Ahhh! clear coatcrack before my eyes.

[danastas]

The Pablo Santana CS Koa/Spruce I bought last month has opened a 1/4 inch crack in the clearcoat on the headstock. It's obvious that this is practically unrepairable. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't allow anyone to touch this thing. It's so small that it's really not a big deal. If it were on any other of my guitars, I wouldn't have even bothered to post.



The clearcoat is thick, the paintjob on the headstock is a thing of beauty, and I'll just have to live with it. I'm fine, because I love this guitar.

Now, the crack wasn't there on Friday, but it's there today! I went on a short vacation over the weekend and turned off the AC in my house. That's ok I thought because the temp didn't rise above 85. Well, it's got to be the weather that caused this, right? Does humidity affect the clearcoat? This guitar was made in the Fall of 2005, so it's not like it hasn't had a chance to settle.

So, the reason I'm posting this is that there have been a lot of clearcoat problems lately with new guitars (I can think of four instances in particular on this board). A lot of people have been asking about quality control, but having seen this issue appear in "realtime" practically before my eyes, I'm now a believer that these things can happen anywhere, at the factory, in shipping, hot UPS trucks, or in the home. The basic upshot of my concern is this: is this particular clear coat susceptible to humidity/heat? Is this a new clearcoat that the Shop is using? And, there's about 1/8 of an inch of it on my archtop. Could it be too thick? I'm just wondering if all the problems are traceable not to craftsmanship at all, but to bad material.

[JACKS0NESP]

I doubt it would be bad material. Still, it is rather unnoticeable anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
My KE2 has a few chips on it...and I wear that with pride:P

Maybe someone else can go into more detail with your question now...

[shreddermon]

Good questions. Wish I knew as well. Maybe one, the other, both. Maybe none of the above.

[neilli]

Just a thought, but could it be that the tuner was torqued in a little tight?

[RR0849]

Sorry to hear that. I think the humidity/temperature change caused a reaction in the woods and the clearcoat cracked from the stress. It might be that the problem was started by a badly installed tuner like Ian said. It looks that way. Woods are subject to react to whether conditions and it's not unusual to see paint cracking somewhere. But I can't recall seeing clearcoat cracking like that especially on the headstock area.

[danastas]

Just a thought, but could it be that the tuner was torqued in a little tight?

Maybe a sperzel situation as well. Yeah, Im not going to obsess on it.

[gtrcollectr]

You can drop fill that with superglue and make an invisible repair. basically you drop fill the crack several times to build up the void caused by the break. You can then level the finish with a razor placed at 90 degrees from the face of the headstock and drag across the repair until it is level. Then you can sand the area with 600-1200-2000-2500 and polish.
I would leave this to a pro if you have not done this before.

I personally would not worry about it unless you fear that you may have potential for a paint chip to flake off in this case the glue would stabilize the crack.

Todd

[sl2lover]

That's barely noticable! I'd be more worried about fingerprints and gunk! Better that small one than a bigger one!!

[Bengal65]

You can drop fill that with superglue and make an invisible repair. basically you drop fill the crack several times to build up the void caused by the break. You can then level the finish with a razor placed at 90 degrees from the face of the headstock and drag across the repair until it is level. Then you can sand the area with 600-1200-2000-2500 and polish.
I would leave this to a pro if you have not done this before.

I personally would not worry about it unless you fear that you may have potential for a paint chip to flake off in this case the glue would stabilize the crack.

Todd

+1 That's how I would do the repair also. All the above comments are good. An over tightened tuner nut on a newly built guitar can cause this because of wood expansion/contraction due to climate changes. Too bad they don't use nitro lacquer, cracks like that can be melted with drop fills. On guitars that I build, I leave the tuner nuts and screws "loose" for several months just to make sure I don't run into these problems. IMHO, I would leave it alone. No biggie.

[danastas]

+1 That's how I would do the repair also. All the above comments are good. An over tightened tuner nut on a newly built guitar can cause this because of wood expansion/contraction due to climate changes. Too bad they don't use nitro lacquer, cracks like that can be melted with drop fills. On guitars that I build, I leave the tuner nuts and screws "loose" for several months just to make sure I don't run into these problems. IMHO, I would leave it alone. No biggie.

Thanks. I wasn't about to touch it, but if it moves a quarter inch more I'll have my luthier look at it.

Oh, and as for it's not being noticeable, I saw it from ten feet away, and didn't even have my contacts on. The pictures don't capture it. It's really small, but because of the reflection in the coat, you can easily see the depth. It casts a dark line that's as wide as the coat is deep.

[SouthPlatteDemon]

Not worry bout it? On a custom shop guitar?

I'd want nothing but perfection on something like that. Of course as soon as you get it fixed, you'll chip the body on the case.

Much like this moron did one month after getting a brand new KV2. LOL

[axeman81]

that kinda sucks, but at the same time I can't help but thinking....it doesn't fukin matter as long as you're happy with the guitar otherwise...that sort of thing could've happened to any USA Jackson.

I can't remember who said it...but it was something like "real beauty lies in all the small imperfections"

If you want it fixed, I'm sure a skilled luthier could do it.

good luck,

- Rune.

[Bengal65]

Yeah, I'm real anal on finishes. I inspect the paint jobs I do with 5X magnifiers. I know some have told me I'm insane and probably am, but that's what I do. Last week while doing my first string change, I noticed on my relatively new Bengal SL1 last week that there was a slight surface defect on the top edge of the body in one of the black stripes. I took some polish to it to level it out. When I took my rag away it was actually a sand-thru in the black from the factory. It was yellow underneath. The clear coat must have been so thin there that they buffed through it. Then they put a drop of black "touch-up" paint on the spot. I've never seen a sand through on a production guitar before. I've seen bad paint jobs but never a sand-thru. Strange.

[quakana]

Wood expands and contracts with temp and humidity changes.....that could have been what happened.