Damage to finish during pickguard removal

[spennydl]

Hi,

I have a Taylor 210 that's about 15 years old. It suffered some scratching damage to the pickguard a few years ago and I'm just getting around to replacing it. Unfortunately I either blasted it too hard with the hairdryer or pulled it up too fast and it appears that I pulled up a good chunk of the polyurethane finish.



I'm not super experienced with finishes and I'm not sure what my next steps should be. Putting the new pickguard on the unprotected top feels like a bad idea, but I don't know what to do to repair it or if that's possible. I know Taylor uses some UV-cured polyurethane which may be out of my wheelhouse.

Thanks in advance for any advice! I love this guitar and I feel like a dum dum over this.

-Spencer (she/her)

[phavriluk]

In various ways, the advice coming from the knowledgeable about gratuitous messings-with an instrument has been DON'T DO IT IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW. There's reasons for being cautious and informed.

[rmp]

I would recommend going straight to Taylor Customer Service

It will take a while for the "round trip", and it will cost a lot to get it there, but these guys are wizards.

I've used them before when my 2006 Grand Symphony took a vicious attack from an SM58. They literally made it go away, and I'll tell ya,, it was a massacre.

[spennydl]

Thanks Ray, I'm reaching out to them and some local luthiers, but I'm not sure that any of that will be in my budget for a good while. Good to know that they're so good at what they do.

Alongside that I am still assessing the option of repairing it myself. I really only need the repair to be functional in protecting the spruce; I'm not at all concerned with matching the original finish perfectly or seamlessly as I'll be covering it up with a new pickguard. With that in mind, I have two specific questions for anyone who might know:

1. Looking at the damaged area I notice that the spruce has a somewhat patchy sheen to it and feels quite smooth. This makes me think that the base polyester layer may still be intact. Does this conclusion sound correct or should I think about sealing the wood with something like a shellac?
2. My current working plan is to apply a wipe-on polyurethane to the damaged area, and I've been looking at the ColorTone finishes sold by StewMac. I know CA glue is commonly used for drop-fills and crack repairs with poly finishes too, but this is a larger area to cover and I'm assuming that's not a good option for larger repairs. Does anyone have any experience using wipe-on poly finishes next to UV-cured poly finishes? Like I said, I'm after a purely functional repair and not a pretty or seamless one, so I'm just wondering if there are any bad interactions between the two to be aware of.

Thanks so much!

[John Arnold]

Sealing with shellac will be just fine.

[Fathand]

I agree with the shellac, easy. I use the aerosol sometimes.

[phavriluk]

Agree on the spray! No setup, no cleanup, mask and toot and off to the next task.

[jbrnigan]

I would clean the area where the old pickguard was with naptha to remove any adhesive residue. Then just cover the area with a new Taylor style pickguard. You can purchase Taylor style pickguards online, or buy a piece of pickguard material and cut out a custom piece. Most of these are just peel & stick, to a clean surface. I wouldn't over think this on a 15 year old guitar.

[John Arnold]

There is no adhesive residue, since the finish came off.
The issue is whether there is sealer remaining, or simply bare wood. Using peel and stick pickguards on bare wood is not recommended.

[redir]

If you are going to replace it then just do as John said, shellac the area, level it, and stick the PG on. 3M makes a good double stick film for this sort of thing. You can get it at Stew Mac. You can get a can of Zinsser Shellac at any hardware store and brush it on.

[Carey]

Make sure you get the paler version of Zinsser shellac for this application.