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Is this a paint blemish on my new Les Paul Gold Top?


zntrimble

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There is a smudgish-looking line where the carve is ...close to the neck (pictured). Is this common with gold top guitars due to the reflective nature of the finish or is this a blemish? Note - it dissapears and reappears under different lighting and angles so i believe its under the lacquer.  It is not a shadow as i have experimented with putting paper next to it to cast/block shadows from the neck.  

81961DD2-EF6B-4C80-AD2D-3BB233E446A7.jpeg

Edited by zntrimble
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The good news is that Gibson is only being beat up for small things like this instead of much more egregious defects.  For me, my (recently purchased brand new)  2018 LP Classic Player Plus has a small defect/chip at the very top of the headstock.  I know what caused my issue though.  The guitar went into the cardboard box "headstock down" so that the side of the box with the "Top - This End" was actually the  end with the body of the guitar and not the headstock.  So the guitar, especially being a 2018 model, may have been resting on its headstock (in its case, though) for well over a year.  

TaA4mB0.jpg

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2 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

Not that it really matters but you can’t sand metallic finishes so I disagree that it was a high spot sanded down. The metallic particles sometimes do not lay down in the same direction causing this effect. That’s basically why metallic finishes are more difficult to spray 

 

Yes, that's why I said sanded out as far as possible.  Isn't much they can do if that happens, they can only rub out so much before they finish, so they left this one because it wasn't all that bad.

rct

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It doesn't look much to worry about to me, however now that you've identified it there's always the problem that it's presence could bug you going forward, after all I'm presuming you're intending keeping and playing the guitar for years to come.  At the end of the day it's your call.  

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On 12/14/2020 at 6:44 AM, fortyearspickn said:

Oh,  and  Welcome to the Forum.  

Thanks.  Update:   I see from other angles there is some rough texture near it too. Definitely something was going on.  Its a hard choice.  I LOVE the feel and sound of this particular  one - but that spot really is more noticible in real life than it is in the pic.  It bothers me.  I looked at another one at the same store since posting this and there is also a blemish - albeit smaller in the same general area - thought about exchanging it but there are other factors i didnt like anout that one like the back is lighter in color than mine.  Gibson still struggling with quality a little?  Thats a pretty visible spot to mess up.  Its a gold “top”.  Im sure its hard to finish but isnt that the most crucial place to get it right as far as the finish goes?  Im curious if this spot is messed up fairly commonly on gold tops. 

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1 hour ago, zntrimble said:

... Definitely something was going on.  Its a hard choice.  ... It bothers me ...

I get where you are coming from.  I was the one who posted above in this thread that I also recently bought a new Les Paul with a small flaw.  For me, I was concerned that I would return the guitar and then get a replacement guitar with a (much worse to me) fret-edge problem, possibly a small dent in the neck, some screwed up binding or something even worse or a combination thereof.  So for me, I opted to keep the original guitar to prevent that from occurring, also knowing the small headstock blemish is pretty small and where a guitar often will take real life bumps and bruises anyway.  In your case, just by the words you used above, it sounds like you will always  be second guessing yourself if you did keep it.  Just return it, and get what you want.  You are spending good money on this purchase.  

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On 12/12/2020 at 7:27 PM, zntrimble said:

There is a smudgish-looking line where the carve is ...close to the neck (pictured). Is this common with gold top guitars due to the reflective nature of the finish or is this a blemish? Note - it dissapears and reappears under different lighting and angles so i believe its under the lacquer.  It is not a shadow as i have experimented with putting paper next to it to cast/block shadows from the neck.  

81961DD2-EF6B-4C80-AD2D-3BB233E446A7.jpeg

How does it look from 5-10 feet away? can you take a picture of the entire guitar from a few feet away?

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