Official Luthiers Forum!

A friend of mine dropped his Taylor. On a stage. The white spots in the photo are lights. I asked a Taylor repair guy to look at it. He said he could fix wood, but finish had to be lived with or send to Taylor for a redo. He said it wasn't worth time and expense to fill and buff. What y'all think?

Never mind. Owner is doing the right thing and sending to Taylor. I had no intention of touching this. I was just curious.

I was told Taylor will do a "spot" finish. How do they do that? Cat urethane is non-reactive to just about anything.

IDK anything about that finish but I would try and convince anyone to just live with that. Chalk it up to character, mojo, learning lessons and so on

Can this not be done using CA, like GluBoost?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Taylor uses a UV cure polyester finish. Repairs are not at all simple and require special tools and chemicals -- likely something similar to this is used/needed:

http://alliedintlinc.com/polyesterrepairkits.html

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

We do repairs on Taylor finishes on a routine basis, as CA is very similar to the hardener in catalyzed polyester or urethane and can be done without witness lines. That said, the differences in hardness between the CA (which can be padded on to build thickness or applied in layers to achieve a deeper fill) can be problematic. The GluBoost CA's do a really good job mimicking the hardness of the Taylor finish if allowed to cure up for a couple days prior to scraping, sanding and buffing.

All that aside, I think the customer made the right decision - touch-ups always run the risk of scraping or buffing through, and for a dyed top, that can be a challenge (i.e., the boss does the work and NOT me).

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Dyed? That B&S is dyed? I always wondered about the color of that guitar.

Please don't consider this a criticism of your photographic skills, Mr. O'Melia, but it appears in the photo that the wood is colored with a stain or dye, or a colored toner - I am not certain how else a color of that nature could be had without. If the photo is true color, it would mean that after sealing the guitar, Taylor would have used a dye-tinted (or other colorant) toner coat, followed by clear top coat. I am sorry if I was unclear earlier. Is the instrument a T-5 or similar? It almost looks like a Gibson finish, with transparent cherry red toner over a medium brown base toner over mahogany.

If the damage is an indentation or depression caused by impact, there is little risk of cutting through the toner when scraping the CA repair level; easy repair. If the finish is separated, it can be reattached or carefully removed and rebuilt. I am not a very good judge of when to open and remove the finish versus when wicking in super-thin CA to reattach and fill the void caused by the detached finish, but my shopmates seem to be able to reattach finishes with some success and minimal evidence of the repair. Again, there is a lot of technique to the repair, and judging the hardness of the CA patch can be a challenge...scrape, sand, and buff too early or too late and there will be some signature.

Top wood is a different story - it is necessary to seal any raw wood with shellac or thinned hot hide glue before attempting a repair that leaves either a raw wood or fractured wood surface. The recommendation to have Taylor refinish is fairly common; almost as common is the choice to go with a field repair once the cost for a refinish is obtained from Taylor.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

How can I take offense? I didn't take the picture. But that was not my point. As a said before, I always wondered about the color of this guitar. I'm betting now it's a dyed, curly mahogany.