PSA - 05 Korina Vector, cherry, Brazilian, $4500 @ Music Zoo

[Disturber]

3 hours ago, cmatthes said:

If that was just a finish crack, why didn’t they wetsand it flat either before that gawdaful “Stinger”, or just wetsand/micromesh it flat and buff?

Why did the just fix it up with a colour match. Even clearcoat could have made it unvisible. A good luthier could have fixed that without messing up the whole guitar.

Edited June 21, 2024 by Disturber

[tbonesullivan]

9 hours ago, cmatthes said:

If that was just a finish crack, why didn’t they wetsand it flat either before that gawdaful “Stinger”, or just wetsand/micromesh it flat and buff?

Seriously!! I refuse to believe any type of professional guitar paint person added that stinger. It's a total crap job.

What SHOULD have happened is someone sending it to a top class repair person, and getting it inspected and rectified.

[Steve Haynie]

40 minutes ago, tbonesullivan said:

What SHOULD have happened is someone sending it to a top class repair person, and getting it inspected and rectified.

Maybe it was someone who sold himself as a top class repair person, or someone who was adored by a bunch of people on a message board. 

 

Edit:   This was not directed toward anyone participating in the HFC.  We have had threads about poor service from from some custom builders of guitars and amps.  There have been complaints about repairmen.  You should recall some comments about how some people have been heroes of The Gear Page, but not worthy of the praise.  Every business needs to promote itself.  Sometimes that promotion goes beyond what can be delivered. 

Edited June 21, 2024 by Steve Haynie

[tbonesullivan]

1 minute ago, Steve Haynie said:

Maybe it was someone who sold himself as a top class repair person, or someone who was adored by a bunch of people on a message board. 

As someone who has been ripped that way... yeah I can see that. Question is whether someone will actually buy it and send it to someone who will put it right. Maybe they will be lucky, and they did use nitro, easily removed off the top of a catalyzed finish.

[BTMN]

Out of stock now. 

[stratacus]

Music Zoo has ended the listing. They have the guitar on consignment. 

[burningyen]

9 hours ago, 1 bottlerocket said:

This guitar keeps getting worse and weirder.

The more I look at that stinger the angrier I get. 

[Tortious]

Some good innernet sleuthin', y'all. I guess MZ shoulda tried the google machine before taking that in and boldly proclaiming the stinger wasn't hiding anything.

Could be a great beater/project guitar!

[burningyen]

12 hours ago, Tortious said:

Some good innernet sleuthin', y'all. I guess MZ shoulda tried the google machine before taking that in and boldly proclaiming the stinger wasn't hiding anything.

They chose their words carefully. It’s technically true the stinger isn’t hiding repair work. It’s hiding a finish crack that wasn’t repaired.

[1 bottlerocket]

I have a huge distaste for that type of word parsing. 

[Steve Haynie]

31 minutes ago, 1 bottlerocket said:

I have a huge distaste for that type of word parsing. 

Sort of like a past member here doing all he could to avoid admitting a Chibson was not a Gibson.

[DaveH]

On 6/17/2024 at 6:53 AM, Nan0brain said:

Can it be removed?

Oh yeah, easy... Just grab some shop rags soaked with Lacquer thinner, and go to town. It'll come off. 😂

[HamerCustomEr]

On 6/20/2024 at 9:02 PM, stratacus said:

 

 

I did a quick search and found that Mahar's Vintage Guitars and Lovies Guitars had previously sold this same guitar with a "finish crack" on the back of the headstock in the same location as the nick / scratch mentioned above.

From Mahar's Vintage Guitars website:

...one finish crack on the back of the neck where the headstock transitions into the neck.  This is not a crack, just a finish line that looks like checking, but it is likely from a slight stress to the neck at some point.

Included below are links to Mahar's and Lovies' Reverb listings for this guitar, with their photos of the damage and COA's for serial # 5 54016

Mahar's

 

Lovies

 

Great work, detective!

[Armitage]

[stratacus]

Here’s a plot twist. I called Music Zoo and let them know about the likely crack underneath the white stinger. Music Zoo got back to me and offered to sell it at a lower price…

How it started:

I dropped the guitar off at reputable guitar shop in the Chicago ‘burbs while in town for the Hamer 50th even last October. FedEx just delivered it to me this afternoon:

[HamerCustomEr]

Wow, what a great job!

[Tortious]

Sweet!

So what was the verdict with the original cracking? Just finish?

Whoever did the work looks to have done an impressive job.

[stratacus]

On 4/30/2025 at 5:31 PM, Tortious said:

Sweet!

So what was the verdict with the original cracking? Just finish?

Whoever did the work looks to have done an impressive job.

There was a slight crack in the korina beneath the truss rod routing where it was thin due to the depth of the routing. 

 

The korina in the area of the crack was replaced:

This was followed by some mad sorcery.

 

Edited May 2 by stratacus

[kizanski]

Amazing, invisible work.
And style points for restoring the serial number impression depth.

[Dave Scepter]

21 minutes ago, stratacus said:

This was followed by some mad sorcery.

 

 

Awesome repair!.. I've noticed the Japanese using opaque translucent finishes for decades to blend repairs or mimic higher grade woods~

[burningyen]

1 hour ago, stratacus said:

There was a slight crack in the korina beneath the truss rod routing where it was thin due to the depth of the routing. 

 

The korina in the area of the crack was replaced:

This was followed by some mad sorcery.

 

 

Wow.

[1 bottlerocket]

Beautiful work.

[Disturber]

Congrats on returning it to it's former, original, beauty! Now, all it needs is a Floyd.

[topekatj]

 

How in the hell?!

[LucSulla]

Dayum!