Anyone ever seen cracking like this on a guitar before?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AMSnell
  • Start date Start date
A

AMSnell

Member
Hi all,

I bought a used Gibson Custom ES-355 last weekend. All good - almost immaculate but one thing caught my eye.

Around the binding on the rear of the guitar is about 10-20cm of what appear to be scrape marks in the finish which can be felt, but appear to be under the clear coat. I came to the conclusion that these are scrape marks as it isn't a uniform pattern, like you see on checking, and the binding doesn't seem to be coming away at all. Even if it was - I doubt you'd see this pattern.

So my conclusion is that this was done by the end of the binding scraper tool, which perhaps wasn't sharpened properly as it was dragged around.

I wanted to check my thinking though. Do you think this is just a bad binding scrape job, or do you think this may be something different? Do you think this will remain as-is, or do you think it will get worse around that back edge? Is it repairable, should I choose to do that?

Cheers all - really is appreciated. Photos taken with a macro camera so you can see
 
Horrendous. Are you sure it's actually real? Not to sound rude.
 
Looks like its restricted to the finish to me. Just lay some nitro along the mark. It will burn-in on its own. Don't wet-sand/polish for 30 days. If it's down to the finish, you can use black pigment in the nitro. I'd leave it alone.
 
Looks like the glue joint on the binding is cracked. I had something similar on the carbon fiber binding on the fretboard edge of a Lambo Blue Merrow Schecter...
 
Hard to tell with these macro pics, but are sure that's just cosmetic? I saw similar looking damage on a Gibson Everly Brothers acoustic that was in it's case and the case was dropped hard on the end of the body.
 
technomancer":24uvnn9u said:
Looks like the glue joint on the binding is cracked
Click to expand...

This is my thought as well. I would contact Gruhn's Guitars or Glaser's in Nashville. Shoot them an email with some pics. I'm sure they'd have an idea of what's going on.

Ed
 
Cheers all.

100% sure it's real. I've contacted Gruhn's and will take it to a tech as soon as lockdown allows me too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top