Fix dents on a cerdarwood guitar?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

I have a lovely seagull 12 string cedarwood guitar that I bought second hand last year. The guitar itself is about 10 years old and has a good few light scratches on the front of the body and also 5 or 6 deeper dents. Is there anything I can do to fix these?

wild turkey

There was an old trick pressing a soldering iron on a wet cloth over the dent for a second or two.

martinedwards

you MIGHT be able to force steam ino the dents and cause the wood to swell, but......

it ain't never going to leave it smooth.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Would sanding it down a little be a TERRIBLE idea? I remember the first guitar I ever owned, it suffered sanding, gloss exterior house paint, wood varnish and superglued on tuning pegs.... But then again it was a great auld heap of sh1te and I wouldn't dream of being so mean to a guitar these days

wild turkey

To be honest, every guitar will get war wounds.
Seagull's gre great guitars & if it plays & sounds as you like it I'd just play it
But if your not happy, throw up a pic or 2 so we know what were looking at
Ive re-finished a few guitars but used wipe on oil / varnish mix which turned out very well but there is a good chance it will de-value it
Martin Edwards will know a lot more on this subject !

martinedwards

wild turkey wrote: »

Martin Edwards will know a lot more on this subject !

yeah, because I treat my guitars so badly!!

a refinish is a whole guitar job. sanding out a portion of the top and then varnishing it will make it approximately a MILLION times more obvious than the little ding it has now.

do a google for Willie Nelson's trigger guitar......

I haven't seen your guitar, but it's in better condition that THAT one!!!

and he's a multi millionaire!

Strings.ie

I have a couple of Simon & Patrick Cedar top Guitars, they came out the same factory as the Seagull's. Cedar is a very soft porous wood which marks and dents very easily. However, it sounds gorgeous!

I tend to take the attitude that an instrument is a tool and like all tools they get wear and tear. Try and learn to love those battle scares.

Word of caution. In my youthful days I thought it would be a great idea to polish the Cedar top of one of my Guitars using organic bees wax. The result was the Guitar lost its top end sparkle clarity and never sounded the same again. Big mistake, lessons learned. Leave Cedar well alone and never use anything more than a damp cloth to clean it.

nelly17

I have a Cedar Seagull and I reckon you'd be wasting your time repairing it the Cedar is too soft and it will pick up more knocks for sure. I'm happy to live with any of the blemishes as they add to its character. But as for the sound you do get a lovely warm boomy tone from the soft Cedar - also the sound matures from very new as the wood is so porous.

PrzemoF

I never did it on a guitar, but applying steam locally works fine for pool cues. Polishing after the operation is of course necessary. I use pot with boiling water covered by lid with a small hole to vent the steam. Steaming for 1-2 seconds and then check. Polishing with sandpaper 1000, 1500 and 2000.

Brave Badger

I have a number of small marks on the bottom of my Japanese Tak from the previous owner who played fingerstype which are annoying to look at. I emailed the good folk at Takamine and they advised me that they cannot provide me with a scratchplate for this guitar as it was designed without one and the dimensions will not allow a direct replacement from them.

I'd love to know how to fix this without too high a cost.