Erasing pen ink from guitar label

[Ryan Alexander]

This is a bit of an oddball request, but just curious if anyone can recommend a product to erase ballpoint pen ink from a guitar label? I'm waiting on delivery of an old Takamine and a previous owner wrote their name and number on the label in blue ink I discovered an ink eraser from Tombow called the Sand 512A, but the reviews seem mixed.

Recommendations welcome. Thanks!

[rstaight]

You may try the local office supply store or an art supply store.

My experience with erasing ink has not been the greatest. I get most of it but you can still see what was there. It also took getting a little rough with it.

You try erasing someone's name from the label on your guitar you will more than likely erase Takamine's ink also.

[Wade Hampton]

Ryan, you can gingerly attempt to erase an end of what he wrote, to see whether you can make it work. But I suspect that there won’t be any way to do that to make things look as though the label never got written on. If that’s the case, I’d suggest that you just leave it alone.

Abrupt change of subject: how is Nova Scotia, by the way?


Wade Hampton Miller

[Ryan Alexander]

Having to get a little rough with it to see results is definitely a concern as I obviously don't want to damage the paper itself. And some of the writing is right to the border of the label artwork so removing some of that is also a concern. Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by rstaight

You may try the local office supply store or an art supply store.

My experience with erasing ink has not been the greatest. I get most of it but you can still see what was there. It also took getting a little rough with it.

You try erasing someone's name from the label on your guitar you will more than likely erase Takamine's ink also.

[Ryan Alexander]

Wade, my friend - always nice to hear from you For the cost of the $5 eraser I found and a few minutes of my time I might give it a shot. It's very likely this is better left alone, but perhaps I can determine that without actually making it worse!

Things are good here in Nova Scotia, thanks for asking! The big news since we last spoke is that I'm now a daddy to a beautiful, silly and crazy little girl!! Emerson is 14 months old now. We had little to no help for the first 2 months - a baptism by fire, if you will Life is good and we feel very blessed. Hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy as well.

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Ryan, you can gingerly attempt to erase an end of what he wrote, to see whether you can make it work. But I suspect that there won’t be any way to do that to make things look as though the label never got written on. If that’s the case, I’d suggest that you just leave it alone.

Abrupt change of subject: how is Nova Scotia, by the way?


Wade Hampton Miller

[Kyle215]

May not be an improvement in appearance, but if the goal is just to remove the other guy’s contact info, good old White-Out might have less potential to damage the label than the eraser thing…

[Wade Hampton]

Wow, a baby at the very beginning of the pandemic lockdown goes beyond the merely “challenging.” Yikes!


Wade

[Mark L]

I would cut a piece off of one of these (see below) attach it to something like a bamboo chopstick, popsicle stick etc, and start out rubbing slowly and judiciously. Definitely, I’d use a similar piece of paper and pen (glossy or porous, blue, red, black etc) outside the guitar on a trial run first.

These are not expensive and definitely a good thing to know about:

https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/mr...303844-product

https://www.maids.com/BLOG/20-amazin...magic-erasers/

[Scott O]

What's this guy's number?!?!? I want to give him a piece of my mind.

[gmel555]

Seems like a tough one. Traditional ball-point pen maybe, but if it's a "rollerball" kinda of more like liquid ink, I'm thinking no. Thoughts on using white-out precisely may be the best option. Good luck!

[ras1500]

Have you considered contacting Takamine to see if they would provide a replacement label?

[Rockysdad]

Originally Posted by ras1500

Have you considered contacting Takamine to see if they would provide a replacement label?

This is the route I’d take *first*.

[Photojeep]

At the risk of stating the obvious, don't forget ball point ink pens often leave an indent where one has written. The ink my be gone but the indention will probably remain.

If you can't get a replacement label, perhaps the white-out might be your best option.

Good luck.

Best,
PJ

[charles Tauber]

If the manufacturer can't provide a replacement label, here's what I'd try.

I'd take a photo of the label, Photoshop out the parts you don't want, then print and attach over the existing label. Modern technology.

[Ryan Alexander]

Originally Posted by Scott O

What's this guy's number?!?!? I want to give him a piece of my mind.

This was the first thing that crossed my mind but so far I have abstained LOL

Originally Posted by gmel555

Seems like a tough one. Traditional ball-point pen maybe, but if it's a "rollerball" kinda of more like liquid ink, I'm thinking no. Thoughts on using white-out precisely may be the best option. Good luck!

Looks like traditional ball-point, and not recent. The guitar is from the early 90s, so hard to say exactly when it was desecrated

Originally Posted by ras1500

Have you considered contacting Takamine to see if they would provide a replacement label?

I had that thought as well, but it's an NP-15 from the early 90s's and I'm not sure if they'd be able to support that request. I'll give it a shot just in case - thanks!

Originally Posted by Photojeep

At the risk of stating the obvious, don't forget ball point ink pens often leave an indent where one has written. The ink my be gone but the indention will probably remain

Very good point, PJ. Duly noted.

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

If the manufacturer can't provide a replacement label, here's what I'd try.

I'd take a photo of the label, Photoshop out the parts you don't want, then print and attach over the existing label. Modern technology.

Very creative solution! I'd be more likely to leave it before I get all crafty like that Next owner would be like "what the heck is THIS?" just like I was when I saw the pen marks