Flawless or live with mistakes?

[woodfab]

When you're building a Guitar and you make an error,  such as a cut that went wrong, dropping it causing dents, paint defects, etc.

Do you leave them or fix them  even if they take quite a few hours to fix?

Like I dropped my latest build last week after 4 coats of lacquer and dented the wood, I'm calling  it antiquing

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by woodfab
typo

[Bizman62]

I just recently took my build from a couple years back and sanded the dents in the back, then reapplied some oil which blended in nicely.

If a cut goes wrong there's always ways to fix it. An work under progress can be changed by will if need be. Done well such mistakes can be called "personal touch" or even "unique design".

When a finished instrument gets cosmetic damage it can be considered normal aging and it depends whether they should be addressed or not. Practicing fixing routines has some value per se, evaluating the need for repairs is another important skill.

The beauty in instruments built by yourself for personal use is that their value isn't tied with the looks.

[ADFinlayson]

It really depends on the circumstances, if it's a build for a customer and it goes wrong, then you gotta fix it. e.g the other day I was routing a truss rod channel in a neck blank and I didn't have the bit sinched up properly in the trimmer and created a really nice channel for a skunk stripe, so that blank is now a really expensive neck profile template. On the other hand, the sides of my first acoustic build warped before I got the top and back on so it looks like an offset OM but I carried on regardless because I wanted to prove I could make an acoustic that didn't implode when I put strings on it. 

Personally, if I dented a build after a few coats of lacquer, I would be inclined to see if that can be fixed, normally dents can be steam out or mostly out and sanded, and lacquer can be reapplied. 

[Crusader]

I have never built a guitar without some kind of stuff up. One time I plugged the router in and it was switched on, and it did a little dance on the back of the neck. On a Les Paul neck pocket I discovered that my router didn't cut square. More than once I have routered a pickup well in the wrong place, and the list goes on and on

Generally I put a tremendous amount of effort into getting things right, but I'm starting to realise I'm not going to live forever, I haven't got time for it any more. I don't have customers by the way!

[ADFinlayson]

On 11/13/2022 at 6:36 PM, Crusader said:

I have never built a guitar without some kind of stuff up. One time I plugged the router in and it was switched on, and it did a little dance on the back of the neck. On a Les Paul neck pocket I discovered that my router didn't cut square. More than once I have routered a pickup well in the wrong place, and the list goes on and on

Generally I put a tremendous amount of effort into getting things right, but I'm starting to realise I'm not going to live forever, I haven't got time for it any more. I don't have customers by the way!

yikes, I actually did that at the weekend, fortunately the router was in the middle of a forstner hole and I was able to grab it before it started eating pinball fashion. I have been soo careful to make sure it's switched off since - I'm ploughing through a couple of builds this week so I've been doing way too much routing. 

[woodfab]

The main issues I've been having with my bills is putting on a Flawless finish. Eventually I just want to get the guitar done.

I was thinking this morning of building a better spray booth.

[mistermikev]

how ironic that the better I get at building the more the tiniest little flaw sticks out to me.  things that mere mortals probably wouldn't even consider a flaw... but it's painful and obvious to me now.  for that reason I think perfect is impossible... the best I think I can hope for is a larger window on a smaller flaw.

[henrim]

Looking at the builds I have done, guitars or what ever, I can always spot errors. So in that sense I guess I leave them. But they are mostly something I didn't see while building. Or in some cases I think I chose not to see them  That said, if make a cutting mistake I generally either fix it or redo the piece. Or change the plan and redesign so that the mishap gets removed.

On my padouk top single cut I was trying to force myself to get it finished. When I was almost there I dropped my reading glasses on the top which got a small dent. I have no idea how the glasses could have done the dent so maybe it was already there and I only noticed it when I dropped the glasses. Anyway, I first thought I would just leave it there. But couldn't, so I scraped the area, sanded the dent down and spent several days applying shellac to fix it. Now that I have playing the guitar carelessly awhile there are already a couple of bigger dents on it. So was the fix worth it? In my opinion it was

[ShatnersBassoon]

One of the things that really annoys me is when you get tiny little hairline scratches on the metal hardware, pickups especially. I don’t know why they keep happening other than the fact that I am working on things. Will be putting tape on them in the future

[ShatnersBassoon]

On 11/15/2022 at 4:53 PM, woodfab said:

The main issues I've been having with my bills is putting on a Flawless finish. Eventually I just want to get the guitar done.

I was thinking this morning of building a better spray booth.

I share your pain