Slade Mikel Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 I had a black Gibson cleaning rag with nothing on it under the guitar in the case and it left black marks all over it that guitar cleaner can't seem to remove. Has this happened to anyone else and if so can they be removed? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Slade Mikel said: I had a black Gibson cleaning rag with nothing on it under the guitar in the case and it left black marks all over it that guitar cleaner can't seem to remove. Has this happened to anyone else and if so can they be removed? Thanks Gibson guys gotta have their nitro finish. Its what makes a Gibson a Gibson. Sorry to tell you if its burned into the nitro, you are probably out of luck. Something was on the cloth, or the black dye used to color the cloth had an effect on your guitar. I have owned several Martins and Gibbys too, and Martin sprays nitro too, but I have never heard, or seen someone state it ever happened to a Martin. I could be wrong though. Edited September 29, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 (edited) People recommend and use naptha (lighter fluid). However it looks like your guitar has been stained where there is no finish so it's gone through to the wood? If so it may be worth trying a very small amount of distilled (white) vinegar on a piece of cloth. Forum members please correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck! Edited September 30, 2022 by jdgm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanHenry Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Try what Jdgm suggested and then polish with Gibson Pump Polish, it contains a small amount of lacquer which hopefully will get it looking something like new. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 dang! This is the problem with Nitro, It's fragile, malleable, and super reactive to anything that makes contact for any length of time Sometimes even the case interior will leak color pigmentation into the finish. we've seen white les pauls and sgs start to turn pink from just being in the case. Stupid really Yet Gibson presses on with the same formulas in their finish This sucks.. Sorry this happened, ignore the problem and it doesn't exist. hope you can find a way to clean that up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitefang Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 And can't be much of a "cleaning" cloth, can it? Whitefang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Whitefang said: And can't be much of a "cleaning" cloth, can it? Whitefang Anti-cleaning cloth. Naphta may work aka lighter fluid. If its burned in probably not. Its more to clean crud that nitro burn. Edited September 30, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitefang Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 5 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said: Anti-cleaning cloth. Naphta may work aka lighter fluid. If its burned in probably not. Its more to clean crud that nitro burn. I dunno.... Lighter fluid didn't do Jimi Hendrix's Strat finish at Monterey much good. Whitefang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Whitefang said: I dunno.... Lighter fluid didn't do Jimi Hendrix's Strat finish at Monterey much good. Whitefang Looks pretty good to me. Dweezil is now the owner of it. It's called Burn Relic'ed. Tom got nothing on Jimi's relicing skills. Edited September 30, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdinaryNimda Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 On 9/29/2022 at 8:59 PM, Slade Mikel said: I had a black Gibson cleaning rag with nothing on it under the guitar in the case and it left black marks all over it that guitar cleaner can't seem to remove. Has this happened to anyone else and if so can they be removed? Thanks These are micro-particles, used to color that cloth. According to my experience, there is no chemical reaction, just a mechanical one. Like if you put dust on honey, you can never get it out. So, no deterorating damage or flaking, but it will look like that for ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepdog1969 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 On a somewhat similar Gibson "nitro" finish issue; I recently purchased a SNARK "clip on" tuner that "clips on" to the headstock of a guitar and uses vibrations from each string, (that resonate through the guitar), to determine pitch. The instructions literally warn users NOT to clip the tuner to any Gibson guitar as it will damage the "nitro" finish. (Gibson owners need to use the mic setting, instead of the vibration setting, to tune their Gibson without the tuner making contact with the finish.) This warning from SNARK applies to all guitars with "nitro" finishes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearbasher Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. You could try some automotive polishing compound. It will remove some of the lacquer. Tread lightly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 21 hours ago, Whitefang said: I dunno.... Lighter fluid didn't do Jimi Hendrix's Strat finish at Monterey much good. Whitefang well keep it away from matches and it's ok! LOL! actually, it really is an excellent cleaning solvent. It's probably one of the best ones I've ever used to get gunk off where gunk aint supposed to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Sheepdog1969 said: On a somewhat similar Gibson "nitro" finish issue; I recently purchased a SNARK "clip on" tuner that "clips on" to the headstock of a guitar and uses vibrations from each string, (that resonate through the guitar), to determine pitch. The instructions literally warn users NOT to clip the tuner to any Gibson guitar as it will damage the "nitro" finish. (Gibson owners need to use the mic setting, instead of the vibration setting, to tune their Gibson without the tuner making contact with the finish.) This warning from SNARK applies to all guitars with "nitro" finishes yea it's definitely a problem, Other tuners, like Petereson, have put the correct kind of padding on their tuners that do not interact with nitro so 20 bucks for a snark, 70 bucks for a peterson (and the peterson is way more accurate) I know I'm goin down a rabbit hole here. But I do have a handful of snarks. I like the peterson better tho I almost never leave them on the head stock and certainly not when in the case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 42 minutes ago, kidblast said: yea it's definitely a problem, Other tuners, like Petereson, have put the correct kind of padding on their tuners that do not interact with nitro so 20 bucks for a snark, 70 bucks for a peterson (and the peterson is way more accurate) I know I'm goin down a rabbit hole here. But I do have a handful of snarks. I like the peterson better tho I almost never leave them on the head stock and certainly not when in the case. I have both. The Peterson is really good. I used to leave Snarks on my Gibby’s for weeks at a time with no I’ll effect. My buddy put a Snark on some limited SG he had it was on for 5 mins, and it left a mark. No rhyme or reason to it except nitro is finicky stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBSinTo Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 On 9/29/2022 at 2:59 PM, Slade Mikel said: I had a black Gibson cleaning rag with nothing on it under the guitar in the case and it left black marks all over it that guitar cleaner can't seem to remove. Has this happened to anyone else and if so can they be removed? Thanks My suggestion, before you try all manner of hacks and novel suggestions for removing the marks, would be to take the guitar (and the cleaning rag) to a reputable Luthier. As it is impossible to "put the $hit back in the horse", let an expert assess the situation before trying anything drastic. RBSinTo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBSinTo Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 On 10/1/2022 at 7:42 AM, Sheepdog1969 said: On a somewhat similar Gibson "nitro" finish issue; I recently purchased a SNARK "clip on" tuner that "clips on" to the headstock of a guitar and uses vibrations from each string, (that resonate through the guitar), to determine pitch. The instructions literally warn users NOT to clip the tuner to any Gibson guitar as it will damage the "nitro" finish. (Gibson owners need to use the mic setting, instead of the vibration setting, to tune their Gibson without the tuner making contact with the finish.) This warning from SNARK applies to all guitars with "nitro" finishes Sheepdog 1969, I have used clip-on Snark tuners for the last six years, and have never had a marring problem on any of my six guitars, which include a 1974 D-28 (nitro finish), 2001 j-45 (nitro finish), and a 2001 Guild GAD jf-30 (poly finish). I never leave the tuner on the headstock for any longer than it takes to tune the instrument, so I don't have marking problems. RBSinTo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 17 minutes ago, RBSinTo said: I never leave the tuner on the headstock for any longer than it takes to tune the instrument, so I don't have marking problems. RBSinTo That’s the way the pros do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepdog1969 Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 On 10/2/2022 at 8:23 AM, RBSinTo said: Sheepdog 1969, I have used clip-on Snark tuners for the last six years, and have never had a marring problem on any of my six guitars, which include a 1974 D-28 (nitro finish), 2001 j-45 (nitro finish), and a 2001 Guild GAD jf-30 (poly finish). I never leave the tuner on the headstock for any longer than it takes to tune the instrument, so I don't have marking problems. RBSinTo Obviously, I have never left a tuner attached to my guitar beyond the time needed to tune it. As stated in the SNARK manual, said tuner is NEVER recommended to EVER be "clipped on" to any "nitro" finished guitar ever, regardless of how long it is used. Per the SNARK ST-2 tuner instructions; "SNARK advises NOT to use its tuner with any instrument having these types of finishes: Nitrocellulose Lacquer or Gibson guitars, unless you accept the risk of dents to the headstock." (SNARK ST2 SUPERTIGHT). My original comment merely detailed what said tuner could do to "nitro" finished instruments, as specifically indicated in the manual. (who would leave a clip on tuner attached to their instrument beyond the time required to tune it? I mean really?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBSinTo Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 2 hours ago, Sheepdog1969 said: Obviously, I have never left a tuner attached to my guitar beyond the time needed to tune it. As stated in the SNARK manual, said tuner is NEVER recommended to EVER be "clipped on" to any "nitro" finished guitar ever, regardless of how long it is used. Per the SNARK ST-2 tuner instructions; "SNARK advises NOT to use its tuner with any instrument having these types of finishes: Nitrocellulose Lacquer or Gibson guitars, unless you accept the risk of dents to the headstock." (SNARK ST2 SUPERTIGHT). My original comment merely detailed what said tuner could do to "nitro" finished instruments, as specifically indicated in the manual. (who would leave a clip on tuner attached to their instrument beyond the time required to tune it? I mean really?) Sheepdog1969, Placing a piece of soft cloth over thefront and back top edges of the headstock before attaching the tuner will prevent the jaws from marring the finish. I suspect the disclaimer in the Snark manual was inserted by some clever Corporate Lawyer as a hedge against someone suing them claiming their guitar was completely ruined because of a mark the tuner left on the headstock. And finally, I've seen many people leave the tuner on the headstock after use, so I don't think my comment is a foolish one. RBSinTo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 3 hours ago, Sheepdog1969 said: Obviously, I have never left a tuner attached to my guitar beyond the time needed to tune it. As stated in the SNARK manual, said tuner is NEVER recommended to EVER be "clipped on" to any "nitro" finished guitar ever, regardless of how long it is used. Per the SNARK ST-2 tuner instructions; "SNARK advises NOT to use its tuner with any instrument having these types of finishes: Nitrocellulose Lacquer or Gibson guitars, unless you accept the risk of dents to the headstock." (SNARK ST2 SUPERTIGHT). My original comment merely detailed what said tuner could do to "nitro" finished instruments, as specifically indicated in the manual. (who would leave a clip on tuner attached to their instrument beyond the time required to tune it? I mean really?) Well, you would be amazed at what some people do to their guitars. I know I'm constantly amazed with the antics of some people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 If all else fails, I suggest giving this and a tiny bit of elbow grease a try. I've have good luck with it in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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