Guitaring Passionately to AdamCHAN Guitars

Guitaring Passionately Workshop

It was in 2009 I started providing guitar maintenance and repair services and I named the service Guitar Passionately (GP). It was indeed a mouthful and surely there were no lacking in persuasions to drop such a name. Being obstinate, I kept it. With faith and efforts, GP has grown but not without barriers and setbacks. So why did I do this?

The invention of the KILN has indirectly drawn me into learning about guitars. In the most natural way, it began with maintenance and repairs of guitars. My gut feel told me that for the KILN to be good, comprehension in maintenance and repairs of guitars weren't adequate. It has to be the knowledge of building guitars.

My maiden experience in building guitar took place in August 2010, which I have attended Master Luthier Mr. Jeffrey Yong's guitar making class. It felt like a turning point to me, somehow I didn't jump into actions right away. Instead it has planted a seed within me.

The KILN has her fair share of challenges and eventually the grand dream of hitting the world market in huge numbers was inevitably tamed into handcrafting Rosewood KILNs in GP Workshop and selling them. The consolation was the Rosewood KILN has hit the world market but in much smaller numbers. Dreams and realties are not always the same; a hard truth I have learnt about product invention to marketing.

In April 2014, I took another leap in setting up a guitar workshop to undertake more complicated maintenance and repair works. Deep in my mind, the workshop was inaugurated for building guitar. Having gone through the invention and development of the KILN, I knew it was imperative to set right benchmarks if I want to make it in guitar making. Patiently I began with basic woodworking like building chairs, benches and tables. Learning from these items about the things that matter most.

From 2014 to 2016, the maintenance and repair works have grown in complexities and intricacies. My abilities were stretched and tested. There were again barriers and setbacks that called to me to quit as if I was wasting my time and squandering the faith of my love ones have had on me. There were times that I was almost overwhelmed by obstacles. Nevertheless I pressed on.

S0607 - Spc Black Limba (#001)

Tirelessly, I went on a roll in making jigs and fixtures that would enable a consistence process in making my line of guitars. Again there were no shortage of mistakes and re-works. I began to wonder if I was able to pull it off. Must it be so damn hard to get it right?

Staring at the mistakes, digging deep to comprehend their causalities, a revelation of perspective arose. A guitar maker is a craftsman. To be a craftsman, it wasn't just about passion and determination as many have assumed. It was possessing the humility to accept your work as your own regardless the qualities and outcomes. In a sentence, even with passion and might, my work can still be sucks. At that instance, I was enlightened. It was not just the work, it was me.

In February 2017, I began work on the #001 acoustic guitar in GP Workshop. Symbolically, the making of #001 was like the conception of AdamCHAN Guitars. Step by step it inched towards completion of this #001 guitar; model S0607.

The making of #001 was far from being smooth. I stumble all the way until it was done. Finally on the 9 August 2017, I heard the first chord from the #001. It was unbelievable, it was not perfect but it was honest. I have completed my #001.

I learned that Jeffrey Yong was coming to town to attend Shun Ng's private concert on the 11 August 2017. It was a chance not to be missed because I could get Jeffrey to test play the #001. Jeffrey has been generous in his knowledge of guitar making. Without his mentoring, I wouldn't have been able to make the #001.

Jeffrey is pretty selective about test playing guitars. He would pick all 6 strings with his thumb first. If the tone is not up to his mark, he would leave the guitar. Finally, Jeffrey has arrived to his hotel and I presented #001 to him. He visually inspected #001, offered a few remarks about my finishing job and went on to play the six strings and… he continued to play 2 tunes on my #001! That was a defining moment for me.

I kept the momentum going from August 2017. I have completed 4 guitars today (Feb 2018) and every piece carries my imperfect works. Nevertheless I am happy with them.

In closing I would boldly declare that without my wife's unconditional love and my family's unwavering support, my pursuit would not have arrived to what it is today.

Above all, without HIM I cannot and without me, HE will not.

Featured Restoration - Double Cracks!

Dear Guitar Enthusiasts,

Least expected the last 2 consecutive jobs were repairing cracked necks. Both guitars' necks were seriously cracked indeed. A Martin OM-28V came in first with a almost severed neck. A few days later a Takamine guitar arrived in two. Here are the pictures of both guitars' cracked necks.

Martin OM-28V

Takamine

The repair is of course to re-glue the cracked portions and get the guitar back in action. However many of my clients are not aware of a whole of details and considerations that come with a cracked neck repair job. This is where I play my part as a professional, i.e. to provide the best fitting repair options to suit their desires and budgets.

For cracked guitar necks, I provide these options.

1. Re-glue the cracked portions.
2. Re-glue the cracked portions plus reinforcements.
3. Re-glue the cracked portions plus reinforcements plus cosmetic touch-up

They simply differ in terms of the amount of jobs. I am not going to dive into elaboration of each option as I think they are pretty self-explanatory. However I welcome any queries regarding them if you deem necessary.

The Martin OM-28V
The owner was determined to have it fixed to last because he really liked the guitar. The crack was due a fall by his younger brother who has accidentally dropped the guitar. The owner has chosen my 3 option, that is to re-glue the cracked portions, reinforce its neck and perform cosmetic touch-ups on the affected areas. Let the pictures talk. The sequence starts from left picture and goes clockwise.

The Takamine guitar
The client who brought it to my workshop isn't the owner. He wanted to get the guitar repair for a friend who has pretty deep attachment to this Takamine guitar. At first, he has chosen the 2nd option, that is to re-glue the cracked portions plus reinforcements. Eventually I have decided to go all the way for this guitar because I think it would make the owner really happy. Again, let the pictures talk.

Thanks for taking time to read my posting!

Featured Restoration - The Screws & Holes

Screws & Holes

Hi Guitar Players,

It is a common knowledge that women worry a lot. I think it is equally true for guitar owners, especially the guys. They really know how to worry about their guitars… well this is a story of those worrying guitar guys out there.

Structural repairs made up the majority of my guitar services. Such repairs are very important and they should be carried out before other forms of repairs like functional and cosmetic. For this blog, I shall focus on re-gluing lifted guitar bridges of acoustic guitars.

The paper trick

Braces design of Small Acoustic Guitars

Re-gluing lifted bridges of acoustic guitars used to be rare. I didn't have to do too much of it until the dawn of "small sized" acoustic guitars. Many big brands jumped into producing such small guitars because they are very popular among youngsters. Small and light, great for lugging around whilst commuting.

In the aspect of volume projection, it is a basic logic that smaller guitars are not as loud as regular sized guitars. For musical instruments, volume projection is a significant indicator of quality. The designers overcome this barrier by "lightening" the bracing design on top boards by numbers. With the bracing design lightened, the volume projection was retained.

How do I know? Just toss a mirror into your small guitars, snap some pictures. Do the same to your regular sized guitars. Compare the pictures. The differences are obvious.

Guitar braces are like the pillars and columns of our houses. They give structural rigidity and stability to our roof and walls. In acoustic guitars, the braces on top boards function like house pillars. In additional, they also regulate the tonal qualities of acoustic guitars. Contemplate removing a few columns in your house… the same effects would apply on acoustic guitars as well.

In my blog post "Guitar Myths #002 - Are acoustic guitars' tops really flat?", I mentioned about the unavoidable bulging effects about acoustic guitars' bridge areas. If the regular guitars are suffering from this bulging effects, how much more would it affect the smaller guitar?

Bridge Lifting; How did that happened?

Many reasons contribute to bridge lift. In this blog I would be illuminating the structural rigidity of acoustic guitars' top boards, specifically small acoustic guitars.

As discussed earlier, small acoustic guitars' give volume projection more weight than structural rigidity of their top boards in design. One could easily imagine that when bulging effects set in, small acoustic guitars' top boards would get more of it. Another words, their top boards should bulge more than regular sized acoustic guitars.

Analogy of bridge lift

All new guitar bridges are made with flat base. They are glued to new acoustic guitars' top boards which were flat before loading strings on them. As bulging sets in, the curvature of the top boards increase. Invariably, the base of the new guitar bridges remain flat while the top boards changes in curvatures. As soon as the bridges could not keep up with the curvature (see picture above), the extreme ends of the bridges detached from the top boards. This detachment would appear like the bridges have lifted to our naked eyes. When left unchecked, the detachment grows until the guitars are unable to be tuned, or the bridges get ripped off.

Re-gluing Small Acoustic Guitars' Bridges; 2 Screws 2 Holes

There is actually no difference between re-gluing small acoustic guitars' bridges and regular acoustic guitars. However the difference in their respective life-spans cannot be more obvious. I have enough returning customers coming back for the same repair job, that is re-gluing small acoustic guitars' bridges that set me thinking of approaches to make this repair job more enduring.

A while ago I repaired a guitar that was of non-wood composition. Its bridge has detached and I made 4 attempts but they were in vain. Each attempt I tried a type of glue but nothing seems to work. The client was thankful for me trying that hard, at the same time he was very disappointed with the small guitar in question. He left that guitar in my shop.

Screws & Nuts; There is no better way than fastening the bridge to its top board by screws and nuts. So I picked up that guitar and placed screws and nuts on them. See right picture. Directly under the bridge and the underside of the top board, a piece of 3.5mm thick hardwood was glued onto the existing bridge plate as reinforcement. The nuts are secured onto the hardwood. I would like to emphasize at this point; the lifted bridge has already been re-glued properly before the screws and nuts get installed.

Since I have freely received this guitar, I too gave away this guitar freely to a deserving friend. I haven't heard anything regarding bridge lift since the guitar was given away.

Tone Affected?

Yes, FAQ from the worry guys. "Would drilling 2 mounting holes for screws and nuts affect my guitar's tonal quality?

What do you think? Personally, I have 2 replies to the above question, a simple and a elaborated one.

The simple reply; "No." Period.

The elaborated reply; "Would it affect the tone? Firstly there is one big hole in the middle of your guitar, plus another 6 smaller ones beneath your bridge pins. Adding 2 tiny holes wouldn't amount the slightest degradation to your guitar's wonderful tone."

Some small acoustic guitars use dowel pins for bridge positioning. For such design, there are already 2 tiny holes drilled onto the top board (see above picture). I simply make use of these 2 holes for my Screws & Nuts approach.

Admittedly, the Screws & Nuts approach may not be a popular solution to acoustic guitar owners. It is nevertheless an effective approach to give life-span endurance to your small acoustic guitars. Don't let the fear of unknown stop you from trying, instead take a rational view when deciding the most suitable repair jobs. Drilling your acoustic guitars isn't always bad.

Guitar Myths #002 - Are acoustic guitars' tops really flat?

Flat acoustic guitar top… really?

Once again urban myths strike again.

After making the big decision to part with one's hard earned money, a guitar was purchased. It was all perfect… was it? Playing the brand new guitar in private, admiring its beauty, savoring its tone… suddenly a slight bulge about the guitar bridges' area was sighted. Perplexed by it, immediately turning to internet to seek for an explanation.

Most people fear the unknown. Needless to say, many guitar owners assumed the worse. As such, it triggered their paranoia quests for solutions to this mysterious phenomenon. So the million dollars question; Are acoustic guitar tops really flat? If it isn't, so the guitar is not in perfect condition, right?

Total String Tension

First let's take a look at how much force is acting on a 6-string acoustic guitar's top board when all six strings are fully tuned to standard tuning. In D'Addario's website, the force in both pounds and kg for each string is listed. Below is an excerpt from D'Addario's EXP PB 12/53 string's technical specifications. 12/53 gauge is chosen because of its commonality.

Taken from: http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetail.Page?ActiveID=3769&productid=87&productname=EXP16_Coated_Phosphor_Bronze__Light__12_53

There is no rocket science in determining the total force acting on a guitar top board. Just add them up.

In KG; (E)10.6 + (B)10.57 + (G)12.9 + (D)13.03 + (A)12.74 + (E)11.05 = 70.89kg or 156.29lbs

How much does a regular dude weigh?

Thickness of Top Board

Next, we shall consider the typical thickness of acoustic guitars' top boards. There are actually many considerations in determining the thickness of an acoustic guitar's top board. It isn't practical to go at length about it herein for obvious reason. Lets' take the word of a guru, Ervin Somogyi as a good guide. He mentioned in one of his many articles the preferred top board thickness is 3/32" or 2.34mm in thickness. You can read his full article here: http://www.esomogyi.com/top_thickness.pdf

We are going to rewind a little to figure out the reasons for guitar owners to assume that acoustic guitars' tops are flat.

Points of sale; firstly there is virtually no good reason for buying a guitar except for professional guitarists. We buy guitars on impulse, simple as that. Under impulse, no amount of intellect can help a guitar fanatic to discern facts from fiction. A guitar sales guy would say whatever the potential buyer wishes to hear. That includes generating an impression upon the potential buyer that the guitars in the shop are in perfect conditions. It isn't too hard to connect the dots right?

Acoustic guitars' top boards appear to be flat to our naked eyes. Most guitar buyers wouldn't question validity of this point. So it is not difficult for the sale guy to complete the sales with the buyer thinking and agreeing that the purchased guitar is in perfect condition which includes a perfectly flat top board.

Limited knowledge; while many guitar owners are passionate about playing guitars, however that has little to do with the motivation to learn adequately about guitar's construction. Flat Top guitar, this common jargon has convinced guitar owners that acoustic guitars' top boards are indeed flat or they must be flat. It is indeed factual that acoustic guitars' top boards are flat during the construction phase. All that will change when a constructed acoustic guitar gets into the quality control (QC) section. The freshly constructed guitar with a perfectly flatted top bulges immediately when the QC dude loads strings on it, for the purpose of inspection and setting up.

It isn't the end.

If this guitar gets shipped to regions with high humidity climate, the guitar continues to absorb moisture of the surroundings. Thus the bugle increases.

Answer to the million dollars question;

Lets' take a look at this picture.

Taken from: https://c3.staticflickr.com/3/2867/11215257453_6d98faf631_b.jpg

So does that answer the question? Just do an image search with this phrase "bulge guitar top" on any search engine to enlighten your mind.

Summing UP

Bulged top board is not a defect. It is an inevitable usage outcome of ALL acoustic guitars. It is perfectly normal for acoustic guitars to have a bulged top when in normal use.

Earlier we have found out the total six string force, that is 70.89kg or 156.29lbs as well the typical thickness of acoustic guitars' top boards, that is 3/32" or 2.34mm. It is also a common knowledge that wood would compress or flex under force loading.

If we put these facts together, it is not hard to understand that acoustic guitars will bulge under normal usage.

When a force of 70.89kg is allowed to perpetually act on a piece of wood of 2.34mm thickness, how would this piece of wood remain unchanged structurally?

In addition, when an acoustic guitar has absorbed excessive moisture from its surrounding, it will also contribute to the bulge.

In closing, I would submit to all readers of this blog post that top board bulging in acoustic are caused by these factors,

1. String tension
2. Thin top board
3. Wood's natural compressible and flexible properties
4. Absorption of moisture

Don't loose sleep over your bulged acoustic guitars. They are in PERFECT conditions!

Guitar Myths #001 - Matt vs Gloss

Hi Guitar Enthusiasts,

Kicking off a series in urban myths of guitars; we heard of many good intended advices about maintaining and enhancing our beloved guitars. Be aware of the stuff you read from various websites because the information found there may not be always authentic and much less helpful. I have learned many such myths from my clients. Let me warn you, some myths are simply out of this world and I think only magic mushrooms can take you there!

Myth #001

"Gloss finish will always give you more brighter sound and more treble and Matt/Satin more warmer sound".

Heard that before? I remember window shopping in a guitar shop and a sale person sharing that myth with me. With much convictions I must add.

Comparisons between finishes

Taken from: http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/NeckFinishPop.aspx

Left flatting agent used, Right no flatting agent

The facts behind finishing woods are diverse and deep and I made no attempt to elaborate every aspect of it as I am no expert in this as well. There are indeed critical differences between gloss finish and satin finish but they have nothing to do with "brighter sound and warmer sound".

In short, most regular polyurethane (PU) finishes are gloss by chemical nature. PU finishings that are Satin or Matt have been taken through an additional chemical process to attain the so-called Matt finishing.

When guitar makers produce Matt finish guitars, they attained that by mixing an additive commonly known as flatting agent into the finishing concoction. By this doing, we get the so-called Satin or Matt finish.

We can safely say that Satin or Matt finish guitars have slightly thicker coats than gloss finished guitars.

More reading on Flatting agent can be found here: http://news.thefinishingstore.com/index.php/the-role-of-flatting-agent-in-creating-sheen/

Say we entertain the idea of finish thickness that may have influenced the tonal characteristics of guitars. For a start, both finishes have negligible differences in thickness, and it is totally within the control of the person who is doing the finishing job to give both finishing the same amount of coats.

In my opinion, to relate gloss finishes to brighter tone and satin finishes to warmer require great imagination or blind faith.

PU Finish

There is an article on Satin Vs Gloss finish that finds little or no relationships between types of finishes and tonal characteristics. You can read it here: https://monikerguitars.com/blog/satin-vs-gloss-top-coat-guitars.

So when one of your guitar buddies suggest that Matt finished guitars give warmer tone, hope you can enlighten them.

Green to Finish

Dear Guitar Enthusiasts,

From Green to Finish. Making a guitar is never an easy task, let alone starting from Green. It was one of the most interesting challenge thus far.

In March 2016, National Parks Board (NParks) unveiled Avenue of Heritage Trees and announced new Civic District Tree Trail. As a craftsman who makes my products primarily from woods, the news has caught my attention. Giving emphasis to local trees was indeed a positive move to a woods and trees lover like myself. I think their effort will appeal to grown-ups but to the youths… it might not cut through.

Unveiling Civic District Tree Trail

I decided to contact Ministry of National Development (MND) and shared my ideas on contributing to raising the nation's awareness to our local trees. It was making an electric guitar from local trees, those that would be fell due to disease or development. I hope this electric guitar will be used creatively in engaging the youths, causing them to be interested to learn about our local trees.

MND thought the idea was practical and meaningful. I was linked up with NParks to get the project rolling. After the initial meetings, NParks and Guitaring Passionately (GP) found ourselves on the same page and we went full speed ahead with the project. NParks has intended to have this would-be-built electric guitar featured in a planned event in June 2016.

Ideally, I have in mind building a Rain Tree (Samanea saman) electric guitar. However it wasn't about my preference, it was about availability of woods that were deemed suitable to be use in this project. Khaya Mahognay was available at the time of selection, thus this wood specie was selected.

Mahogany was commonly used for making guitar bodies and necks. However it was much less common to have a fingerboard made from it. Illuminating local trees was central to this project so making the guitar by using one specie of wood can be seen as a sound choice.

It was indeed a tight timeline given the building processes were from Green to Finish. Unlike purchasing guitar wood blanks from wood sellers, the lengthy wood drying processes need not be accounted into part of the guitar making processes.

Towards end of April 2016, arrangements were made to obtain the required woods for the project.

The involved NParks staff and parks maintenance contractors were very helpful. The entire process was made easy. Eventually these woods found their ways to GP workshop.

Out of the entire making processes, drying the woods adequately within the time frame to complete this guitar was the greatest uncertainty. I was very fortunate to learn from Jeffrey Yong about wood drying. It has helped me to deal the wood drying challenge.

Eventually I got the wood drying challenge addressed adequately. The rest was just racing against time to get the guitar made on time. I will let the pictures talk instead.

Throughout the process, the involved staff members of NParks have been very enthusiastic and helpful. The guitar was handed to NParks and the rest is up to them.

Thank God for creating such amazing things to beautify our world; TREES.

Featured Restoration - The Corner

A chip at the corner

Hi Guitar Enthusiasts,

It has been really a while since my last posting. Setting up a guitar making workshop was indeed demanding. I started it in last April and I am still on the way. The process was demanding, exciting, interesting and above all, humbling. I guess I would not arrive to an end. This workshop setting up may as well as be a journey that never ends… perhaps when I get summoned to meet my Lord.

Anyway, this is going to be a short one… :) I will try…

A client brought in a guitar for repair. He sent me a text message reading,"I kind of smashed my guitar…"

The incident; when he was about to walk off with his guitar, he placed it in his foam gig bag and sling it over his shoulders. The only problem was he didn't zip the gig bag. The force of the swing launched his guitar up and away. It hit the ground on its headstock, it bounced off and landed on its back. Think about the sound of "the guitar" and the expression on my client's countenance.

From the top picture, you should be able to see the extend of the damage. A part of the picture was blurred out deliberately. In fact, the rest of the pictures were likewise.

I have initially advised my client to accept it as no structural damage on his guitar was detected. However he would like the chipped area to be reinforced to prevent further cracking or chipping.

I think it was a valid request so I took the job. At the onset, I couldn't determine the nature of restoration. The first thought was to sand it smooth and flood it with cyanoacrylate (CA) glue to stop any future cracking or chipping.

I pondered as I looked at the chip. Something told me that my initial thought was not going to cut it. Strangely I didn't realize the reasons for my hesitation however the reasons only revealed themselves in my mind after I have completed the restore work. Strange but true.

Here is why; the impact has dented the corner severely. The wood grains have been forced out of their natural directions. Even with smooth sanding, the wood grains would not harmonize and aesthetic value will go out of the window. It could probably get by but that was not why I took this job.

So… plan B got the green. I took my Japanese hand saw and cut the chipped corner away. See picture below.

The severed chip fell onto the board

From this point, some of you may already know how it ended, right?

I made a new "corner" from African Blackwood to replace the missing part. It was imperatives that this "corner" be made to size and as well as finishing before gluing it to cut part. If I have glued this "corner" first, I would be compelled to work this "corner" to size and finish with it attached to the headstock. No good at all…

The risks of damaging the existing areas were just too high to go down that path. Re-finishing was not an option as it would involve a lot more unnecessary work.

On the other hand, the difficulty of sizing and finishing a "corner" first was expected as well. Between a rock and a hard place, the rock was a better choice for me.

So I went ahead in making a "corner" to completion before attaching it to the headstock. The first attempt wasn't successful. It was indeed not easy. The second piece was better but it wasn't good enough too. Only at my third attempt, the outcome was decent enough to deliver to my client. See picture below.

A new "corner" glued

I send these 3 pictures to my client to seek for his approval. He has responded positively to the restoration work. He has collected the guitar with delight and appreciation. That makes my work meaningful.

Thanks for reading!

Bite Size Tips 005 – Spot Finish Restoration

Hi Guitar Enthusiasts, it has been a while since the last edition of Bite Size Tips. In this one, I shall feature a very popular topic, restoring dents and nicks on guitar finishing.

Every guitar gets dents or nicks in its useful life. It is almost inevitable. But remember, perfection itself is about having wisdom to embrace imperfections. Hence restoring such dents or nicks is never about getting the original (once brand new) state but to improve it and above all to engage our minds and hands to solve an issue.

Many guitar enthusiasts got fixated to the assumption of reverting their guitars to original state. That will bring nothing good for a person because doing the impossible will only end in agony and frustrations.

In this edition, I will attempt to explain the means which I undertake restoration works for dented finishing on guitars.

Dents on Top Board

The first picture showed an acoustic guitar with dents on it top board. Definitely not a welcoming sight to guitar lovers. Instead of thinking about approaches to repair the dents, many guitar lovers fell into a common thinking trap of wanting to get rid of the dent totally. With that inaccurate thinking, it will almost surely lead to a frustrating ending.

Let begin with understanding the damage in greater details. Guitar top boards consist of wood and its finishing, a.k.a. lacquer. In the first picture, those dents have surely affected both. What matters is deciding what to repair. The wood, lacquer or both?

In FRETS.COM, repairing wood dents are explained in details by Frank Ford, one of the masters for guitar repairs. If you are interested do visit the website for a good read.

Wood is malleable, that means it can be compressed, eventually altering in its shape. Most methods used for restoring wood dents are exploratory and nothing is certain. Mine is no exception as well. I shall focus on touching up the dented finish.

The knowledge base of finishing is vast and deep. It will take a long article to cover them. Hence it wasn't feasible to explain all these related information.

So let's to work. In this case, only a spot received the repair attention, I shall call it Spot Finish Restoration.

Assuming you know the type of finish is on the guitar to be repaired. Always use the same type of finish for filling work. While all clear lacquer look alike, they do share their differences. In restoring finishing, we want to avoid having adhesion problems because of their different chemical make-up.

First step - fill up the dent(s) with sufficient lacquer. If multiple coats are required, allow each coat to set before the next is applied. Make sure the filling covers the dent(s) in both depth and area. Give sufficient time for the filling to set.

Drop fill to cover dent

Second step - remove any excessive filling with a prepared razor blade. Tape up a razor blade as shown in the picture. The razor blade is going to used as a scraper. We want to scrape away the excessive filling but don't want to scratch the top board. The goal is to get as much filling removed so that the filling is almost leveled to the top board's finish. However you will find it hard to achieve. Nevertheless, we wish to minimize inflicted more damages other than the existing dent(s) itself.

Prepared Razor Blade

Third step - Scrape the filling conscientiously with the prepared razor blade. Get the filling as level as possible. Do check the tape on the razor blade, make sure it didn't get slice through in the process. Visually inspect the process to prevent over-scraping. Stop when you are satisfy with the level of the filling.

Scraping Excessive Filling Away

Fourth step - wet sand the affected area with sand papers in graduation grits, begin with 400 and stop at 2000. In preparation for wet sanding, I soaked all the required sand papers in water prior to using them. Take cautious and do not over sand. A concave area can form or worse, the lacquer gets totally removed and leaving raw wood exposed. Both are bad for the guitar.

Wet Sanding

Fifth step - if the previous steps were done properly, this final step will be easy as a breeze. That is to buff the area to shine. Buffing requires a polishing agent and there many such products available in the market. For this, I have selected the Premium Polishing Compound from TurtleWax. For rubbing the compound onto the guitar, use micro fiber or lint free fabrics.

After Wet Sanding

Ready to be Buff

Buffing to Shine

Completed

Turtle Wax

In conclusion, it may not be perfect, there might be a patch that is visible under strong lighting. But it is better then leaving dent on the guitar.