Strange Dark Mold on Binding

[adorshki]

then seal it with nail sealer.

One of the luthiers I use regularly uses super glue for this sort of thing.
Brad

I think Marc means nail polish, at least one brand I know of (Sally Hansen) is actually NCL lacquer based. I've used it myself (the clear) to fill small surface dings in my D25.

 

[taabru45]

Here is some really interesting info on the ineffectiveness of bleach on mold....looks like uv light is the real way to go... Steffan
http://www.peakpureair.com/chlorine-ble ... lling-mold
http://www.amazon.com/Purelight-Origina ... 22-2926057
http://www.amazon.com/Verilux-CleanWave ... hpc_text_b
Also dentists have a pretty strong uv probe that they use to harden the fillings, maybe you could sweet talk one to 'treat' your guitar...hey... worth a try....

 

[marcellis]

Here is the latest pic, back from the luthier.

This will probably be the low water mark. In a month or two, it will have grown back again.

One week ago:

 

[taabru45]

I'm going to order one of those verilux wands. seems like a good thing to have these days....I have a little mold near the windows, and of course, it would be handy in the motorhome as well...Steffan

 

[RussD]

Here is the latest pic, back from the luthier.

How frustrating!
Best of luck - just remember that you have a whole flock of folks here that live in dry places and will help store your beauties!

 

[marcellis]

I hope I have this under control now. Here is an update.

Bleach did not work. What seemed to work was scraping it down
& applying manicure solvent. After that, I applied a clear coat of nail polish on top.

I did not get to try UV. And I did not do a professional job.
But (knock on wood), I think I stopped the alien spores from Planet X
dead in their tracks. It's been two months since I attacked them. And they
still have not recovered.

This month (September, 2011), I took the guitar to my luthier to adjust the action.
(I've never liked the action on this D60. But he did a beautiful job. Finally, it plays
like I always wanted it to play).

Anyway, after more than one month, of being underneath nail polish, the mold has not
returned. My luthier also sanded it down again and sprayed a new coat of finish on it.

You can still see the residue. But basically, that is what was there after I scraped
and polished in July.

 

[marcellis]

That bit you see on the neck binding was my fault.
My hand wasn't steady. The nail polish brush touched it
with some of the dead fungus from Planet X on it.
That part was never infected.

Two more shots,

This guitar was a total wreck when I bought it. Counting the purchase price,
neck reset, K&K pick-up & two fret jobs, I've got over sunk $2k into it.

But for the first time in almost 3 years, it plays the way I want it to play.
It has always sounded great. That was never an issue with it. But make no mistake,
my antique burst F65ce is a superior guitar in every respect except for volume & low-end.

But at least I can play this D60 now. And at least the Fungus from Planet X
appears to have been defeated. Its plans of interplanetary conquest and domination
have been thwarted...for now.

 

[taabru45]

Good news....I discovered that you can get the mold smell out of a guitar case by running a negative ion generator/air filter inside the nearly closed case for a day or 2.. I also put the guitar in there, with a bit of the same smell...left the case open put a towel under the ion generator closed the case kind of then threw a couple of blankets over it to limit the open air exposure....negative ions kill bacteria.....might it work on your guitar? Who knows...might be worth doing it once in a while though...I have a couple of old books with that musty smell, going to try it on them too....then maybe I should open a business getting musty smells out of guitars, their cases, and old books.....Steffan

 

[marcellis]

Good news....I discovered that you can get the mold smell out of a guitar case by running a negative ion generator/air filter inside the nearly closed case for a day or 2.. I also put the guitar in there, with a bit of the same smell...left the case open put a towel under the ion generator closed the case kind of then threw a couple of blankets over it to limit the open air exposure....negative ions kill bacteria.....might it work on your guitar? Who knows...might be worth doing it once in a while though...I have a couple of old books with that musty smell, going to try it on them too....then maybe I should open a business getting musty smells out of guitars, their cases, and old books.....Steffan

My cases are in great shape. I don't leave any of my guitars in the case. They're out in the open-air. I had a cat make some use of my old 1972 D-25 case though. I'll never forget that. I'm not sure how I got that smell out. Don't ever leave an open guitar case in a house with cats.

 

[adorshki]

And at least the Fungus from Planet X appears to have been defeated. Its plans of interplanetary conquest and domination have been thwarted...for now.

Yay.
Now we must be ever vigilant for the return of the son of the fungus from planet X. 8)

 

[davismanLV]

return of the son of the fungus from planet X. 8)

Since Beverly Garland has passed on, who could star in it??

 

[adorshki]

return of the son of the fungus from planet X. 8)

Since Beverly Garland has passed on, who could star in it??

Moon and Dweezil Zappa.

 

[marcellis]

The saga of the alien spore bomb that landed on my D60 continued for awhile. But now it's over.

Basically, I figured out how to get rid of it. Scrape the stuff off and
then re-finish where you scraped. But I did a sloppy job. So I took the
guitar back to Mr. Binh. He saved the day. But he had to send it back
to his factory. It's not like new. But the alien life form has been destroyed.

The D60 presents problems sanding or scraping because of the hand-painted pin stripes.
You don't want to sand those off.

Note: It had not gone to the neck. But when I was refinishing the binding
after sanding away the spore bomb, the nail finish brush I was using touched the neck.
It's my fault. It left a stain. But Binh has fixed it as well as he can without replacing the binding.

Here are the pics. Note also that this is actually hard to see.
Holding the guitar, you don't notice unless you look close.
But in these macro photos it seems huge. It's not.

This Walker D60 may have had some kind of curse attached to it.
It was a total wreck when I bought it. But now, I'm starting to get
attached to it. It's really a pleasure to play. And it's a cannon.

 

[davismanLV]

Well, this is good news!! What a strange and ongoing story this has been. Glad that it's been stopped. Wish the good captain was here to see the outcome of this story, as he had quite a bit of participation in this thread......

 

[adorshki]

The saga of the alien spore bomb that landed on my D60 continued for awhile. But now it's over.



The D60 presents problems sanding or scraping because of the hand-painted pin stripes.
You don't want to sand those off.

Yeah, bumping a necrothread here but since I ref'd it recently and any number of new members may see this, and I know a lot more now than I did 9 years ago:
I'm absolutely positive those "pinstripes" aren't hand-painted, what they do is produce laminated binding that shows the black layers when cut in cross-section to make the binding strips.