Time for the Summer DEET warning again.

[Searcy]

It's getting to be bug season here in the U.S.A. and if you play outdoors or just come in from outdoors and play without washing up first remember that DEET can be transfered from your arms and hands to your guitar and melt a nitro finish. This can make it feel sticky, as if the finish isn't cured. In some cases it can ruin the finish all together.

 

Be sure to wash your hands and anything else that might come into contact with your guitar before playing your nitro finished Gibson or Martin or Gretsch ect.

[duluthdan]

Great reminder - probably also applies to sunscreen I imagine? Not many pesky bugs here, haven't used bug dope for years, melts plastic on glasses, plays havoc with fishing rods, had a fly disintegrate in my fingers once, I can imagine the damage it would do to a guitar finish.

[jedzep]

Good one! We really need this stuff up here north of the Catskills, but if you only apply it sparingly to sleeve cuffs, collars, hat brims, etc. with a latex glove on or somehow dab it straight from the bottle, without getting it on your hands at all, you can reduce the contamination. Whoda' thunk?

[Searcy]

Well, this happened to my prize Gibson Chet Atkins Country Gentleman a few years ago. After a night of jamming on the porch the party moved indoors. We passed around guitars all night and the next morning I noticed the finish on the back of my neck was sticky and felt like it was melting. That's when I remembered that everyone had been using bug repellant the night before. The finish didn't look bad but felt sticky.

 

DON'T PANIC

 

The important thing is to not freak out and slather a bunch of polishes and solvants and buffing compounds all over the finish.

 

All I did was let it sit for 3 or 4 weeks in the open air of my guitar room with nothing touching the neck and the finish. This allows the solvents to evaporate from the finish. That is all my Chet needed and it cured back to normal. If yours cures hard again in a few weeks but looks dull it is possable to buff it out. If it looks lumpy I suggest you contact a guitar repair professional who has experience with Nitro repairs.

 

And remember a towel is the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.

[onewilyfool]

Just another heads up.....some underarm de-oderants and anti-perspirants can eat away the finish on a guitar. And when it is hot, some de-oderants don't keep you from sweating, and have alcohol and other chemicals which can dull or destroy the finish. So keep a long sleeve shirt on, even if it is hot....lol