Hiding a repair

[mak009]

Hi,

Does anyone have a tip on hiding a glue line around an inserted 'plug' repair short of 'spraying it out" with tint?
I had to insert a filler in a new neck blank to try and fix the dark/light wood boundary but no matter how tightly I cut the insert and tapped it into the slot the glue line won't go away.

I'm currently trying to bleach it but no luck so far.

Any ideas appreciated

Mak009

[simso]

Can you post a distance shot as well

[mak009]

Sure. The bleach is actually starting to work but it also bleaches the surrounding timber which probably compounds the issue.

chrs

Mak009

[mak009]

Sorry-previous image didn't load.

Longer shot of neck1.jpg (135.26 KiB) Viewed 14807 times

[kiwigeo]

Route out a shallow recess where where the light coloured plug is and stick in a piece to match darker coloured slot infill strip

[mak009]

Thanks Martin,
Are you suggesting that because experience tells you it's easier to hide a dark inlay than light? As in- the glue lines don't stand out?

chrs

[simso]

Martins suggestion is correct in your situation, its the path of easiest blending, grafting maple to maple for an invisible join requires special techiniques from using a razor blade to carve fake grain lines to super clear hide glue when joining, dollow up sanding cannot be done from darkwoods to lightwoods its got to be sanded cleanly and directionally light wood to dark wood etc etc.

[mak009]

mmh- now I think about it- I may have answered my own question.

[mak009]

Thanks Steve for the reply.
Yeh I blundered into that one.
All I initially wanted to do was put a decorative strive down the neck(Never again)
Thanks for all the great feedback
Mak009

[old_picker]

Hard to make that sort of repair disappear. Getting a really tight fit before gluing is paramount. A decent set of good quality artist paints and a fine brush is another way to approach this job. Apply paints after initial sealing so you you can remove it if you make a mess. The idea is to paint in some grain lines to help disguise the hard line of the join. Critical is blending your colours and sensing when to stop.

Then you need to seal in the paint from aggressive thinners if you are using solvent base lacquers. Shellac works over acrylic.
Just another approach I've used after pinching the idea from others.

[jeffhigh]

Or cover it with an apple sticker and claim it belonged to Daniel Johns of Silverchair (I worked on about 50 of his guitars and that was a common adornment)

But seriously, some sort of decorative inlay could look good rather than trying to disguise it.

[nkforster]

Start again.