R9 And Guitar Stand

Bsinger2607 · Aug 13, 2020

Hey All,
My R9 had an unfortunate run in with a guitar stand. I don't make a habit of keeping it on the stand for this reason but work sent me out of town for about a month and it just slipped my mind to put it back in the case before I left.

I expected the stand to leave more of stain (which I'd live with) but it appears that instead, the rubber just caused the nitro to soften and "melt". Definitely a hard lesson to learn but I'm hoping for some advice on how to proceed. I'm fairly competent with painting and things like that but I've never used nitro so my questions are...

Short Term: What can I do to just smooth it back down so its not all built up in one sticky spot? Can i just take a buffer to it and try to knock it down? Or is wet sanding the way I need to go?

Long Term: Is there any chance anyone has any links to resources or anything that could give more information on spot refining or blending in new nitro to avoid having to deal with the whole neck?

Thanks in advance everyone!!!!

El Gringo · Aug 18, 2020

That sucks , I have all of my instruments on stands and I have never had a thing happen to them . I like to keep them on the stands versus the cases as they are easy to grab and play and I think they do better in the open air versus being confined in there cases . That is contingent on no pets or kids knocking them around , which way back I had a pair of cats that would wild on a routine basis . I miss my kitties ! After that I would keep them in a closed door room ( instruments ) and all was fine on there stands . Cats broke the neck off of a Cello , just like out in the jungle they always go for the necks .

rick c · Aug 18, 2020

I suggest that the OP study flash coating on nitro finishes. I have small pieces of cut-up T shirt between the top, back support and neck on all my Quikloks. Several years ago, I noticed a very subtle, darker stripe on my old ES-335 where the stand rubber met the guitar. None of my guitars suffer from binding discolouration at the lower supports.

ForeverFabFour · Aug 21, 2020

I keep most of my collection in their cases but have a few that live on wall hangers. All of which are nitro and luckily have never had this issue. However, a friend of mine had this same issue with a Stratocaster. He left it in a really cheap stand. All of my wall hangers are Hercules hangers. Some of the more expensive ones on the market but I think they use a different type of foam than the cheaper ones. I'm curious to know if the stand you were using is of the more affordable type because they must be using foam that is slightly toxic to cause this to happen.

I am no expert but if it were my guitar I would most likely sand down the problem area while slowly working my way up to a shine using consecutively higher grit sandpaper. I would probably wet sand it in order to evenly blend into the surrounding areas. Take it slow and easy working in the smallest area possible and using very light pressure. Clearly this doesn't solve the issue of the missing lacquer. You may have to do touchups or take it to a professional to have the back of the neck resprayed and blended. I will say from experience that DIY nitro spraying is challenging to seamlessly blend and touch up. Best of luck with whichever method you do and I'd love to see the end result.

Bsinger2607 · Aug 24, 2020

El Gringo said:
That sucks , I have all of my instruments on stands and I have never had a thing happen to them . I like to keep them on the stands versus the cases as they are easy to grab and play and I think they do better in the open air versus being confined in there cases . That is contingent on no pets or kids knocking them around , which way back I had a pair of cats that would wild on a routine basis . I miss my kitties ! After that I would keep them in a closed door room ( instruments ) and all was fine on there stands . Cats broke the neck off of a Cello , just like out in the jungle they always go for the necks .

I'm with you on leaving them out vs in the case if possible. I'm about to have my first child so the first thing I did was build a room for my guitars and amps and put a locking knob on the door!:dude:

rick c said:
I suggest that the OP study flash coating on nitro finishes. I have small pieces of cut-up T shirt between the top, back support and neck on all my Quikloks. Several years ago, I noticed a very subtle, darker stripe on my old ES-335 where the stand rubber met the guitar. None of my guitars suffer from binding discolouration at the lower supports.

Thank you! I was hoping there was some sort of named technique that I could study up on, I just hadn't come across it in my searches!

ForeverFabFour said:
I keep most of my collection in their cases but have a few that live on wall hangers. All of which are nitro and luckily have never had this issue. However, a friend of mine had this same issue with a Stratocaster. He left it in a really cheap stand. All of my wall hangers are Hercules hangers. Some of the more expensive ones on the market but I think they use a different type of foam than the cheaper ones. I'm curious to know if the stand you were using is of the more affordable type because they must be using foam that is slightly toxic to cause this to happen.

I am no expert but if it were my guitar I would most likely sand down the problem area while slowly working my way up to a shine using consecutively higher grit sandpaper. I would probably wet sand it in order to evenly blend into the surrounding areas. Take it slow and easy working in the smallest area possible and using very light pressure. Clearly this doesn't solve the issue of the missing lacquer. You may have to do touchups or take it to a professional to have the back of the neck resprayed and blended. I will say from experience that DIY nitro spraying is challenging to seamlessly blend and touch up. Best of luck with whichever method you do and I'd love to see the end result.

Thanks for the advice. This is my plan to at least knock it down so it doesn't grab my hand while moving around the neck, then I'll do some research and decide if I want to attempt the DIY nitro touch up.

Thanks everyone!

jrgtr42 · Aug 26, 2020

I threw away all my rubber stands (well, almost all - but I don't use them often) when I found that the rubber reacts with the nitro.
Most of my stands, including the 7-instrument boat I built, use foam bumpers, some additionally covered with cloth.

As far as the damage, first, if you are at all unsure of yourself, don't do anything and take it to a pro.
If you are, then extremely fine sandpaper, then rebuff, if the damage doesn't go through. If it does go through to bare wood, there are nitro touch ups, from the big luthier supply houses.

NINFNM · Aug 30, 2020

"Good" old memories. It looks exactly like my 92 standard's neck did back in the day. For the same reason. I tried to solve it, and it did not end well (whole refin).
When I think about it, I wish I have let it be.

ronw · Sep 8, 2020

NINFNM said:
"Good" old memories. It looks exactly like my 92 standard's neck did back in the day. For the same reason. I tried to solve it, and it did not end well (whole refin).
When I think about it, I wish I have let it be.

yep good old memories,
yeah everyone wished XD

R9 And Guitar Stand

Bsinger2607

New member

El Gringo

Well-known member

rick c

Active member

ForeverFabFour

Member

Bsinger2607

New member

jrgtr42

Well-known member

NINFNM

Member

ronw

Banned