Hi Everyone,
I finished this guitar about a year ago (my 8th acoustic). OO Mahogany and spruce. System 3 epoxy pore fill, French polish Royal Lac finish. It looked fantastic when it was done.
A couple months later I noticed 2 or 3 small (dime sized) hazy areas near the binding edge, but didn't think much of it.
A few other guitars got my attention the past months so this one hasn't been played. It's been hanging in my temp and humidity controlled home.
Yesterday I pulled it down to play it and was shocked at the condition of the finish. There were LOTS of hazy spots and areas. I initially thought they might be areas where the shellac has lifted or separated from the epoxy pore fill layer but the surface of these areas feels rougher.
Here are some pics.
My first step was to go at it with a French polish tampon of alcohol and a tiny bit of pumice. This seemed to fix the lightest areas. The most prominent areas got a bit better but didn't disappear. Eventually I got much more aggressive and hit those areas with 800grit sandpaper wet sanding with olive oil. This got rid of the rest of the areas.
Now I'll do a French polish repair with regular shellac.
Has anyone seen this before? Anyone have any ideas what happened?
I'll give the owner of Royal Lac a call tomorrow to ask his opinion.
I'm still a newbie to all of this so I'm guessing it's a problem with me, not Royal Lac, but I'm baffled.
Thanks much.
![[xx(]](./images/smilies/smiley11.gif "Dead")