Official Luthiers Forum!

I bought a couple of those inexpensive guitar stands on line and the rubber pad that the back of the guitar leans against has melted the nitro lacquer where it touches. I use McFadden's lacquer and have had my finishes hold up for years but I'm curious as to what it is in the rubber (or gasp, the lacquer) that causes this.

Chuck

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"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong"
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

Rubber or other plastics will contain plasticisers to keep the substance flexible and soft. From what I've heard these will often leach out of the plastic and into the lacquer making it go soft also (I had this happen once on a table I built and lacquered when I left a rubber eraser on it's surface for a while). Unfortunately I don't know if you can do anything to get the lacquer to firm up again. I have noticed on several websites if you read the guitar stand descriptions they will mention that they "should not be used with lacquered instruments", but it is usually in the not highlighted.

Hope someone can give an easy solution. If so I am all ears.

Kent

There are liquid waxes, plasticizers, antioxidants and various chemicals that can and do bloom to the surface of rubber and plastics. These also can and do react chemically with coatings. Some are more offensive than others but there's no way that I'm aware to predict what will happen. The longer a guitar remains in contact, the more likely it is to react.

I would recommend either not using such guitar stands or cover the surfaces with felt or terrycloth. All of my stands have a towel draped over them before a guitar sits on it. It looks ugly but I don't have any finish deterioration.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I use these stands by K&M .. they are actually classified as french horn stands, but work very well for guitars (all I use at shows BTW) .. You can see I have modded them by adding an extender to wider the base, allowing the guitar to sit lower. They are very stable. My main house beater has been sitting on one for a couple years, and was finished in either Behlens (Mohawk) or Mcfaddens, cant remember which - no marks left by the stand at all ... they cost about 20 bucks.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

If rubber is good then - may I suggest covering the arms that hold the guitar around the neck and support from the bottom, be cover with rubber inner tube from a racing bike size, 700c inner tube. That is assuming the rubber will not mar your finish. Best to test first.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX