Ecstatic and sad at the same time...

[JazzyO]

Hi all,

Well, it's about a year ago that I bought a new Avalon (L25C, California Redwood top) sight unseen. With my international job, it's taken me 11 months to actually get to see it in the flesh, smell it and play it, over Xmas. The guitar is gorgeous, responsive and I love the sound. The build quality is right up there, although I thought the internals could have been a tiny bit tidier.

It's also easy to play, although this is the first guitar I have with such a spacing at the bridge (anybody know the nut and bridge spacing? Avalon: you should publish the specs on the website!), which took me half an hour to get used to.

So, what's the problem? Well, my brother has played it a couple of times and he left it on the stand. The first time I saw it, this scratch on the top was the first thing I saw:





I suspect it was my brother's cat knocking something onto it, as my brother swore he had no knowledge of the scratch.

My question, if any at Avalon is reading this: does this scratch look polishable? It's maybe half a millimetre deep.

So, apart from this little hiccup, my experience with this guitar has been faultless and I can't wait to play it again (in April... )

Note to the wise: don't leave your guitar on a stand! Something worse than a scratch might happen...

Cheers,


Onno

[Sam Price]

Ahh, I think Redwood is a soft wood; I have Canadian Redwood doors in my house...

That scratch is a bit of a bummer...

Mind you, that is one fine guitar. I love the abalone rosette, I am waiting delivery of a DS200, unfortunately, not available with decorative stuff....

[JB]

Hi Onno

It looks very much like a surface scratch in the lacquer and not through to the wood, I'll have one of our craftsmen look at the photos tomorrow and see what they suggest.

JB

[JB]

Well Onno I let one of our finishing craftsmen have a look at the photo and altho' it's hard to judge the scratch my well be through into the wood.

This presents a problem of what to use to disguise it and minimise the bright obvious white line if you see what I mean.
If it's not through to the wood then thin superglue carefully applied can work wonders but ONLY for the lacquer, do not use superglue on bare, open wood as it can turn a horrible dark brown or black colour to which there is no remedy.

Caution : Superglue is very tricky to use successfully and spreads everywhere very fast and in untrained hands can make a simple 5 minute fix into a horrible nightmare ... you have been warned :!:

So .. if the scratch is through to the wood your best, safest and easiest option is to use a finishing wax. This will darken the white appearance but will have next to no colouring effect on the wood.

Hope this helps
Jim

[Funat1st]

This has worked for me on fine furniture...

Proceed at your own risk. Break a walnut in half and gently rub the nut (the meat, not the shell!!!) into the scratch.

Like anything else, start v e r y carefully on a small portion of the scratch and progress slowly, then wipe the excess oils off with a soft cloth.

And remember, each scratch and nick adds character and tone. If you repeat this often enough you will start to believe it!

And throw that cat into the stew.

[JediMasterPaul]

I would take it to your local acoustic guitar repair person and let them have a look at it. I guess the most important thing is to let them know what kind of finish it is.

[JazzyO]

Hi guys,

been a while since I was here. Thanks very much for your suggestions. I will take it to an acoustic builder/repairer, as I find the risk of doing these things myself too great. The suggestions will help me in my discussions with the craftsman.

The scratch, BTW, is through to the wood and so the superglue option is out. Not that I would have liked to go there, in any case.

I do know that scratches add character (tone I'm not so sure of), but it's better when a character develops gradually. This time round I got Maggie Thatcher without warning!

Thanks again for the suggestions, I'll keep you posted once I've taken it to someone.

Onno