. Oh, OK - most probably you are right. I think it would be odd for them to sell it as a nitro finish and put a poly neck on it. Anyone else confirm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 If it's poly then trying to patch it by spot filling will not work as well as if it was nitro. Poly cures to a hard finish and patched areas will leave visible fracture lines, unlike nitro which melds with the existing finish. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 The spec here says the body is nitro and the neck is satin poly - http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Precision_Highway_One.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manton Customs Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Ah! I didn't think it looked that lacquer like. As mentioned above - drop filling won't work quite as well, as the repairs won't burn into the existing finish, so you'll see witness lines between old and new material. However if you're not worried about it looking perfect you can still use a similar procedure, except instead of using Nitro, use super glue.That's the recognised way of drop filling Poly. But a refinish of the headstock face would be the best bet....or just leaving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubadour Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 (edited) Super glue it is then! I’m not looking for perfection, the rest of the bass has picked up plenty of battle scars. I just want to stop that particular area deteriorating much further if I can. Thanks again everyone, I’ve learnt a lot. Edited March 14, 2018 by troubadour typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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