DUDE!! PUT DOWN THE SANDPAPER AND STEP AWAY FROM THE GUITAR!!!!

[BRENTrocks]

So….The guy I got it from had gotten it in a trade and was told that it was “artisan aged” but the guy lied to him, someone had tried to age it themselves by taking 120 or 80 grit sandpaper to the finish!!!

(I’m not joking)

It’s a 2023 CC 535 in Dark Cherry Sunburst

After opening the case, and evaluating the damage done to the finish and how deep the scratches were, and the fact that the gloss was gone, I decided to take the bull by the horns and try to make lemonade with the lemons I was handed.

I thought about taking it to a professional luthier and seeing if could be buffed out, but that would have cost a lot of money and I’m sure there would have been no guarantee that he would have not burned through the finish.

I wish Pete Moreno was still alive. I could have taken it down to him.

So the first thing I did was completely disassemble the guitar. Took all the hardware off. Pickups out. Dropped all the electronics inside the body.

Then I wet sanded the back of the body, front of the body and the front and back of the headstock with 2000 wet/dry sanding paper.

I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded

The scratches were just too deep. I was afraid I was going to go through the clear.

After sanding, I put some liquid scratch remover on it, that I bought at the auto parts store and used my cordless drill with a small buffing wheel.

I buffed and buffed and buffed… the gloss started to come back but 75% of the scratches remained.

Then, to bring back some more of the gloss, I took some turtle wax and my drill and buffed on it with the car wax some more.

I was really happy with the amount of gloss I was able to get back!! It just looks like an old, scratched up Heritage now!!!

Then I pulled all the electronics back up, installed a different set of pickups (I’m not a big fan of the 225 classic pups), put the tuners and hardware back on, oiled the fretboard. Then put new strings on it and did a complete setup!!!!

I’ll let you be the judge. But I think it looks A LOT BETTER.

Yes, it still has a lot of scratches in it, but at least it’s not all dull looking now.

It’s always gonna be a player because of what some dumbass did to the finish. But in reality, it just looks like a guitar that has been played A LOT

Anyway…the most important part is that this CC 535 PLAYS AND SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY STELLAR!!! It’s a friggin TONE MACHINE!!!


BEFORE….

AFTER…

 

[BRENTrocks]

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Wow! I mean, that should be pretty fixable, but then the shinier finish on the color won't really match the cracks forming on the finish over the binding. Either way, that is a BEAUTIFUL finish and top/back on that guitar. You are THE authority on Heritage guitars on here.

 

[romanianreaper]

Oh hell yeah it looks better! Great job on that.

I learned a lesson about ruining finishes when I recently traded a guitar. The stickers I put on ruined the finish in some spots and now I know you shouldn't apply decals unless they are permanent.

 

[BRENTrocks]

Here is a sound clip.

(Please excuse my crappy playing)

It’s just iPhone video sound. But this guitar sounds soooooo good.

 

[BRENTrocks]

Oh hell yeah it looks better! Great job on that.

I learned a lesson about ruining finishes when I recently traded a guitar. The stickers I put on ruined the finish in some spots and now I know you shouldn't apply decals unless they are permanent.

Thanks bro. I appreciate that

 

[BRENTrocks]

Wow! I mean, that should be pretty fixable, but then the shinier finish on the color won't really match the cracks forming on the finish over the binding. Either way, that is a BEAUTIFUL finish and top/back on that guitar. You are THE authority on Heritage guitars on here.

Thanks dude!

 

[Music&Chaos]

What a shame that someone did that to the guitar in the first place.

Definitely looks a lot better than it did! Really sweet finish on that one as well.

 

[BRENTrocks]

This was so funny….well not at the time, but….

So it’s about 10:00 last night, I have the guitar all put back together, setup, playing great/sounding great….

And I flip the toggle to the neck pickup….and it sounds EXTREMELY BASSY!!! Like funky out of phase or something???

I turn the tone pot and it sounds like it’s getting brighter as I turn it down!! Drastic change in tone.

So I’m like, dammittt…got a bad pot or something it touching something it’s not supposed to….when I dropped the electronics earlier.

So I unscrew the toggle and pots, fish it around to look at the neck tone pot….

THERES A GOB OF POLISHING COMPOUND ON THE MIDDLE POLE OF THE POT TOUCHING GROUND!!!!

OMG. I felt like such a dummy. LOL

 

[thegame]

Here is a sound clip.

(Please excuse my crappy playing)

It’s just iPhone video sound. But this guitar sounds soooooo good.

After all the hard work you put in, I was expecting Enter Sandman

 

[BRENTrocks]

After all the hard work you put in, I was expecting Enter Sandman

That fucking funny dude

 

[101B /^/]

If you tire of looking at the scratches you could give the guitar a good wipe down with alcohol to remove oils followed by a thin coat of home brew shellac. Shellac's easy to make from flakes and you can use a very light coat to go over the whole guitar by hand. Some practice on scrap to develop technique goes a long way because it dries fast but shellac sticks to everything, and alcohol cuts it. I suspect the bulk of light scratches & swirls would disappear completely.

 

[CrystalSky]

What an idiot did that to the guitar? You patched it up quite nicely though

 

[BRENTrocks]

What an idiot did that to the guitar? You patched it up quite nicely though

Thanks bro!!!

 

[inyarak74]

Great job!

 

[BRENTrocks]

Great job!

Thanks man!

 

[JohnnyGtar]

What a beautiful guitar! Man, you did a great job. What pickups did you go with when you put the electronics back in? Also, thanks for the new free tone control mod! LOL

 

[Robostyle]

Nice job bringing it back. Finish work is incredibly difficult, at least for me. Can't believe someone would scratch that poor guitar like that.

 

[BRENTrocks]

What a beautiful guitar! Man, you did a great job. What pickups did you go with when you put the electronics back in? Also, thanks for the new free tone control mod! LOL

Thanks dude! I put a set of heritage 225 Classic Hot pickups in it. They are like an overwound PAF

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Whoever tried to "age' it really should be kicked in the taint.
Yeah dude, looks 100% better now. You did the best job anyone could expect given what you started with. If it was just 1 or 2 deeper scratches it could be filled with CA and polish the spot back up. The only way to deal with scratches all over the body would be to take it all back to bare wood and start over.