farren

That was my solution for that guitar for the past 15 years or so Well, black electrical tape, but close enough. I'd like to think electrical tape was a little classier

Yep, just me and my horrible photography skills Hmm what happens when you click "order now"? Tried it in two different browsers but it just redirects to the main page... Anything other than black seems pretty rare. I'll keep an eye out for it, no hurry so I can wait for it to pop up on eBay or Amazon.

Way to order the wrong thickness maple, me. So I suppose the cavity is recessed for a 1/16" cover rather than 1/8. I'm willing to spend enormous amounts of time on it, so I'm thinking the best way, with primitive tools (sandpaper and a block of wood), would be a figure eight pattern... I've sanded the back of locking nuts that way and they've come out flat as desired. Oh well...

Nice, that one has the full access cutaway... Wish I had that Is that a custom (maple fingerboard)? As Seen on TV "order now" link redirects to the root page so they may not sell it anymore. I'll probably just import it. I'm almost sure it's a poly coat, by the way.

Yep, ships from the UK on eBay, too, so I'm looking at $25-30 for a bottle... It's almost as if that line of Turtle Wax has no US distribution.

I'm not sure how deep it goes, but it looks like it goes all the way down to the wood... Thanks guys, I'd have to import the Turtle Wax so I will explore the other routes before deciding. Also, correction on the year of manufacture... It's actually circa '87-89. "Fxxxx-Fxxxxx - late '87 - late '89 Range - F0001-13XXX (presumed) Notes: 1986-90 "Pointy Droopy" or "Shark" headstocks(E2000s-G series) - Bodies and Necks by ESP Die cast plates in chrome and black sporting "Neptune, NJ" on them with the banana Kramer logo." Good call on ESP, by the way

I can understand that sentiment. I read and occasionally post on the Mesa forum, and there are countless people there who have replicated John Petrucci's entire setup who spend more time buying and selling gear than actually playing any of their $3000 EBMMs. That isn't the case with me, however. I've played a long time but have mostly had garbage gear until recent years, and since my rig is basically finished now, all I do is worry about playing lately, with the exception of this guitar which I've been fixing up (and thus learning from) lately. The quest to do something about the scratch I gave it some ~18 years ago is just another part of that. Don't think it stops me from playing, though, as I've spent at least an hour a day playing it after dressing the frets, refinishing the neck and bolting it back on recently. I started out learning to play on it, now I can play well but have returned to it to learn other things from it. The last things I'll do (someday) is totally refinish it and replace the headstock binding. I'm in no hurry, though. It's actually an '86 or '87 American Kramer Baretta. It was gigged hard before I bought it with my parents in the '90s ($350) and I'm almost certain that isn't the original finish as I've never heard of a Baretta coming with a transparent finish. It's clearly unfigured maple so it'd be an odd decision for a production guitar straight from the factory. Original owner had replaced the JB with an EMG 85, the reason I probably wasn't a fan of the guitar as a kid, and added a tone control... I'm not sure about the gold hardware accents, but the locks and arm are still in very condition with no plating chips. Now I have a new bezel and Evo2 on the way (X2N was just temporary, something I had lying around). Thanks, that colored wax is probably my best bet. For reference, if I fill with CA, scrape and buff, would the white appearance of the scratch fade a degree?

I'm actually in the process of doing all of that with the exception of replacing the rusty trem. I have a new pickup and bezel on the way already. I'm not replacing the rusty trem because it is not the least bit rusty. It certainly looks like that in this photo taken with my antique phone, but it isn't the case at all. It's an '80s OFR in decent condition. Anyway, I'm not looking to make the scratch magically disappear like on a car scratch remover commercial. Does anyone feel there's anything short of refinishing the entire body that would make any difference at all? I realize most of you may not feel it's worth the effort just to make it look a little less awful, but that's beside the point because I'm perfectly willing to waste my time on it.

I'm familiar with filling dents/chips with CA and then working the razor and eventually 12,000 grit micromesh, but I'm at a loss as to how to deal with this deep paint scratch. I think it nearly goes down to the wood. It's a poly-based (I think) transparent green over maple. I've had this guitar for 18 years and scratched it when I was 10... What can I do about it? It's actually a nice guitar, though few would notice with this scratch. A black scratch would look better than the current white scratch... I realize this is pretty basic stuff, but I could really use your opinion.

I ordered enough 1/8" maple from eBay to afford me a mistake or two, and perhaps a tremolo cover after this, so I'll be sure to post the results. I'll be using a coping saw and sandpaper. I'm not really worried about the finish, but I'm considering staining it ebony and just poly coating it. That's the same thing I did when I built my pedal board from 2 1/2 x 3/4" poplar boards which worked well enough. Besides, who else could say their control cavity cover matches their pedalboard?

Great. I'll buy a coping saw and some maple (already have plenty of sandpaper). The body wood is very boring so some very boring maple for this will certainly do Thanks to all!

Thanks all. I didn't mean to suggest I wasn't willing to buy any tools, I was just sort of fixed on my lack of power tools... I will get a coping saw. Would it be easier to cut plexiglass, or a hardwood? Plexi with double-sided copper foil on the inside would look sort of cool. If hardwood would be easier to cut with a coping saw I'd probably go that route, though. Any specific hardwood recommendations? It's for a trans burst maple body but matching doesn't really matter...

I realize this is pretty basic, but I know I'll get good advice here. I need to make a new rear control cover plate for an old guitar of mine with a non-standard cavity size. The cavity is recessed 1/8" which is pretty typical from my understanding, but the shape means I will have to cut it myself rather than get one of those StewMac plates (which are supposedly cut to such pathetic fault tolerance that they often don't fit routes cut with StewMac jigs) or some other pre-made solution. The problem is I don't have a lot of tools. Xacto knife, power drill, all kinds of manual tools, a plane I'm not good at using, but that's pretty much the extent of it. My idea so far has been to buy a 1/8" thick sheet of balsa and get something like Minwax Wood Hardener that will soak into the pores of the wood and hopefully make it strong enough to be a decent cover under my not-at-all-demanding conditions (I don't gig). Balsa is so fragile, though, that I'm not sure it will harden enough even for my use. I'm thinking there must be a better way, but given that I don't have any precision power saws like a bandsaw, I'm pulling a blank on what to do. I'm afraid I may be confined to what I can cut with Xacto knife blades. It matters not how it looks or even if it's that tough--I just need to close the Faraday cage. Anyone have some better ideas than hardened balsa? Is there a harder softwood I could buy a sheet of 1/8" thickness of that I could still cut with my limited tools? If not, any experience on just how well Minwax Wood Hardener, or perhaps a very thin epoxy resin, would work? Any exoxy would have to be capable of penetrating the wood needless to say... I'd rather not use CA for this--I think it'd become brittle over time anyway.

I edited it 3 minutes after my initial post, so Mender is correct. Thanks guys... I'm not too worried about it now. For future reference, is there any way I could have handled this better? Fill the dents with something else? I realize a cut tung oil like Minwax would have hardened over the CA, but I'd rather fill with something different rather than not use my nice pure oil...

I'm fixing up my '86/87 American Kramer Baretta and am currently working on the neck. It's a maple neck that had significant dings in it, many running far too deep for me to consider sanding down (and I'd already steamed out as many of the dents as possible). I took care of the dents with CA (superglue) fills, sanded them down flush and continued to sand the whole neck up to 2000 grit. Now I'm in the finishing stage and am on coat two of what will probably be ten coats of Lombardi's 100% tung oil. I realize pure tung oil will take longer to dry than say Minwax's tung oil that has other compounds in it, and that's no problem, but I'm a little concerned about oil adhering to the CA for obvious reasons. I'd hate to have my seemingly perfectly-filled dents no longer flush with the finish after I've applied all ten layers of oil. It's obvious that CA won't be as porous (or porous at all) as maple or any other wood, but am I going to run into a problem here? The oil eventually dries over (or seeps into the wood surrounding) the CA, but it takes longer than the rest of the neck to dry. I don't care if the CA spots aren't quite as dark as the rest of the neck, but what I do care about is feel. Prior to the tung oil, the fills felt just as smooth as the rest of the neck. Do I have any reason to be concerned about this, or will the fills feel as smooth as the rest of the neck when I'm done? For what it's worth, after two coats, the CA spots are still flush--to the touch at least. Thanks for reading! This site has helped me out countless times.