Jeff Healy’s music was my inspiration of the guitar and what can come from its six strings. So as you can imagine, not only the sound matters but the looks as well. You have a nice Stratocaster sitting in its stand and someone by accident either knocks it over or bangs it with something and chips the beautiful glossy finish. It just makes you want cry.

Not to fear, a fix is here that should not be noticeable at all. Women like makeup and makeup artists are excellent with colors. This is a good start. Now we need something that is also going to be glossy and hard.

The answer is nail polish. I took a stroll to a local high end drug storethat declined to have there name mentioned and visited three smiling faces that where a bit puzzled at first. I guess walking into a drug store with a guitar case reminds some as an old mob movie.

When the case was opened, this nice shiny Stratocaster with two very noticeable nicks in its beautiful shell revealed itself. Now the ladies at the counter understood the task at hand, they put their talents of finding a match as close as possible to the original finish.

One of the cosmeticians had a son who also played a guitar and thought it was a great idea as he had marks in his as well. I hope he has a chance to see how this works so he can also do his repairs and bring back the perfect Stratocaster.

In the video below, I would like to introduce my son Mike. He is very fussy on paints and pays extreme attention to detail. As you notice he uses an artists brush with a very fine point for accuracy.

He applies the color coat in several layers and cleans the brush after each coat to ensure smoothness. The final coat is clear to give and retain the original shine.

Let’s watch the video to see the process and the final repair.