Goose, from left: Trevor Weeks, Peter Anspach, Rick Mitarotonda, Jeff Arevalo (standing), and Ben Atkind (seated).
“What I love the most about it is the magic and the lore,” says Rick Mitarotonda, discussing his passion for jamming. “It’s a rabbit hole, and you can go as deep as you want. And you never really reach the end of it. It speaks to that magical dream quality, the way the shows travel to these different places.”
As guitarist and vocalist for Goose, Mitarotonda has spent his time in the improvisational trenches. Founded in 2014 in Norwalk, Connecticut, the band—which also includes guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Peter Anspach, bassist Trevor Weeks, drummer Ben Atkind, and percussionist Jeff Arevalo—has ascended in the jam-band scene. Like other groups in the genre, the quintet has built their following on their performances, where they dive deep into improvisational jams. In 2019, they got their first taste of widespread success, when the video of their set at the Peach Music Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania, racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
Goose - Dripfield (Official Music Video)
“The thing about this genre is you don’t bat a thousand, whatsoever,” Mitarotonda continues. “It’s not feasible. You can’t be ‘on’ every night when you’re improvising in a very intense and constant way. But when it’s there, when the magic strikes, there’s nothing like it.”
On their third full-length studio album, Dripfield, Goose channel their vibrant live energy and transforms it into a new iteration of their sound. This time around, they headed into the studio with exploratory ears to collaborate with producer D. James Goodwin, whose influence largely shaped the sonics of the record.
“We wanted to find a producer who was on the same wavelength, but also was going to take our music to a different place sonically.” —Peter Anspach
Dripfield is addictive. The band’s stellar musicianship, infectious enthusiasm, and songwriting, which bursts with funk but is woven together with indie rock threads, form a joyous syzygy that demands repetition. The title track sets a cosmic stage, with an arpeggiated synthesizer backed by a simple, powerful drum pattern, which leads into a sweeping, reverb-laden vocal. “Arrow” shifts seamlessly between a pumping, horn-driven groove and softer, atmospheric passages, while “Moonrise” takes on a more traditional acoustic-ballad format. The album radiates influences from across the more creative ends of rock, including My Morning Jacket, the Grateful Dead, Fleet Foxes, and a bit of Pink Floyd. But mixed with the band’s improvisational language, it becomes a sound all their own.
In the wake of the release of their 2021 studio album, Shenanigans Nite Club, the band was feeling a bit drained. The production process had been long, taking several years to complete. Despite how it captures the band’s live dynamic, there was a lot that went into it behind the scenes to achieve that effect. “Shenanigans is very much a jam-band record,” says Mitarotonda. “But there’s a real irony to that record, in that I spent an absurd amount of hours editing and tinkering with it.”
For Dripfield, Goose called on producer D. James Goodwin to help them approach the studio with fresh ears. “I think he was actively trying to subvert the typical jam-band song,” says Mitarotonda.
Understandably, Goose was ready to find a new approach for their next album. As Anspach shares, they were thinking that collaborating with a producer might be the solution. “I was watching that Taylor Swift documentary [Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions] where she worked on those folkier albums, and you see the collaborations going on in the studio that allowed her to get to that place,” Anspach says. “There’s a lot of interesting parallels there between a lot of our favorite albums. We wanted to find a producer who was on the same wavelength, but also was going to take our music to a different place sonically.”
After talking to a few different producers, Goose connected with D. James Goodwin, whose credits include Bob Weir, Devo, Kaki King, and Murder by Death. Creative trust was established almost immediately. “The first conversation we had with Dan, I was like, ‘Oh, this is the guy,’” says Mitarotonda. “I was very much at a point where I felt like I didn’t have the right ideas to break us out of the box. You establish a box and then you become claustrophobic in it. And he was the right person to basically light the box on fire in the studio.”
Rick Mitarotonda’s Gear
Rick Mitarotonda, seen here with his PRS Hollowbody II Piezo, feels like the band has become the organic rock improvisational ensemble he’s long aspired for them to be. “When the downbeat of a new phrase is approaching,” he says, “I can cue, without looking at anyone, if I want it to resolve or not. It’s fun stuff.”
Guitars
- PRS Hollowbody II Piezo
- Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster
Amplifier
- Mesa/Boogie Express 5:50 50-watt 2x12 combo
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario NYXL (.010 sets)
- Dawg Mandolin Pick by David Grisman
Effects
TC Helicon Play Electric vocal and guitar effects processor
TC Electronic PolyTune
Dunlop Cry Baby
DigiTech Whammy 5
Mu-Tron Micro-Tron IV
Strymon OB.1 Compressor
Love Pedal Eternity overdrive
MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe
Strymon Deco Tape Saturation & Doubletracker
MXR Analog Chorus
Strymon El Capistan
Strymon TimeLine
Strymon NightSky
Strymon Flint
TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
“We went back and forth with him, sending him a bunch of live recordings of the songs,” Anspach elaborates. “As he was going through, he was telling us, ‘I see a way into that song,’ or, ‘I don’t really see a way into this one.’ He was looking at it through the lens of, ‘How can I reconceptualize this song and put it in an interesting style that would take it to a new place.’ He ended up coming back like, ‘This is what the strongest 10 songs are; this should be an album.’”
Once they hit the studio, the band took a new approach to much of that material, experimenting with new arrangements and instrumentation under Goodwin’s guidance. “He had a lot of ideas about just crafting the things and pushing them in different directions,” says Mitarotonda, “which was really exciting for us.”
One song that went through a significant shift is the seven-minute blues-funk jammer “Hot Tea.” “When we play it live, it’s fast, disco funk. And he was like, ‘I can’t listen to that for eight minutes straight. I just can’t do it. We have to slow it down,’” says Anspach, laughing. “But we had an open mind. And as soon as we heard the drum sounds coming through, we were like, ‘Yeah, this is legit.’
Rig Rundown: Goose's Peter Anspach and Rick Mitarotonda
Goose tracked the song, then did a full-band overdub on top “doing different things. At one point he [Goodwin] was like, ‘Everybody play this rhythm,’” Anspach describes, clapping out the idea. “We played it through the whole track on our different instruments, and then he kept the clavichord and a cowbell for various parts and got rid of the rest.”
“I think he was actively trying to subvert the typical jam-band song,” adds Mitarotonda. “If you listen to the way we play ‘Arrow’ live—and we still do play it live that way because it works, it’s fun—it sounds like a jam-band song. And he heard that song for the first time, and I think all he heard was its clothes. He wasn’t interested in it at first, and then he listened to it more, and then I guess heard the song within the clothes and became interested in it. There’s that section in 7/4, and he had the idea of pursuing the Afrobeat, horn-driven thing. Dripfield doesn’t sound like a jam-band record—it’s not like what we do live. But at the same time, there was a lot of improvising in the studio in a different way, which was a lot of fun.”
“You can’t be ‘on’ every night when you’re improvising in a very intense and constant way.” —Rick Mitarotonda
Both guitarists take different approaches to their gear, and particularly how they apply effects. Mitarotonda plays his PRS Hollowbody II Piezo through a Mesa/Boogie Express 5:50 50-watt 2x12 combo and two pedalboards, but says, “Often I don’t have a lot of patience for gear. I see the effects almost as a way to open up new doors improvising, but sometimes it feels like a crutch. Sometimes [during a jam], when I feel like I’m hitting a wall, I’m like, ‘Kick on an effect; maybe that’ll juice things up.’ Then I think, ‘No, figure it out. Keep trying to find something that is unique musically instead of just falling back on effects because you can.
“But that’s not exclusively true,” he acknowledges. “It’s a different means of exploration than just searching for things musically. It makes me think of Radiohead, where so much of what makes up the substance of that band is sonics: searching and discovering strange instruments and sounds and crafting songs around that, as opposed to songs being driven purely by melody and harmony and lyrics. I see them as different pursuits.”
Peter Anspach’s Gear
Goose goes big! Ever since 2019’s Peach Festival, the band has found itself in a much larger spotlight. “It’s something to get used to,” says guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Peter Anspach.
Photo by Adam Berta
Guitars
- Suhr Mateus Asato Signature Classic
- Fender American Vintage ’62 StratocasterCustom T-style thinline built by Goose percussionist Jeff Arevalo
Amplifiers
- Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario NYXL (.010 sets)
- D’Addario 1mm (medium/heavy)
Effects
- TC Electronic PolyTune 2
- Dunlop Cry Baby
- Keeley Compressor Plus
- Chase Bliss Mood
- Moog Moogerfooger MF-101
- Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
- Ibanez TS9 w/Analog Man mod
- Analog Man King of Tone
- Chase Bliss Tonal Recall
- Strymon TimeLine
- Strymon Flint
- Chase Bliss Dark World
Anspach, who plays a Suhr Mateus Asato Signature Classic with a humbucker bridge pickup through a Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb, has a different take on effects. “I try to keep my pedalboard as consolidated as possible. But I think I have 10 or 11 stompboxes,” he explains. “Since I got into Tame Impala early on, I’ve had way more effects on my board in the past than I do now,” he elaborates. “But I love delay. I’ve written songs where delay is part of the main riff. Without the delay there, there is no song. Effects are definitely important to my sound.”
While each guitarist fills his board with options, neither is overly lavish about their effects, which may help them stay focused on what seems to matter most: being responsive, sensitive collaborators. And over their eight years as a band, Goose have gotten so used to playing with one another that they can communicate through musical cues alone. “One of the coolest parts about this, just from doing it for a bunch of years, is how many things are communicated when we’re improvising without any sort of visual cue at all,” Mitarotonda shares. “The whole tension and release thing is something I’ve wanted for years to figure out. And now it’s really pretty easy: When the downbeat of a new phrase is approaching, I can cue, without looking at anyone, if I want it to resolve or not. It’s fun stuff.”
“I think he was actively trying to subvert the typical jam-band song.” —Rick Mitarotonda
The best jamming, arguably, happens when the performers are taking risks. Inevitably, however, that involves making mistakes—so what do you do when you play a phrase you’re not happy with? “Be like a goldfish,” says Anspach, laughing. “I have been thinking a lot about this recently. If you mess up and you get in your head about it, you end up affecting the rest of your performance. But if people in the crowd are having a great time, and you look out and you realize this is a really special moment for them, you get over [your mistakes] pretty fast.”
Although it’s been a few years since the famous Peach Music Festival video launched Goose into a bigger spotlight, the fame that the guitarists have been experiencing is still fresh, and they agree that it can be existentially jarring. “It’s something to get used to,” says Anspach. “Relationships change with other people in your life, and that’s weird. It’s something I’ve been dealing a lot with recently. It’s incredible and I wouldn’t change it for anything, but life is different. People look at you a different way and you’re a different person to them, but you’re the same person to yourself.”
The band’s close dynamic makes a massive difference in coping with those stresses. As Anspach shares, “It definitely helps everything off-stage, dealing with life and whatever else, when you have this brotherhood of people who are able to get on the same page in a musical way. Everything else in life becomes a little bit easier. I can handle anything at that point.”
Goose - Hot Tea - 11/19/21 Aspen, CO
Seen here in Colorado, Goose perform “Hot Tea” in its upbeat disco-funk live form, which underwent significant arrangement changes for its appearance on Dripfield.
- Rig Rundown: Goose ›
- Pedalboards - Premier Guitar ›
- Jam Band - Premier Guitar ›
- Mateus Asato and Cory Wong Podcast - Premier Guitar ›
- Robbie Robertson—Canadian Father of Americana - Premier Guitar ›
Reader: Federico Novelli
Hometown: Genoa, Italy
Guitar: The Italian Hybrid
Reader Federico Novelli constructed this hybrid guitar from three layers of pine, courtesy of some old shelves he had laying around.
A few years ago, at the beginning of Covid, an idea for a new guitar flashed through my mind. It was a semi-acoustic model with both magnetic and piezo pickups that were mounted on a soundboard that could resonate. It was a nice idea, but I also had to think about how to make it in my tiny cellar without many power tools and using old solid-wood shelves I had available.
I have been playing guitar for 50 years, and I also dabble in luthiery for fun. I have owned a classical guitar, an acoustic guitar, and a Stratocaster, but a jazz guitar was missing from the list. I wanted something that would have more versatility, so the idea of a hybrid semi-acoustic guitar was born.
I started to sketch something on computer-aided design (CAD) software, thinking of a hollowbody design without a center block or sides that needed to be hot-worked with a bending machine. I thought of a construction made of three layers of solid pine wood, individually worked and then glued together in layers, with a single-cutaway body and a glued-in neck.
For the soundboard and back, I used a piece of ash and hand-cut it with a Japanese saw to the proper thickness, so I had two sheets to fit together. Next, I sanded the soundboard and bottom using two striker profiles as sleds and an aluminum box covered in sandpaper to achieve a uniform 3 mm thickness. A huge amount of work, but it didn't cost anything.
“It was a nice idea, but I also had to think about how to make it in my tiny cellar without many electric tools and out of old solid-wood shelves I had available.”
The soundboard has simplified X-bracing, a soundhole with a rosewood edge profile, and an acoustic-style rosewood bridge. For the neck, I used a piece of old furniture with straight grain, shaped it to a Les Paul profile, and added a single-action truss rod. The only new purchase: a cheap Chinese rosewood fretboard.
Then, there was lots of sanding. I worked up to 400-grit, added filler, primer, and transparent nitro varnish, worked the sandpaper up to 1,500-grit, and finally polished.
Our reader and his “Italian job.”
For electronics, I used a Tonerider alnico 2 humbucker pickup and a piezo undersaddle pickup, combined with a modified Shadow preamp that also includes a magnetic pickup input, so you can mix the two sources on a single output. I also installed a bypass switch for power on/off and a direct passive output.
I have to say that I am proud and moderately satisfied both aesthetically and with the sounds it produces, which range from jazz to acoustic and even gypsy jazz. However, I think I will replace the electronics and piezo with Fishman hardware in the future.
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I bet you saw yourself in the opening scene of Twenty-Four-and-Three-Quarter-Inches of Woe, which may be the title of the screenplay I just started to write, most likely due to the fact that you’ve made a similarly boneheaded mistake with your instrument.
Unfortunately, my storytelling skills didn’t save a nice new Epiphone Casino from sliding off my amp, meeting the floor, and earning some damage on the way down. Yeah, that’s a true story, and I’m sure something similar has happened to you as well. It can happen to anyone who plays guitar for long enough, but there’s no need for despair yet.
If you’ve been victimized by gravity like I have, as long as the damage isn’t major, you can fix a lot of things yourself. I’ll use my felled Casino as an example. It suffered a loosened tuner, an input jack that fell inside the guitar, a damaged fret, and a few dents in the finish. While I work, I’ll provide some suggestions for supplies and tools to keep in your home repair kit, just in case you ever need them.
Tools for the Tasks
We ordered all of the tools we used in these repairs, excluding the painter’s tape and the toothpicks, which we picked up during lunch at Jack’s Bar-B-Que, from StewMac.
The essentials:
• ESP Multi Spanner
• Archtop Guitar Helping Hand
• Guitar Tech Screwdriver Set
• 3 Corner Fret Dressing Files
• Ultra Thin Master Glue
• GluBoost Fill n’ Finish
• Rectangular Sanding Kit
Can’t Tune It like That
First, let’s take care of the loose tuner, since it’s currently in no shape to reliably hold string tension. The tumble knocked it sideways, which loosened the screws holding in the key, which caused the wood around the screws to strip. It’s alarming to see, but this is a very simple fix.
Add to Repair Kit: Round toothpicks, water-thin CA glue, glue applicator tips, safety goggles
[Note: For the unfamiliar, CA is short for cyanoacrylate. It’s commonly referred to as “Super Glue,” but since that is a brand name, not the generic, I’ll refer to it here as “CA glue.”]
First, remove the tuner by backing the screws out, then pull the tuner from the headstock. My Casino’s tuning keys use a press-in bushing to hold the post straight in the headstock, so no further disassembly is required. However, if you experience this issue with a guitar with more modern-styled tuning keys, you’ll need to use an appropriately sized wrench or socket to remove the screw-in bushing before removing the key.
Next, break a toothpick in half, insert the thicker end into the hole where your mounting screw used to be. Break it off flush with the surface, and repeat the process with the other hole.
Safety goggles on: It’s CA glue time. Trust me, you do not want to squirt this stuff into your eye. Fit an applicator tip to the glue bottle and practice your squeeze on a scrap piece of paper or wood, far away from anything you don’t want glued to your guitar or yourself. This stuff is magic—it will bond things you never intended if you aren’t careful.
All you need is a very small drop, so practice until you can confidently flow out just a small controlled amount. Once you’ve mastered that, drop a small amount of water-thin CA glue into each filled hole. It will soak through the toothpick into the surrounding wood just enough for this quick fix. Let it cure for at least 15 minutes, but longer is even better.
Pop the tuner back in and drive the screws straight into the toothpick-filled holes. The screw will compress the toothpick into the existing wood and create new threads strong enough to hold your tuner in place.
Congratulations! You fixed it well enough to at least make it through a session. I’ve done this on several guitars that lasted years with no issues, so you should be confident in your work.
Hit the Road, Jack
Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat this. Fishing an output jack out of a hollowbody guitar is a pain. You can do this. All you need is patience and a few handy gadgets.
Add to Repair Kit: flashlight, multi-spanner, small drywall anchor, “helping hand,” small screwdriver
Your first task is to locate the jack inside the guitar. Odds are it didn’t fall far away from where it needs to be, since it’s probably wired to one of your control potentiometers. Use your flashlight to shine some light inside the f-hole to help find it.
I found mine wedged against the treble side of the rim, a little farther away than I can reach with my fingers. This is not zesty. I am unhappy but equipped and determined.
The tool I described as a “helping hand” becomes useful here. It’s essentially just a bent hook at the end of a handle made out of pliable heavy wire. Several guitar parts suppliers sell something similar. I got mine from StewMac for a reasonable price, but if you want to be thrifty about it, there’s no reason why you can’t cut and bend a wire coat hanger.
Take a few deep breaths, and working through the f-hole, use the hook end of your helping hand to gently pull the output jack back toward where it was mounted. Bend the helping hand however needed to reach the jack as easily as possible.
I managed to pull the jack back enough to put a small screwdriver through the jack’s mounting hole and then through the jack itself. That screwdriver will act as a guide while I lift the jack back into place with the helping hand.
You should expect this will take several attempts. Try not to get frustrated. With enough patience, you’ll be able to get the jack back where it belongs. Once you have the jack in place, carefully thread the washer and nut back onto the jack. It shouldn’t take much effort to thread it back on. Just be careful not to cross-thread the nut.
Now that the nut is threaded on enough so it won’t fall back in, the challenge is to tighten it without twisting the jack itself to avoid breaking any wires. I’ve seen and used a few different methods to accomplish this, but I came across one recently that I really like.
This is where you’ll use your drywall anchor. Get one small enough to fit inside the jack without using too much force, then tighten the screw in the anchor so that it spreads to fit tightly inside the jack. This will hold it steady enough to tighten the nut with a multi-spanner tool or an appropriately-sized wrench.
I like a multi-spanner for this job, because it’s always the right size and is slim enough to not be clumsy for operations like this. Like the helping hand, lots of suppliers sell something similar using different names. Mine is made by ESP and also arrived in my StewMac tool box. I use it all the time for all sorts of tasks.
Once the nut is tightened, unscrew the drywall anchor, remove it, and test the jack for sound by plugging your guitar into an amp. A positive result should be obvious at this point, but if you don’t hear any signal, or an excessive consistent buzz, get in touch with your local repair tech.
Got a Dent In My Fret, Man
Honestly, face-first is probably the best way a guitar like my Casino could have hit the ground. The damage could’ve been far worse. Check any forum for endless complaints about Gibson/Epiphone headstock breaks. But I do need to address some damage to a fret caused during the fall.
The issue here is that plain steel electric guitar strings—like your G, B, and E strings—are considerably harder than most frets (my stainless steel fret contingency, put your hands down and let me finish), so it’s possible for a string to leave a small sharp dent in a fret if you hit it with enough force. This specific issue might go unnoticed until it’s time to bend a note at that fret, then you’ll feel and hear the string catch it. No good.
Before we get started: Having allof your frets carefully levelled, recrowned, and polished is alwaysa better solution than partially levelling just a few frets. But considering the entire premise we’ve constructed, which is a situation where we just want the guitar back in action relatively quickly, a partial fret level on the upper frets is perfectly fine as long as it’s done carefully.
Add to Repair Kit: Crowning file (three-corner or rounded), assortment of sandpaper (400 grit to 800 should be fine), 0000 extra-fine steel wool (optional), fretboard conditioner, permanent marker.
First thing we need to do is identify which frets need the work. Let’s say you have a nick in your 17th fret on the treble side under the B string. The goal is to bring the height of that damaged fret and all the frets past it down until the nick disappears. After that, remove the strings before you begin working.
To accomplish this, mark the damaged frets and all frets past it with a permanent marker. A trusty black Sharpie works great for this, but any darker color works fine. For this repair, we only need to work on the treble side of the frets, so that’s all you need to focus on. Also, use some blue painter’s marking tape to protect the area of the guitar near where you will be working. Small slips of a file or sandpaper can cause some nasty injuries to the guitar’s surface.
Next, level the damaged fret and all frets past it (moving toward the bridge) with something stiff enough to not flex under pressure. I keep an old credit card—a nice sturdy one—with a bit of 400-grit sandpaper glued to one side along the shorter edge, 800 grit on the other side. Start with the 400 and work your way down, being careful not to use too much pressure. Let the sandpaper do the work.
You’ll notice the ink is removed as you sand. The way to make sure you’re keeping everything level is to stop frequently and observe the new clean areas on top of each fret. Each one should be about the same width.
This will take a while. A 400-grit sandpaper does not remove material quickly, 800 grit even less so. I’m suggesting this technique because working slowly makes it more difficult to get yourself in trouble. Several suppliers sell mini files for spot leveling, but I don’t recommend starting there because they remove fret material pretty aggressively.
Eventually you’ll notice the little divot in your 17th fret is almost gone. Now’s time to switch to 800 grit to finish the job. You guessed correctly: This will take even longer, but it’ll leave a nice finish without removing any more material than necessary.
Great! Now you have five flat-topped frets. That won’t sound very good, so now you need to re-crown them, giving them a rounded profile to match the other frets. I like to use a 3-corner file to slowly round over each side of the fret, working from the fretboard up, but if you feel like dropping some serious flow on a specialized crowning file, this job can be a lot easier. Be sure to get the marker back out, ink up each fret, and stop filing when just a tiny sliver of ink is left on top of each fret.
Use a piece of 800 grit paper to remove any file marks and smooth out each fret. If you have finer grits, you could work your way up to 1200 or so, but don’t go too hard or you could undo your work. You just want the frets clean and smooth. At this point, I like the way frets feel after a quick buff with 0000 steel wool, but the mess left behind does rightfully deter a lot of repair techs. If you opt in for this, be sure to tape off your pickups and consider finding a second location for this step.
Work in some fretboard conditioner if you like (skip it if you have a maple or synthetic board; no need for that here), put some new strings on, and check your work. Play every note on these frets, to make sure they ring out without any buzzes. It may not look perfect, but as long as the guitar sounds good, you’re okay until it’s time for a full level/crown/polish job.
Not Finished Until It’s, Uh, Finished
Now for the last souvenir from my Casino’s short journey to the floor. I noticed a few spots along the rim of the guitar where the finish was damaged. Specifically, it looks like the guitar hit something with an edge on the way down hard enough to put a couple of jagged dents in it, right along the binding.
Funny, that’s actually what binding is intended for–protecting edges and corners from damage. Anyway, we need to discuss a few things about guitar finishes.
For the purpose of this article, I’m only going to discuss repairs to the clear coat, since that’s where my damage is. Most guitars now are finished using polyurethane or lacquer for the top clear-coat layer.
Speaking verygenerally, lacquer finishes are softer and less durable, which makes hiding repairs a lot easier if you have the skills and patience. Polyurethane finishes are hard and tough in every way: hard to damage and tough to hide repairs regardless of skills or patience.
I happen to know that my formerly mint-condition Casino has a polyurethane finish, which means I’m going to lower my expectations with this repair. Instead of trying to make it look like it never happened, which will take a lot of work, I’ll just try to keep it from getting worse over time, which will take considerably less work.
It also means I won’t be discussing how to repair lacquer finishes, which is a bit more in-depth, requires a lot more patience and practice, and is therefore not really recommended for the average DIY’er—at least not in the scope of this piece. So if your guitar has a lacquer finish, I don’t think this part applies. Let someone else take care of it, or maybe skip this part and learn to love your guitar as is. The latter is still an admirable move.
Add to Repair Kit: Nothing! You already have what you need from the previous repairs. Feel good about that.
Since the damage is a pronounced dent with sharp edges in the clear coat, all I really need to do is seal it with an appropriate material. And the material appropriate for repairing polyurethane finishes is—you guessed it—CA glue, because it dries hard, clear, and quickly, much like polyurethane.
Step one: Use painter’s masking tape around the area of the damage, just in case the glue runs when applied. Step two: Put glue on the dented finish. CA glue will fill in all the small cracks within the damage and seal the existing finish. Be careful; use the smallest-drop-possible technique you perfected when fixing the tuning peg, and give it plenty of time to dry.
That’s it. That’s all I need to keep the finish from continuing to chip the more I play it. Yes, I saved the easiest one for last, as a little treat.
Obviously, this isn’t a particularly beautiful repair, so I could go above and beyond by using thicker CA glue—for example, GluBoost Fill n’ Finish—to fill it in completely, sand it level, and polish the area back to the original mirror gloss. Dan Erlewine has a few excellent YouTube videos outlining this exact method that are easy to find, and I encourage you to try if you’re so inclined. But for my purposes, this will do.
Accidents will happen if you’re actually playing your guitar, but they’re no cause for panic when they do. Even though the guitar isn’t perfect anymore, it’s perfectly playable, and I can get by with it for now. I broke it, so I fixed it, which is something I hope you feel empowered to do should you break yours.
Next time, I’ll use a good guitar stand.
