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Thread: Finish checking

  1. #1

    Default Finish checking

    I am a real fan of patina on an old instrument. My 1913 A-1 looks like it has a pristine, if aged finish, but if you bounce light off it at an angle, the entire surface is riddled with tiny finish cracks, not at all like the larger finish checking of my 50 year old guitars.

    Is there a reason these old Gibsons age like this? Lines of finish? Just age?

    Anyway, it's beautiful.
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    1913 Gibson A-1

  2. #2
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Not sure how much they are different but Bruce Harvie is an expert and making new instruments look like old instruments and seeing how he did some of this is pretty amazing. I too appreciate that aged look.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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  3. #3
    Registered User Tom Sanderson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Your Mandolin is probably varnish finish and your guitar is probably lacquer.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Finish checking

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Sanderson View Post
    Your Mandolin is probably varnish finish and your guitar is probably lacquer.
    Now that makes sense. Two different finishes. I have a friend who has a 62 Gibson ES 335. He lived and gigged in Chicago. In and out of cold trunks into warm clubs. The finish checking is remarkable. Then there is the horribly ugly poly finish cracks,Yuck.
    Silverangel A
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  5. #5
    I really look like that soliver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Its my understanding that "crazing" happens as a result of the instruments being exposed to (possible extensive) climate changes. However I have also read that the cracking improves tone in that the cracking allows the wood to move more easily... I'm sure its up for debate.
    aka: Spencer
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  6. #6
    Registered User William Smith's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Lacquer finish will craze/crack big time when exposed to varying temps! I've seen it on old Gibson mandolins and guitars as well as Martin guitars. New stuff will do it also! I have old stuff that's all crazed up, don't matter to me as long as it sounds great. Old varnish will craze in a different way. I know in 1927 I believe Gibson must've changed something in their lacquer because look at how the mandolin lacquer has waves all through it, low end F-2's-F-5's.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Played an outdoor gig one fall and it got pretty cool that evening. My buddy's treasured black Les Paul went from pristine to full checking in one evening. I thought it looked cool but he was pretty po'd.

  8. #8
    Mandolin user MontanaMatt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    My band played a food bank fundraiser one cold thanksgiving. We were in a slightly heated event tent. Before our eyes, my guitar player's guitar, a mid 2000s Martin hd28, exploded with crazing(sp?). It ain't pretty, but is a memorable battle scar, and likely freed up the to to move more. It's a great sounding 28. The varnished instruments were not bothered by that day.
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  9. #9
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Cold Basement apartment, the simple act of opening the guitar case, did the trick..
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  10. #10
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    After a neck re-set in '04, I was shocked to find checking on the top of my '72 D-35 - while looking at it in the front window of the shop that had just done the work. (I had owned it for 14 years by then.) Then realized that it was probably the first time I had inspected it in direct sunlight. Still can't see checking indoors, and in sunlight at only the right angle.
    - Ed

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  11. #11
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    A freind who witnessed severe widespread checking on a NIB very cold strat when the case was opened in a very warm room described the sound as eerie and terrible, while making a sound like static electricity. The owner of the store sighed and said, "Well, I guess this one is mine."

  12. #12
    formerly Philphool Phil Goodson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Finish checking

    Quote Originally Posted by dan in va View Post
    A freind who witnessed severe widespread checking on a NIB very cold strat when the case was opened in a very warm room described the sound as eerie and terrible, while making a sound like static electricity. The owner of the store sighed and said, "Well, I guess this one is mine."
    You mean he didn't mark it "Distressed" and mark up the price?
    Phil

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