How to remove black dye stain on nitrocellulose?

Philtre

You know those black cloths that you get with your nice new Gibson guitar, like these:

 

Well, I found out the hard way that if you leave your nice Les Paul resting on one (you know so you can protect it from the guitar rack rubber) it leeches into the nitrocellulose, leaving a lovely black stain.

Any tips on removal? I suspect the dye has gone way into the nitro.

richardhomer

I’ve successfully polished stains out of a nitro finished Martin acoustic using a little T Cut on a clean cloth.

WezV

Yeah, Buffing it out is the way to go.   I had good results removing pink from a white custom... the result of a  lobster fancy dress costume.  

This was after about a year of the owner not bothering to do anything.

if you leave it too long it will leach all the way through

Philtre

I think it has leeched in. This is how it looks after 7 months of sitting on that black cloth (helpfully supplied by Gibson):

Musicman20

Oh heck, but it doesn't look as bad as I expected. I imagine it will be tougher to get out of the binding, but might be able to on the body.

WezV

Still worth a go with a rebuff, it might just minimise it

Philtre

Rebuff with some kind of polish?

guitars4you

try T-cut as suggested or Maguires Scratch X20 from Halfords

Looking at the pics and is I suspect it has dyed the finish/binding and chances are it won't polish out now - I've seen such blemishes from various guitar straps - I've actually seen it from a gigging band guitarist who always wore a purple T-shirt - years of playing and sweat and it left a dyed stain on the rear of the body

Gibson use to put a 'disclaimer' in the case pointing out the finish is susceptible to such markings from guitar stands - but not a cloth

Philtre

Thanks for the advice guys. The irony of this is that I put the cloth on the bottom of my Hercules guitar rack in the hope that it would offer a little more protection from the foam rubber of the rack. Shouldn't have bothered!

poopot

It’s not the Gibson cloth, it’s the rubber on the guitar stand slowly leaching chemicals through the cloth and taking the dye with it!.

tcut should get it out.

Moving forward, take the rubber off the stand and wrap the support with some un-dyed cloth just to protect the guitar!.

guitars4you

Philtre said:

Thanks for the advice guys. The irony of this is that I put the cloth on the bottom of my Hercules guitar rack in the hope that it would offer a little more protection from the foam rubber of the rack. Shouldn't have bothered!

unlucky and bizarre as Hercules stands don't mark nitro finishes - many other stands can/do - Q/Lok are amongst the worse on such finishes - I've seen lines on the rear of the body, near the neck join, from were it rests against the 'lined pad' on the stand

Greg_Rogers

Philtre said:

You know those black cloths that you get with your nice new Gibson guitar, like these:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTA3WDE2MDA=/z/zqIAAOSw4shX2DEC/$_57.JPG?set_id=8800005007

Well, I found out the hard way that if you leave your nice Les Paul resting on one (you know so you can protect it from the guitar rack rubber) it leeches into the nitrocellulose, leaving a lovely black stain.

Any tips on removal? I suspect the dye has gone way into the nitro.

Greg_Rogers

I know this is a 2 year old thread, but I just googled “dye from cloth left marks on binding Les Paul “. This was the first search result! I joined the forum just now to ask if yo had any luck getting it out.  I bought a new LP Standard about 2 weeks ago,and even though my stand is supposed to be safe, I put the Gibson cloth over the rubber touching the neck. Within 2 days I have marks on the binding on both sides of the fifth fret! Gibson has obviously not fixed this problem after 2 years!

Philtre

Greg_Rogers said:

I know this is a 2 year old thread, but I just googled “dye from cloth left marks on binding Les Paul “. This was the first search result! I joined the forum just now to ask if yo had any luck getting it out.  I bought a new LP Standard about 2 weeks ago,and even though my stand is supposed to be safe, I put the Gibson cloth over the rubber touching the neck. Within 2 days I have marks on the binding on both sides of the fifth fret! Gibson has obviously not fixed this problem after 2 years!

@Greg_Rogers No, it's still there. I've learned to live with it. That the thing with Nitro, it will leech any colour stains.