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Hi Mike and Dave:

I thought about taking the top down to bare wood and using epoxy.
I actually had epoxy on the top to level pearl rosette and pearl purfling,
but pretty much sanded it back to bare wood before I got started spraying.
Unfortunately, I'd have to take it back down to bare wood again if I were to epoxy the entire surface.

Mike...I am pretty sure that more shellac will solve the problem,
but I didn't know if I could apply it if there were any traces of lacquer remaining on the top.
That was my concern...would shellac fail if there was any lacquer at all over the shellac.
I've sanded the top pretty thoroughly
I also considered a small touch up right at the flaw and touch it up with shellac, much as you suggested,
except that now that I've sanded it quite thoroughly, I'm not sure I can find the exact flaw area unless I spray it again with lacquer.
and then I'm sure it would show up again.

Dave...I just can't bring myself to putting this guitar in the oven...no matter how low the temperature.
Besides...my wife would KILL me. HA!
I think it might be a good idea to try cooking a new set before I get started...Taylor does something similar with their tops, I understand.
I've got quite a few sets of Carpathian Spruce left to build and hopefully won't have to face this problem again.

Are either of you comfortable with spraying the top with several more coats of shellac over this sanded shellac/lacquer top?

Thanks much for your replys. These are two pretty guitars with pearl purfling. I don't want a finish failure.

Ken

Update on my struggle with this issue:

I messed around with this for over a month - tried drop filling with thickened lacquer (no), top coating with poly (no), stripping back, scuffing with 220, sealing with 5 coats of shellac then doing my lacquer schedule (no).

I ended up stripping the four tops, scuffing with 220 and French polishing all of them with dewaxed shellac. Even then, the pitch streaks held on to the very end, when I finally got nearly all of them to level out.

It looks like there are some good recent suggestions here that I would try if faced with this again.