JS1000--MINOR REPAIR--Should I attempt??

[Dominick Furlano]

Hi, I'm looking for any input relating to minor repairs to my JS1000.

There are several small dents on the BACK of the JS1000 neck. It looks like the previous owner must have let it drop back against the edge of a small table, hence some small, linear, shallow (maybe 1/64") dents. The longest dent is about 5/8" long. The other ones are about 1/4" long.

Since I like a s-m-o-o-t-h neck, the dents are bugging me whenever my thumb touches them half-way down the neck (I didn't think they would at first, but they are now). I have Dan Erlewine's excellent book, "Guitar Player Repair Guide, new 2nd edition", and in it Dan points out that if the dent is through the finish to the raw wood (which mine is not), you can steam out the dent.

He also mentions that you can carefully drop-fill super glue (i.e. Zap-A-Gap) into the dent, filling in the dent, and making a hard clear fill. I've worked with Zap before, and I'm fairly handy and detail oriented. I'm not intimidated by the job, but I don't want to be penny wise & dollar foolish either.

Should I attempt the super glue drop-fill repair? If so, has anyone here done this before? Any tips? What about leveling the repair after it is filled--what have you done about sanding, etc. (Dan uses a spark plug file followed with very fine wet/dry paper)? How will it affect the finish on the back of the neck? Am I looking for trouble? Should I leave it to a professional (and roughly how much money are we talking about to fill 8 small linear dents)?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[YaYoGakk]

Go here and get rid of the finish on the neck all together. hehe Then if the nicks are still there maybe the steaming will work. I haven't had to repair any dent on my neck but the first thing I did was take the finish off the back. :P

Alden

[Knightmeir]

Yeah, I've got a dent on one of my guitars through the clearcoat and the paint that's going to be difficult to fix. I was thinking about getting some glue or something, dripping it in, and dabbing a little paint in there and putting nail polish or superglue over the top.

[Rich]

Filling is easy, the only rule is complete coverage, but never try to fill too deep, multiple coats. Getting a nice smooth fill is another thing. It has to be filled completely and that means most of the fill is now a bump. You can take that bump down with a file, sandpaper, or even scrape it with a razor blade. I opt for precise sanding, usually 400-600-1200-2000, but depends on what I'm working on and where the repair is. You're working on very thin surrounding clear so you're going to have to be especially careful. It can take a half hour getting to a final sand on these bumps.