This one happened yesterday, but I never thought about taking to Drooble with the issue until I saw the Repairs Community. But o h boy am I mad. My 9 y/o cousin is staying with me for about a week and a half, and I told him three days ago to NEVER go into my home studio. I can't lock it since I don't have a key so I just told him. But yesterday, I'm chilling on my couch when I hear the absolute unmistakable sound of a guitar dropping HARD. I was already pissed because every single one of my guitars is hung up on walls in my studio room. I go in, and I find him standing on my wheeled stool in the room, looking down at my old McGibney acoustic on the floor- literally the only object I have sentimental value to, being the first real guitar I'd ever had and given to me by my grandfather before he passed. I know these scratches will not affect the sound, but this guitar is my baby. With another acoustic of mine, I just sanded off the lacquer, filled the cracks with wood glue, and gave it a new finish. Unfortunately, wood glue won't blend with this colour, as you may see. Any suggestions how to fix it?
Hello Oli, sorry to hear about this mishap. Brian's recommendation will work in the short term but poly will not be able to be correctly restored to original finish or be repaired in the future. Poly crosslinks chemically and cannot be dissolved with solvents for a future repair/refinish, if you chose to do so. Either leave it alone or repair with the original type finish which is either lacquer or shellack and it needs to be color matched. If the scratches are into the wood they can be raise with steam (carefully) then refinished. A professional luthier can help you out.
I build and refinish stairways, If it were me I would buff it lightly and apply a hand rubbed poly on it you put it on with a soft cloth, it will not take the scratches off but it does help to hide them you can get it from lowes or home depot it's a hand rubbed poly by minwax the satin works best hope this helps