Filling/fixing a nasty headstock ding

I wanted to ask here first, because I respect the knowledge and opinions of folks here above any other forum. I got a gorgeous guitar that I've wanted for a long time, a Fernandes Love Driver, but it's got one noticeable flaw. There's a nasty ding/gouge in the corner of the headstock:










It has a very high gloss finish. I know normally for headstock dents, folks use nail polish (I also have gloss poly laying around), but I'm worried about filling a hole like that with nothing but clear coat, that it's going to yellow. I previously considered running a piece of masking tape around that corner and just shooting it with poly to bring it up level...

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Bill

 

What about light colored wood filler? Whatever I do, I'm going to masking tape over the decal and leave only the corner exposed. I've refinished and decal-ed a few headstocks (I actually sell headstock decals...was selling a love driver decal before I even owned one! LOL). I'm comfortable in that area... if the guitar had a big ding in the paint, it would've been a "no thank you". I also thought about gluing a piece of toothpick in there to help fill the hole before covering. Hahahahahaha

The fact that I don't know what an alcohol lamp is aside (lol), would the clear shellac yellow, like poly likely would (when applied that thick/deep)?

 

Shhhhhhh! It'll hear you!

*covers guitar's ears*

 

LOL sorry for the double post, I missed this. Did you notice at the end of the headstock where it says "Original Erotic Body"? Haha

I have a Love Driver pedal too:



Mine is complete, with the "Mouth" and "Anal" stickers DOD provided as an option for folks to put over "Input" and "Output"....probably because Ken wanted that printed on them and DOD likely said "Hell no".

Ken is crazy.

 

So, nearly 2 years later, I finally got around to working on this headstock ding. I'm a little leery of superglue, because it dries so fast, and the potential for mess. I'd be too worried about getting it elsewhere on the headstock, plus I had a plan in mind to re-form that squished corner, and I didn't think it would be possible to do it, at least the way I was envisioning, with glue.

I did end up using DAP Plastic Wood, as you can see in the video. I'd actually bought it around the time I made this thread, but kept putting it off for one reason or another. Y'all know how it is.

I wasn't able to match the color perfectly, but I got close, and I think it will darken and blend in better with age. Otherwise, I think it turned out really well. I always enjoy these weird guitar projects. Once I set my mind to doing something, project wise, I normally find a way to make it happen. It's a great feeling to put a project to bed, knowing you did all you could do. Even when it's not a 100% success, you learn in the process... and when you do it right, you get the satisfaction of seeing the thing you imagined & planned made real.

 

Well, as I mentioned, the main goal was to protect the raw spot. I figured I might as well make a project of it while I'm at it, to see how close I could get to "erasing" the damage. I have other dinged guitars. My Rickenbacker 360 looks like somebody dropped a hatchet on the back of the headstock (I got it that way). The paint is still there so I don't care. Like most folks, I have guitars with damage that I am happy to accept and live with.

I just figured I'd try out the DAP stuff so that the next person, who might have to make a more crucial repair, might have a better idea how to use the stuff for detailed work on an instrument.

I have a personal thing where I try to learn how to do something on YouTube, and if it's not there, I figure it out on my own....but I try to make a video for the next person who is looking for what I was looking for. That's pretty much the pattern with all of my guitar/project related YouTube videos. At the same time I'm patching holes in my guitar, I'm also patching holes in YouTube.

I tried to allude to that in my previous post, since I was already well aware that the general consensus was basically "Rawr, don't bother. It adds character". I was trying to make clear that (while I appreciate that point of view) I came back after all this time to close the loop on this thread for the folks who are googling for the same thing I was. If I'm looking for it, somebody else is too, so not everybody subscribes to that point of view. I still can't believe there are people out there who are willing to pay a professional to beat up their guitar, aka "relic-ing".

Also, I hate googling something and finding a thread on a forum that's the exact problem/thing I'm looking for, but just dies with no resolution. Even worse, I hate it when I find someone with the same problem/question I have, and then they just reply "Solved!" without bothering to say what they did to solve the problem they posted about. Those are such a waste of time! I'm sure that has happened to everyone here at some point.

You're right about time spent working on it is time spent not playing, but I have plenty of reasons to procrastinate, so one of them might as well be useful to others.