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How to remove tan from neck?

When I was young I drew all over the neck of one of my guitars with a sharpie, thinking it would make me "metal." I am now older and wiser. How do can I remove this mistake?

  • When I was young I drew all over the neck of one of my guitars with a sharpie, thinking it would make me "metal." I am now older and wiser. How do can I remove this mistake?

  • Answer:

    Ok, I have to go a little off topic since I've given this a lot of thought myself. (if this is really bad, an admin can kill this part) I have the same problem with a strat I completely disfigured with mid 90's grunge crapola when I was 11-12. (1995-1996) I also have a Flying V from 1998, (punk phase) and I put an andre the giant sticker on it, (this passed for punk once, I swear) and now shepard fairey has a fricking clothing line based around the damn image, (Obey Giant) and now I have what amounts to a guitar with a damned hurley logo on it. I think instrument disfiguration is an important part of learning about rock and roll culture. We all "customized" our crap to better emulate the musical gods we worshiped. Now, when I look at those guitars, it reminds me of what I thought was important about music when I was a teenager (clearly a lot of pretentious image crap) but more importantly, it reminds me of a time when I thought rock and roll was really important, both to myself and and to the world as a cultural phenomenon. I'm sure your guitar is ugly as sin, but how much did you want to be/feel like a metal god when you completely destroyed your axe's resale value? All I'm sayin is, the garbage on my guitars is embarrassing, but I'm sure the clothing line will die and I'll just remember how I felt about the music that convinced me to fuck up a $1200 instrument. (It also helps that I have one non-disfigured nice guitar to play, too) Maybe I'm just waxing poetic since I'm now a corporate tool, completely detached from punk rock, but it's a nice, ugly-ass reminder that I used to want to be rad.

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A white eraser (eg. a Staedtler, available for cheap at an art supply or college book store) works really well for this. Takes the Sharpie off of CDs, books, plastic, etc. Should work on a guitar without the risk of some of the "nuke it from orbit" options.

bwanabetty

Safest thing that I've seen do magic on sharpies is a http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser.do. In fact, all the demos for these cleaning products I've seen specifically use sharpies.

wongcorgi

I've also seen alcohol eat through many a finish. Even oil based. I'd check your local Craigslist for a luthier or even serious carpenter. Have them take a look at it. It'll either be a quick and cheap fix, or an quasi-expensive refinishing. Either way, a competent pro will let you know pretty quickly.

piedmont

Just for the record, methanol is kryptonite of the Sharpies. But it's not necessary here; isopropyl is sufficient. If isopropyl doesn't work, then some of the ink has probably been absorbed into the varnish, beyond the reach of anything but refinishing.

ryanrs

That depends. What kind of guitar is it? Be as specific as possible, including the year it was made (if you know).

The World Famous

Both acetone and methanol (methyl alcohol, mineral spirits in some formulations) are sold as paint strippers, fyi. Neither are fun to work with: fumes, they both eat many kinds of gloves, disposal issues, etc... Try the rubbing (isopropanol) alcohol first. If that doesn't work, you may have to refinish the spot. Magic Erasers are basically a really fine abrasive, so it will leave scuff marks.

bonehead

Methyl alcohol dissolves most sharpie ink. Try a small, inconspicuous part first--it may or may not do things to the wood finish.

weapons-grade pandemonium

Related to suedehead's suggestion above - on dry erase boards, when you accidentally write with a sharpy, writing over it with a dry erase marker then wiping will take both markers off.

CathyG

http://photosol.com/padproduct.htm removes Sharpie, but test it on obscure part of the instrument first to be sure it doesn't harm the finish.

TruncatedTiller

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