Refinish a Martin D Jr.

[Sponserv]

So I came home from a business trip and found a pretty good scratch in my D Jr. Not sure how it happened but there were 3 eight year old boys playing in the music room that weekend. ��

I want to take a stab at sanding out the scratch and making it a glossy finish.

Where do I start? Please note I do not want to pay a pro to do it. I would like to try and do it myself.

Thoughts?

[Song]

You might try this?

http://www.guitarify.com/2012/07/tru...guitar-finish/

[PTC Bernie]

What kind of finish does it have? That'll dictate how involved the repair will be.

[Earl49]

Recent threads here say the Dred Jr has a "hand-rubbed oil finish" but there is no specification of what oil. I guessed something like a Danish oil (from the home improvement store) but Tru-Oil gun stock finish was my second guess. I have seen guitars finished with Tru-Oil and they seem fine.

It might be hard to acceptably match the finished and original areas, so you might end up re-finishing the whole top. I would try a touch-up first before sanding the area. But wood finishing is NOT my area of expertise. I build a lot of things out of wood, but finishing is the part I like least.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by Earl49

Recent threads here say the Dred Jr has a "hand-rubbed oil finish" but there is no specification of what oil.

Martin's website says the finish is "hand rubbed".

Says nothing about any type of oil finish. Unless proven otherwise, I'm pretty certain it's hand rubbed polyurethane.

[jdinco]

If it was Tru-Oil or anything like that....it would not smell so great. I agree with AZ.

[Song]

"3 eight year old boys playing in the music room"

You may have been lucky not to come home to a Martin that looks like this:

[Judson]

If it were me, I wouldn't do anything that involved sanding. I'm almost certain that I (me personally) would make the problem worse rather than better.


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[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Sponserv

So I came home from a business trip and found a pretty good scratch in my D Jr. Not sure how it happened but there were 3 eight year old boys playing in the music room that weekend. 😠

I want to take a stab at sanding out the scratch and making it a glossy finish.

Where do I start? Please note I do not want to pay a pro to do it. I would like to try and do it myself.

Thoughts?

Unless you are experienced with guitar finishing, my advice would be to leave it alone. My attempts to renish have almost always always made it worse. Sanding out a deep scratch might take away too much material.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Doxyshusband]

I am obsessive compulsive about all of my guitars except the ones that have scratches, my old classical and my Gibson. The Gibson is beautiful but I bought it used and inherited the scratches and dings. Because I feel free enough to be less careful with this guitar it is always the first one I grab. It lives out on a stand in the house. If I only have fifteen minutes to play, it gets played. I would take it to a friend's house, etc. Apart from my tiny travel Martin, it's the guitar I would travel with. Why? Because I don't worry if I should ever ding it. It isn't that I'm not careful, it's just that it won't ruin my day if something happens. Maybe your D becomes a more comfortable guitar because of that scratch.

[Jarlaxle]

This doesn't exactly address your question but if you haven't seen it already, here is what is possible if you're willing to go the extra mile.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=385809

[Guitartanzon]

I am thinking of having my martin dred jr. refinished in BLACK SMOKE with a white pickguard like the ones in the 17 series.....if i can find a pro to do it right.

[Hot Vibrato]

Originally Posted by Guitartanzon

I am thinking of having my martin dred jr. refinished in BLACK SMOKE with a white pickguard like the ones in the 17 series.....if i can find a pro to do it right.

Finish work is very time consuming and tedious, and therfore expensive. Expect to pay about twice what you paid for the guitar for a quality job.

Regarding the OP, I would recommend to just leave it alone. That kind of repair is tricky, and unless you have prior experience doing finish touchups on a professional level, there's not much you can do that won't make it look worse (except for maybe just a color touchup).

[Sponserv]

Thanks hot V,

You are probably right. There was a guy who had his luthier build him an outrageous D Jr. on here. Total refinish and hardware upgrade. But like you say...at the end of the day he probably could have bought a Custom Shop 7 or 000.

I guess things could be worse than having an all solid Martin as a beater guitar.

[Truckjohn]

Do. NOT use Tru-oil. It's a dark brown varnish. It's going to make an ugly that's 10x worse than the scratch. Don't use spar varnish or spray paint or nail polish. None of them are the right product and they will all look far worse than just leaving it alone.

Lol.. I keep seeing that one or two folks infer oil finish because it says "hand rubbed". No such thing. This refers to the polishing process where they use polishing compound.... The reason they do that is that hand labor for rubbing out finishes is very cheap down south.

As to what is the finish? No idea. Most likely some sort of catalyzed poly finish. Super durable stuff even when very thin. Most likely they drug it around the yard behind the mower or down the road behind their bikes for a couple days for it to scratch.

Thanks