Nasty ding in the back of the neck

[Dbassmon]

On the gig tonight, some drunk chick falls into my bass pushing it back so the middle of the neck collides with edge of my amp. The resulting gash cut clear through the poly and into the wood. The location couldn't be worse, at the 5th fret.
What to do? I am thinking of sanding down the poly and enough wood so the neck feels smooth again and apply some oil/wax type of finish?
Anybody have a formula for this type of finish? Or better idea?

[johnk_10]

sorry to hear about that, but unfortunately, it happens. without sanding the finish off of the entire neck, you can carefully fill the ding with thin or medium CA and build it back up. then carefully sand it flush with the finish.

it's either that, or sand the entire neck down and reshoot it.

[john grey]

It's going to be rather ugly unless you repaint (w/ a gun: properly) no matter what you do. There is the basic question of how bad is bad. There is a neat little trick of using a spoon and running in in the grain's direction over the dent thus smoothing the edges of the wood, using heavy pressure, until the edges of the dent are fairly smooth. Then using a disk buffing pad that is totally clean and working it more and more, just before you hit the wood.
This takes a good touch, but if done correctly and provided the dent is not extreme, it will smooth the thing down so it's barely felt.

A great deal depends on the dent, the wood and how much you can smooth it lower. I have seen some excellent results from this. The problem with running cyan-based glue in a dent is you want it to touch bare wood. If it grabs paint it may pop out and pulling paint off a neck at one spot will call more attention to the dent then need be. Without a pic it's very hard to say "this would be a better method", etc. But IF the dent can be reduced in angle & (especially) feel, you may have something you can live with.

[grendle]

Originally Posted by johnk_10

sorry to hear about that, but unfortunately, it happens. without sanding the finish off of the entire neck, you can carefully fill the ding with thin or medium CA and build it back up. then carefully sand it flush with the finish.

it's either that, or sand the entire neck down and reshoot it.

+1

Steam the dent out first. There are pro dent removers for furniture who can make it brand new looking /feeling as well.